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The Ultimate Nintendo Switch Mod! Jun 15, 2017

Show notes

Max is struggling with his Nintendo Switch, and so to avoid crippling hand surgery, Ben's modding a Nintendo Switch JoyCon to move the analogue stick to be in the correct position for him. This gives Ben the perfect opportunity to void the warranty on the JoyCon and tear it down to see how it works. Thankfully the modification is pretty simple, and with an extension to a ribbon cable and movement of a connector, Ben helps Max avoid the surgery he thought he needed! Which game controllers would you want altering? What do you think of the Nintendo Switch? Let us know on the element14 Community

LCD's Driving Me Crazy Jun 08, 2017

Show notes

The team’s having trouble with the Logic Gate Board game and needs your help and input! It can seem logical that a game needs a purpose, and the team thought this was clear, but what is fun about making logical circuits after all? Ben puts together the pieces for programming the LCD screen and gets it to display a set of logical operators, such as NOR, AND, OR, etc. using MPLab X IDE and setting up the hardware as a USB mass storage device to easily copy across the puzzles. Karen and Ben debate out the game’s purpose, we need to back to brass tacks and determine what the concept of the game really is. Give us your thoughts on the element14 Community.

Logic Gate Board Game 03: Adventures in MPLab Jun 01, 2017

Show notes

After deciding to use an LCD screen for the Logic Gate Board Game, Ben gets to work on programming the Pic32mz series microcontroller in MPLab X IDE. Using the programming software and Direct Memory Access (DMA) transfers, Ben learns how to display everything from TrueType Font (ttf) text to images and photo’s on the screen. After some soldering, Ben gets stuck in and has to make a trade-off due to the amount of available RAM on the microcontroller with processes called ‘double buffering’ to make sure that as little RAM is used as possible. As Ben says, programming is 10% coding, 90% copy/paste! Do you have any experience driving LCD screens? Or want to chime in on the Logic Gate Board game build? Let the team know on the element14 Community!

Hold Me Closer, ATTiny May 26, 2017

Show notes

With the insight offered from the Great Glue Gun, Ben knuckles down to redesigning a 3D printed mount for the motor using Autodesk Fusion 360, but it makes sense to check these things before dedicating ourselves to a 3D print, so Ben laser cuts a paper pattern first to see if it’ll fit. It’s not all about physical design though, it’s time to start programming the ATTiny microcontrollers with AtmelStudio and C++ and thanks to a bit of Boolean logic and binary arithmetic, Ben can control the motor with a technique called ‘pulse width modulation’ or PWM! Make sure you follow along with the build on the element14 Community and chip in with your ideas!

NES Tips and Tricks May 25, 2017

Show notes

Now it's Felix's opportunity to break the warranty on a gaming console, only, it's a bit retro. The team are taking apart the original NES, Nintendo Entertainment System for a teardown and repair with tips and tricks on how to make sure your old console gets a new lease of life. Starting with disabling the lockout chip, which is a main cause of problems and also giving the slot loading bay care and attention snice it's one of the common failures, partly because it functions like an old VHS/VCR player! And hear more anecdotes of Ben's experience working at Funcoland (now Gamestop) and other possible mods of the NES! What retro' kit have you taken apart or repaired? Let us know on the element14 Community!

Super Glue Gun 04: Hold Me Closer, ATTiny May 18, 2017

Show notes

Ungluing the Great Glue Gun May 11, 2017

Show notes

The Ben Heck Show team have been stuck in a rut, mechanical design can be a sticky situation when you're creating from scratch - thanks to a competition winner the team can be unglued! When Ben created the Great Glue Gun it was given away as a prize, thankfully the winner still watches the show and sent it in to the team so it can be reverse engineered. Ben discovers the original design has some positives, using temperature sensing it can use intelligence around the glue being heated up, and it has negatives, it'll keep trying to push out glue, when there isn't any! So it's time to tinker with 3D printer extruder gears and take a lot of mechanical designs, rather than electronic, into account. Let us know what you think, and follow along on the element14 Community!

Nintendo PlayStation Prototype: Finally Working! May 03, 2017

Show notes

It feels like a long time has passed since the Midwest Gaming Classic in 2016 where the team first encountered the Nintendo-Playstation SFX-100 portable. Now it's time to see the highlights of Ben working on the rare console from past episodes, and the one or two livestreams. Watch unseen diagnostic clips using oscilloscopes, and much glorious soldering! Finally the question has been answered, can the console be repaired to play games? Software developers, it's now onto you! Do you have any comments or questions? Let us know on the element14 Community! Inspired by the show? Ensure sure you hack and make safely.

Mini Pinball 02: I Choose You, PIC32! Apr 27, 2017

Show notes

As the development of the Mini Pinball kit progresses, Ben and Felix split their focus onto different areas of the build. Ben is finalizing the design of the flippers and how they're controlled. Solenoids are being used to give the power required to blast the metal ball up the table, and we don't want them to burn out! Thanks to a technique called Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) from the Arduino software, we can make sure it's not powered all of the time. Felix isn't having a good time with the Teensy 3.6, after switching out the I2S audio circuit, we're now using a Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) and the SDCard Arduino libraries are not being helpful in making the right noises. Do you have experience with SDCards and Arduino? What would you like to see in the mini pinball kit? Let us know on the element14 Community.

Logic Gate Board Game 02: Interface, Expert Advice, and LCDs Apr 20, 2017

Show notes

With Karen's laser cutting design skills and Felix's soldering, the team have created a prototype of the logic board game using Karen's magnetic clasp design. Now it's time to give the concept a test-run with help from JT Smith, proprietor of The Game Crafter with his professional experience on games design from making games such as "The Captain is Dead". JT informs the team that creating a game which is educational and also fun is one of the hardest concepts to pull off, and usually the design has to compromise somewhere, but where? While Karen contemplates JT's input, Ben and Felix hack at an LCD display with the Pic32 Microcontroller and a DE0-Nano FPGA, hopefully this will lead to a game design that doesn’t rely solely on LEDs! Where do you think the design should compromise? Or do you have experience driving an LCD screen with a microcontroller? Join in with the build design on the element14 Community.

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