James Ray, the engineering department manager at Avid Technologies, joins Ben to discuss the Hex Game Prototype the team has been working on. Avid is a design services company that takes concepts into full production, utilizing sister companies throughout Avnet.

It is finally done, the Raspberry Pi (with no HDMI) portable MAME emulator based on the Raspberry Pi A+! Ben and Felix have put the finishing touches to the portable gaming device with the use of laser cutting and 3D printing. With 8 GPIO left though, Felix decides that it's best to do a low-level input for the buttons and directional pad to control the device. If you want to build one yourself, we've got the code and build files linked on the element14 Community!

Ben and Karen talk through some of the suggestions from elemnt14 Community members for the super glue gun build, before getting on with the motor placement for the final design. However, after some 'Hand Polling' Ben is concerned that the handle might end up too thick if the motor is placed at the side or near the handle. Luckily, Karen has a proposed design change that could make all of Ben's headaches go away...for a while at least! So Ben goes back to his trusty Autodesk Fusion 360 to make the changes to the design…

The Ben Heck Team has finally reached the conclusion of the Super Glue Gun project. Ben puts the finishing touches on the design using Autodesk Fusion 360, prints the parts, and does final assembly on a proof of concept. Does the super glue gun live up to his name? Does it have what it takes to make it on the consumer market? Ben did some more design on the gun barrel using Autodesk Fusion 360. He thinks he found a way to get the wires through. He got a few pieces, front and rear wood to hold the barrel in place. Ben made a few changes to the motor cap stuff. He put a groove into the bottom of it. That should be enough to get the AC and temperature sensor wires out of the barrel. He designs a place to put the motor driver. Wires take more space then you think. You have to be sure to account for them in your design, including any folds, loops or bends they might do. He does a section analysis to “peel back” the surface and the design works with the motor driver. He’ll print the four halves separately, the two halves of the barrel along with the two halves of the barrel, and glue them together so they represent what a solid piece would look like. On the front hot end of the gun, you have the AC barrel heater along with the temperature sensor. He’ll design it with assembly in mind rather than just glue and screw it together. Kapton tape is used to insulate the parts from heat as well as electricity. Everything fits together once assembled. This includes the AC wires, the sensor wires, and the motor drive wires coming out of the back. This will all go into the base of the handle where all the electronic controls are contained. Once he glues the halves together he’ll have a completed prototype. He’ll have to also make some adjustments to allow for an opening for the programming port. Once assembly is complete he’ll test make sure it works before completing the build. Ben does a motor test to ensure that everything is wired correct

Ben does a teardown of the Sega Saturn by popular request. The console was a rush release to beat out the Sony PlayStation which had a lower price point and subsequently had a better adoption rate. The Sega Saturn was a fourth generation console that was released in North America in 1995. One of the first things Ben notices is that it has a multi-out on the back. It's been tested on an RF video connector from a 4K television to confirm modern televisions still use analog tuners. It also had a battery backup for your games. There’s also a slot for memory cartridge to allow you to have more backup spaces. There was also a RAM expansion that added more frames of animation to games like Street Fighter AlphaIt also had a battery backup for your games. There’s also a slot for memory cartridge to allow you to have more backup spaces. There was also a RAM expansion that added more frames of animation to games like Street Fighter Alpha. Ben unscrews the Sega Saturn on the back to take a look at what’s inside. The top half of the enclosure has a nice mechanical spring-boarded lid. There is an LED with an acrylic light pipe over it to bring the light up to the indicator hole. It’s cheaper than making a separate circuit board. He disconnects the AC to DC Power Supply to take a look at it. It allows 9 volts at 3 amps, 5 volts at 2 amps, 3.3 volts at .6 amps, and ground. The assembly of this is quite similar to the Playstation One, including the built-in power supply. He removes the AC power switch with the capacitor on it. There’s a ribbon cable to control the CD ROM and another ribbon cable going to the controller port. If you were to make a portable of this, the CD ROM would probably be the most difficult part. You’d probably be better off with a SD to CD ROM replacement. The circuit board contains two CPUs. The best way to make your system easy to program is to have two CPUs, a master and a slave. On the back of the board is the ROM th

Ben is putting the finishing touches on the Mini Pinball Kit. The new PCBs from Oshpark have arrived. The board includes everything but the Arduino or the Teensy. It’s got the audio amplifier, the lights, the switches, four MOSFETs, four servos, power regulation, and a bodged in LED light for power. In this episode, Ben takes a look at the board, makes sure that it works when installed in the pinball case, and works out some finishing touches on the prototype game. Ben hooks up an LED to a socket so he could plug it in and test it. He’s changed the code so that it will turn on the LED that is relative to the switch, 16 switches, and 16 LEDs. Ben goes through each one to make sure everything works, tests the coils, and the servos so that he can write some code and put together a test game. The team had trouble selecting which servo library to use. They went with the pwmservo library, which is older but doesn’t conflict with the Arduino library. Ben commences with his tests on the servos. He got two of the switches attached to sound events. They’re going to need to add some debounce to the switches. What this basically means is that, as the switch opens and closes, there can be very small fluctuations in the state, it doesn’t fully open and close each time. Switch debouncing can be achieved through hardware or software. You can’t really tell without the help of a microcontroller, but it’s there. Ben adjusts the switch library, to create an array, so that each switch has its own debounce setting, depending on what kind of switch it is, because they might have different mechanical properties. Ben adjusts the angle of the flippers, puts in larger solenoids, and adjusted the length of the rods throw. He’ll change the layout of some of the feature mounts. Ben fires up Autodesk Fusion 360 so he can make some final adjustments. He makes some progress on the modular wall system as the mini pinball moves closer to a finished build.

Now that the Super Glue Gun is finished, the Mini Pinball is near completion, and they’ve got a Pi Portable in hand, James Ray returns to the show to talk about product viability. James Ray was on a few months ago to talk about the Hex Board Game. He works with Avid, a company that is part of Avnet, the parent company of element14, on bringing products to market and evaluating them on their manufacturability. In today’s episode, they’ll connect over skype to talk about the Super Glue Gun, the Mini Pinball, and the Pi Portable. They conversation begins with a Pi Portable analysis. The Pi Portable is a Raspbery Pi, a screen, and a keyboard that is all driven by the GPIO. To do this there was a lot of hand wiring that was done. The team is thinking that if the all the hand wiring done. If this could be done as a PCB, you could simply plug it into an existing Pi. James suggests the compute module as an option. The drawback would be that they would need to add a SODIMM slot and that requires too much space. The other option would be to do a custom Pi. You would basically take all the Pi internals and do a single PCB that would include all your requirements. James goes over specifics on what Avid can offer them if they go that route. Next they move onto an analysis of the Super Glue Gun and Mini Pinball. They analyze both builds and decide which one to keep and which one to lose.

The pinball kit is almost complete. The team just needs to take some time to create some art, sound, code, scoring, and then test it. Ben goes to work in Adobe Ilustrrator to design a semi generic playfield. Originally, they were going for a semi generic playfield. Ben shows the design of a slope for the ball to launch out of in Fusion 360. He also goes over some of his other design choices. They’re using tabs for the out walls, and “peanut butter cup shapes” for the main field. Ben’s also added some sling rubbers. He figured out placement for the optosensors. Once he settles on a design, it’s time to laser cut the wood. Next, he goes to work on designing the solenoids. It looks like they will need to use the larger solenoids for the flippers. He goes into Fusion to make modifications to the original drawing. Sheet metal can’t bend at perfect right angles – there’s always a curve. Fusion 360 fan figure this out for you. It’s also good for something that needs flattening. The software warn if a design can’t be flattened out (parts intersect one another). After doing some more laser cutting, it’s time to make final assembly. After all the arts in place and audio has been recorded, Ben shows you what the final design of the mini pinball kit looks like. Ben, Karen, Felix, and Max share a moment of levity as they play the mini pinball kit they’ve designed. Ben and Karen do an assessment of the manufacturability of the kit.

Felix wants to repurpose a broken MakerBot by putting a USB microscope on it and turning it into a control precision microscope inspection station. He’ll update the electronic innards with a Beaglebone and a Replicape, as well as, change the interface so he can control it with an Atari 2600 joystick. Jason Kridner, cofounder of BeagleBone, joins Ben and Felix as a special guest. Jason Kridner, co-founder of Beaglebone, connects with Ben and Felix over Skype. Jason reassures Felix that he should be able to keep up with the frame capture on the USB camera and get it to his display. You should be able to take it to a 1080P display and see under the microscope through the micro HDMI. You might be limited to a few frames per second, as opposed to 60 frames per second. When you download the Replicape system firmware it uses the PRU for driving the stepper motor control pulses. The Beaglebone Black has two 32-bit microcontrollers (programmable real-time units), ultra-low latency, RISC cores that run at 200 MHz. It’s got an additional Cortex M3 microcontroller which is also a 32-bit RISC core. People are more interested in the PRUs (programmable real-time units) because they provide the lowest possible latency IO pins. They have registers mapped directly to GPIO pins and can access the full peripheral memory. They also get 5 nano second updates on the I/O pins. Jason also gives Felix some advice on which Linux operating system to use. Ben’s made some custom parts for the gantry and provided a stepper motor so that Felix can assemble the parts. Felix puts the gantry together and attaches the Duratool USB Digital Microscope to the unit. He’ll make some final adjustments but everything seems to be working. Once the Gantry is pieced together, Felix grabs a solar power supply to include in the project. It can cough up 24 volts at five amps. Felix walks you through the printer configuration. He’s installed Kamikaze and is familiarizing himself with O

Ben makes a Yobo portable that accepts NES cartridges. Yobo is a brand of Nintendo clones. They are essentially Nintendos on a chip, glop tops on a circuit board, and it is basically a clone of Nintendo systems. The goal is to make a Yobo portable that is about the size of an NES cartridge. Yobo is a brand of Nintendo clones. They are essentially Nintendos on a chip, glop tops on a circuit board, and it is basically a clone of Nintendo systems. Ben found one of these in a junk pile for $5 and as it turns out it works. He was thinking they could hack it up and use the parts to try to make a really small Nintendo clone. He wants to make it so it’s about the size of an NES cartridge. It will be more than an emulator, it will accept NES cartridges. Ben starts on the case design using Fusion 360. He’s got the PCB mostly done. Ben noticed an issue when they do their laser paint. It’s hard to get the copper out from between traces so he went into design rule check. This is a file that indicates what tolerances the board house will accept. You can check your design against it. Once that’s taken care of the PCB is mostly done. He’ll still need to add a capacitor for the audio amplifier though. He’s using through –hole on some these parts to use up parts on hand (audio amp and controller shift register). Ben continues to fine-tune the design in Illustrator. The final design will use the same type of flat Li-po batter as the Raspberry Pi No HDMI project. Ben laser prints the front panel. He 3d prints parts with Makergear M2 and the old Replicator 1. Felix works on the PCB while Ben works on the screen. Ben always laser paints at the laser’s top resolution of 1200 DPI, even though it’s pretty slow. Meanwhile, Felix uses a scrubbing technique with the PCB to make the copper dissolve faster. Ben uses a digital potentiometer with pushbuttons for the volume control as there’s no room for a physical knob or dial.

Ben takes apart a shop-bought version of a cheap Oregon Trail game to find out how it works. He’s got some questions about a couple of IC2 EEPROM chips and the type of data they store. Felix dumps the chips onto a Raspberry Pi because Linux makes it easier for you to tell what the I2C EEPROMs are used for. Once they know how it works, they’ll use their knowledge to create an ultra-portable version of the Oregon Trail is even smaller and less bulky. The Oregon Trail game from Target only costs about 25 dollars but it’s probably only worth a fraction of that price in parts. Ben unscrews the back of the case and removes the included batteries. The graphics are much better than the Apple II version and it includes PCM sound. Ben rips out all the parts. It contains glop tops, also called “Chip on board” method. A glop top is an epoxy covering for an ASIC. An ASIC is an application integrated circuit. An integrated circuit is bonded to the PCB, and then covered with a glop top to protect it. It’s an inexpensive way to put an integrated circuit into something. The Nintendo on a Chip also had a glop top. When Nintendo included Duck Hunt with their NES it was also using a glop top. Ben desolders the speakers and demo controls to make it easier to take apart. There are quite a few pins under the LCD so it’s probably not running in serial mode. Ben points out the fact that there are two main ASICs, a power regulator, a switch, a cap, and two SOIC chips. Felix dumps the chips onto a Raspberry Pi to learn more about what the two I2C eeproms are used for. Linux allows you to detect IC2 devices and also write to them. To find out what’s on the BUS they are going to ping all 128 locations and see what responses it gets to find the address. They’re test with an off the shelf I2C EEPROM to see if it works first. Felix finds a way to do a Binary dump and they’re well on their way to hacking the Oregon Trail.

Tragedy has befallen Ben Heck, once upon a time he created some awesome levels for Doom and now he wants to revisit them, but he cannot! They reside on an ancient and old media type called 'zip disks', zip drives were made by iomega and came in various sizes from 100mByte up to 1gByte. So to reverse engineer it Ben and Felix are going to find an old computer, an oscilloscope and a parallel port connected zip drive to find out how it talks to one another and make it do their bidding!

Felix has brought in his first game console, the Atari 5200, which was notorious for its bad controllers. That’s exactly why Felix quit playing it. Taking advantage of Ben’s expertise in working with controllers, they’re going to take the controller apart and make a new one. In 1982, the Atari 5200 was Atari’s answer to competing consoles such as the ColecoVision and the Intellivision. It’s basically an Atari 400 computer that was repackaged as a game console. Ben unscrews the case from the bottom of the case. As his first computer was an Atari, he knows what to expect. It’s going to be MOS Technology 6502 game system. He removes the RF shield to get to the main circuit board. He recognizes the Mask ROM due to its reduced pin count but he’ll need to look up and mark the rest of the chips. The CPU is a custom version of the 6502 MOS chip, the ROM boots the system, POKEY which is a potentiometer keyboard controller, the ANTIC chip works as a graphic controller for the display, and the GTIA chip receives data from the ANTIC and adds sprites if applicable before sending the stream to your television. It contains 8 RAM ICs at 16 kb which act collectively as one word of memory. Ben looks up the schematic to find out how the POKEY chip interfaces with the controller ports. He points out the audio and video circuitry which is used to take digital signals and convert them to analog so they can become an RF signal to go to the RF adapter on your TV. Ben goes to work on designing a controller in Autodesk Fusion 360. The board has an Atmega 328 and translates the analog joystick values to a digital potentiometer, providing a range that matches the analog signals which the console can interpret. The board has an Analog Devices AD5242 dual potentiometer on it. Next they are going to take a modern joystick and convert its values to something the Atari by using a sketch Arduino IDE.

If big companies can glue portable electronics together, why can't we? Ben decides to go all the way with the sticky stuff when he rebuilds the Mini Arcade. Originally designed as a keychain, the Mini Arcade isn't quite small enough, so join the team as we hack it, take it apart, find out how it works and rebuild it to make it better, smaller, more compact thanks to the trusty tools of 3D printing and soldering! Ben also finds out something interestingly hidden in the hardware!

Seeing as everyone loves to a bit of intricate soldering, it's time for one last super solder episode! Ben is feeling nostalgic looking at his collection of CPUs so decides to use the z80 to create a basic Microsoft computer...giving him the perfect excuse to do lots of lovely soldering!

Felix introduces Ben to the pocket Beageboard bela.io. It’s good for audio and comes with a real time operating system. Because it’s good for audio Felix is going to make a drum sequencer. Because Felix is the music guy, he’s going to take the lead on the project while Ben works on some other stuff behind the scenes.

The Raspberry Pi No HDMI project went over really well. It could be the basis for a great kit except for the fact that it required a lot of wiring and soldering. Now, Ben and Felix are going to take a look at what it would take to make their work the basis for an all-in-one PCB. It could live as a kickstarter kit where people simply buy the board, attach a screen, a Raspberry Pi A+, and a battery so they can then own their own Raspberry Pi No HDMI.

Matthew Eargle pays a visit to Ben in Madison so that they can work together on a Zen robot garden using CNC parts. The build will use a handheld controller, a stepper motor, and a 3D printed Zen garden rake that will draw designs. A typical Zen garden rake is a flat piece usually made of wood with four large tines coming out of it. The one they print will hook up to the servo and use the mounting points on the servo to make an actuator for the rack and pinion vertical Z. Felix and Karen help Matt program the code for the Arduino shield and board using the Arduino IDE

It's time for hacking in Ben and Felix's Great Clock-Off! How can we keep track of the time without using a personal computer or mobile phone? Ben utilizes discrete electronics and encoders with an LED matrix to keep stock of the time, where as Felix puts together a micro-controller with an LCD display and Real-Time Clock crystal as an alternative and more high tech' option.

Ben’s got his hands on a Vectrex console from 1982 and a rare 3D peripheral, one of the rarest video game items in existence, a Vectrex 3D imager. The Vectrex was a vector display-based home video game console from 1982. In 1984 it became the first home console to have a 3D peripheral which not only colorized but made the graphics 3D. Unlike other non-portable video game consoles, which connected to televisions and rendered raster graphics, the Vectrex used an integrated vector monitor to display vector graphics. It was monochrome and used plastic screen overlays to simulate color and various static graphics and decorations. The Vectrex console requires new capacitors and the Vectrex 3D imager will require Ben to recreate the spinning disc required for it to work.

Sean and Connor Miller join Ben to build a clock crane. It’s a crane sitting on top of a staircase, disguised as a clock, and takes things from the first floor to the second. Back in 2006, Connor’s Mom was diagnosed with MS so she has a lot of trouble carrying two-handed objects up a staircase. This accessibility device will use the matrix creator to enable voice-activated, hands-free carrying of objects such as laundry baskets.

It's the Ben Heck AMA / Interview Livestream!

Clem takes a selfie of himself from as far away as he can possibly do. He’s planning on putting a Raspberry Pi and a camera onto a rocket and film himself from up in the air. The steeper the angle the better he looks. To take a selfie from a hundred meters away he’ll make his own camera using a Raspberry Pi, the camera module, some additional electronics, and a laptop that will be the ground station to control the whole contraption. B4-4 rockets will be used to push the contraption. B4-4 means class B rocket with 4 seconds of thrust and 4 seconds delay until the secondary charge fires. To push the rocket 100 meters in the air he’ll need to calculate the force needed to be exerted by the rocket motor in relation to the weight of his final rocket. You can simulate the flight with dedicated software like “openrocket” on Linux. Clem 3D prints a rocket design from Thingiverse using PLA.

Ben arrived on the scene with his first Atari 2600 portable build, earning him a following and a show. Now it’s time to go full circle. For his final build he’s using an Atari 800, his first computer, as the basis of a final portable build. It started 18 years ago, Ben Heck arrived on the scene with his first Atari 2600 portable build, earning him a following and a show of his own. Now it’s time to bring things full circle. For the final build he’s decided to use the Atari 800, his first computer, as the basis of a final portable build! It will be similar to his ZX Spectrum portable build, he’ll rip out all the chips to make his own circuit board. Before he rides into the sunset an old nemesis makes a return but so does a familiar ally from the past. Will the sinister Pie Face, whose DNA has been fused with Pie changing it to PNA, wreck havoc on his storybook ending? Get ready for closure, get ready for more Allison, in part 1 of the final build project!

Dr. Kitty Boots has been eaten by a Pie Monster of his own making. Now, a Pie Monster has been set loose, eating everything in sight, mostly cats. To defeat him, Pie Face must join forces with his arch nemesis Bondendorf, who is suddenly vulnerable without British Alison. Meanwhile, Ben's final build project, a Portable Atari 800, is looking a lot like the Portable ZX Spectrum. The custom PCBs are designed and laser painted. It’s now time to stuff those PCBs and make sure everything works. Will Ben’s final portable be his greatest act? Can Bondedorf trust Pie face without British Alison? The suspense is palpable, the intensity is simmering, as the series heads toward a dramatic conclusion!

Matt Eargle shares his love for cold war technology by building a homebrew Geiger counter using an old Soviet surplus Geiger tube he happened to have lying around. Embracing a cold war mentality, once completed, his Geiger counter will resemble the CDV 700 series models that were in production from 1954 until 1974, and allow him to conquer his fears with a radiation detector. Matt Eargle is a cold war nut who loves historical technologies. He just happens to have some old Soviet surplus Geiger tube sitting around. He’ll use it to build his own take on a Geiger counter. It will be something like an updated CDV 700 series. The original CDV-700 Series models were in production from 1954 until 1974. Later XXX series models were produced well into the 1980s. In order to build a homebrew version of a Geiger counter, he’ll need a couple of components in addition to his Geiger tube. A Geiger tube has a sealed vial inside a sealed glass tube containing an inert gas. You take that and apply a really high potential, the one he’s using is about 400 volts. When your particle comes in and strikes the nucleus of the gas inside, it temporarily ionizes that gas, just enough to allow some of that voltage through that it can be measured. He’ll need a high voltage source to feed his tube. The cathode of the tube will run into an Arduino. Running the high voltage source through batteries will require a transformer. The transformer will require an AC current. The easiest way to create an AC current would be to create a little oscillator with 555 timers and run that into an inductor. The 555 timer will set up in astable mode to produce an alternating signal at 60 Hz that will get amplified by a MOSFET before running into the transformer. The current from the transformer will go into a diode laddering system which will drive the GM tube. The signal from the Geiger tube will run into an NPN transistor. The output pulse of the tube is around 200V, so it needs to h

Learn how to make a retro-style table tennis game with an FPGA. Take a look at the DE0-Nano development board, along with Altera's Quartus II design software. We also learn about the Verilog language and dive into some code. With the help of additional components, interface directly with a VGA monitor and an NES game controller.

When 3d printing multiple parts is to slow, vaccuum forming can help! Join Clem on his quest to build a cheap DIY vacuum foming machine. Only Basic tools required! An Arduino Uno with Adafruits LCD display shield acts as the controler for the device. Getting it to work is a straightforward task, but achieving good results may take some practice.

Matthew relives some of his youthful hacking by dabbling in a little "pirate radio" broadcasting. In this video, he builds a handheld FM transmitter from some salvaged parts and a Raspberry Pi. The Pi uses a piece of software to convert wav files to frequency-modulated signals emitted from GPIO pin 7. To improve transmission quality and prevent undesired signals, Matthew also designs and builds a band pass filter and seals everything in a shielded case.

Until cryptocurrency replaces money, we have to deal with coins. Instead of just collecting them in a jar, this electronic coin bank lets you know how much you have. The simple part is the count counter module which detects up to 4 coin types. The tricky part is making it battery powered. Thanks to capacitive sensing technology, this coin bank can run off a single charge for months.

Whether you call them "blinkies", "throwies", "sparklers", or anything else, LED art is an interesting nexus of street art and hacker culture. C Events such as DEFCON even have exhibitions for the most creative blinky designs while maker storefronts sell them in every conceivable shape. In this video, Matt collaborates with his friends at the National Upcycled Computing Collective to build a solar-powered "smart" blinky that not only looks cool at night, but contributes its computing power to a worldwide network that's looking for disease cures, extraterrestrial intelligence, rogue asteroids, and more!

True horror stories are much more frightening than made up ones. That's why Clem brings back the ancient nightmare from 550 million years ago- The Anomalocaris. It was one of the first known fierce predators and looked like a squishy shrimp of terror. Things get a little out of hand when another Clem appears on the scene....

Clem tries to convert his cheap tiny CNC machine that never really worked into an easy to use tool. The tiny CNC should use the same worflow and software like a standard 3d printer does. There is one rule that always applies. If you buy cheap random stuff from unknown sources- you are in for a bad time“ The Struggle is real, but the result is a CNC Woodburning machine!

Have you ever wanted to make your very own, custom cell phone? Do you love Linux and wish your phone was more open source? Today, we’re going to see how to make a working prototype cell phone using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino compatible board, and a GSM module packed into a custom 3D printed case.

Today on element14 presents Mike gives the classic Nintendo ROB a makeover. He adds a pico projector and servo motors to revamp the 80s gaming icon. We also look at how to add voice control to a project using an open source 'hotword' detector.

Do you have trouble with needlessly connected devices? Clem does, for sure! He silently rages while trying to switch on an IOT-Coffeemaker. He tries to get revenge by building the most useless IOT-Device on the planet.

Sean and Conner Miller, build the ultimate smart trike. Their goal is to inspire others to embark on an assistive technology build of their own or to find a way to bring their ideas to life in order to make the world a better place. The inspiration for the project is Sean's wife, who was diagnosed with MS when Connor was two years old. They'll showcase the Arduino MKR1000 IoT kit as a tool for prototyping when coupled to mechanical components. Features of the smart trike include speed sensor and interlock, pedal sensor and interlock, proximity sensor and interlock, garage door opener receiver, braking limit switch and interlock, tilt sensor and interlock, and sd card output to study sensor data and calibrate for best ride quality and safety.

Clem revisits his HACK like HECK project, the VRpi! A Virtual Reality System for the Raspberry Pi. The original device did run Doom exclusively. The VRpi 2 runs OpenArena and other Games, you can even use it as a cheap pseudo VR Kit for your PC-Games. Thanks to the Raspberry Pi 3+ some Arduino micros and Radio transmitters.

Matt is a huge fan of the Twilight Zone, so for Halloween, he's decided to build a classic prop from the old series with a modern twist! The original Mystic Seer was a coin-operated fortune telling machine created for the 1960 episode "Nick of Time". Will this new, electronic fortune teller actually predict the future?

How do you make any electronics project better? Add LEDs. How do you make it infinitely better? Add infinite LEDs! Ok, so we can’t actually add that many LEDs to a project (not to mention the mathematical impossibility), but we can bounce light around endlessly with the infinity mirror effect for a far out light show that makes for a psychedelic addition to any space. So today we’ll be making an infinity polyhedron out of addressable RGB LEDs and a 3D-printed frame.

In part 2 of our quest to build the most Useless IoT Device Ever, Matt--jealous of Hawaii's perfect waves--decides to add flight tracking capabilities to the Rock. Except that the flights he's tracking aren't his own! The AirborneSurfer pulls his namesakes together to build a device that will alert him whenever someone else's plane lands at the destination he'd rather be!

Say goodbye to cramped wrists and handheld gadgets for cutting wire and say hello to your new workhorse on the workbench: the A.W.C.S. The “Ox” is an automatic wire cutting and stripping machine meant to take some of the busywork out of building electronic gadgets. Will it succeed? Will it actually save time? Will my wrists be spared from carpal tunnel and tendonitis? Let’s find out!

An actual Movie Star visits Clem's Bunker. He appeared in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and saved the world by helping john Connor to hack an ATM. we are talking about the Atari portfolio, the smallest fully MS-DOS kompatible Laptop ever made. Clem recreates this beloved device in a modern Form. He uses a Beaglebone Black Wireless and a Touchscreen to build an ultra Portable modern Linux computer, with the classic ATARI look.

Emboldened by the success of his Raspberry PIrate radio, Matt indulges in some more radio hacking by building a specialized QFH antenna and a briefcase form-factor satellite receiver in an attempt to intercept "faxes" from OUTER SPAACEEE!!! Project TIROS is a self-contained, Raspberry Pi-based satellite signal reception system designed to automatically download images and data from NOAA's POES spacecraft as they pass overhead and display the data on an integrated LCD panel. In this video, Matt will walk through how to set up an RTL-SDR module with a Raspberry Pi for automated satellite downloads as well as how to design and build a quadrifilar helical antenna for polar-orbiting signal reception.

The "Game Genie" line of cheat devices was released for several consoles back in the early 90s, but they never made one for the Atari 2600 since by that time it was obsolete. Join us as we travel back in time and use an FPGA to build the video game accessory that never was.

In this video Mike builds an automatic Etch A Sketch™ machine using stepper motors and 3D printed gears.

Typing a password by hand is so blase, so why not spice up your daily PC unlocking routine by creating an overly contrived password keeper? In the modern Fallout games, you find many a RobCo terminal lying about ready to reveal secrets from before the great war, but in order to gain access, you often need to “hack” the system. Let’s re-create our own mini terminal to emulate a keyboard and unlock a computer in “real life.”

For over 30 years, Hallmark has been creating limited-edition sets of popular culture-inspired holiday ornaments. Capitalizing on the popularity of video game nostalgia, they produced a miniature Donkey Kong arcade cabinet as part of the 2018 line. Featuring lights and sound from the game, it's a near-perfect homage to a bygone era designed by artist Orville Wilson. There's only one thing wrong with it: you can't actually play it. In this Very Special Christmas Episode, Matt declares war on the hapless ornament, tears it down to its shell, and rebuilds the interior with a Raspberry Pi, Adafruit OLED screen, and tiny control switches to create a one-of-a-kind PLAYABLE Christmas tree ornament!

Fleamarkets can hold a lot of junk but also treasures, Clem bought a 70's medical device which was used to examine the heartbeat of unborn children and hacks it into a retro style synthesizer. You can use your own heartbeat or even that of any person(born yet or not) to alter the sound of the device. It features a 10 Stage Sequencer and 5 different filters to create various sounds and rhythms.

Inspired by Five Nights at Freddy's, it is a jump scare game based on a security camera system emulator. The premise of the game is that a 9 year old boy sleep walks and it terrifies his father for some reason only to be understood at the end of the game. If his son wakes while sleepwalking, a jump scare will occur. To get the boy back to the bed, you turn on lights along the path back to his room from your PC or Tablet, but, you can't let him walk fully into any given light - or he'll wake up!! The game is set over 6 nights, each with progressively harder scenarios to navigate him through to get back to the bed. When the user hits Escape to pause the game, they then can hit the letter "m" on the keyboard to enable maker mode. This allows the game to talk to a Microcontroller that will control the real, physical world around you. For us, the microcontroller is the Arduino MKR1000.

Matt longs to relive the "glory days" of hobby computing, but he can't decide which direction he wants to go to fill the retrocomputer-shaped hole in his heart. After seeking some inspiration from his muse, William Shatner, he decides to go all the way back to the beginning of the microcomputer revolution by building a working replica of the O.G. personal computer: the MITS Altair 8800. In this Arduino-based build, he'll put his love for LEDs and toggle switches to the test during marathon soldering sessions getting all of the external functions of the Altair working accurately so he can play a few rounds of "Kill The Bit" on the front panel.

Rejoice, you filthy Earth monkeys, because Invader Zim is back! ...soon. If you’re hyped for the new T.V. movie: Enter the Florpus, join DJ as he ventures forth to build an animatronic version of Zim’s robot G.I.R. He might succeed. He might fail spectacularly. Either way, we’re all DOOOOMED! when Zim returns this spring.