In this episode Ben and Felix make a DIY Raspberry Pi Oscilloscope using the Bitscope and a Raspberry Pi 2.

In this episode of the Ben Heck Show we will learn more about FPGA's or Field Programmable Gate Arrays with the DE0-Nano. When is it appropriate to use an FPGA? What types of FPGA's are out there? How can you implement an FPGA into your project? All of these questions and more will be answered. Let's get started!

In this episode of the Ben Heck Show Ben gives the fans what they've always wanted. Using original Game Boy hardware Ben creates a giant gameboy using an FPGA and a VGA screen!

In this episode Ben solders an entire Atari 2600 system from scratch. In a future episode he will test it out and create a cool case around it.

In this episode Ben is away on vacation and Felix has taken over the shop. For today's build we are turning an acoustic guitar into an acoustic electric guitar!

On the Ben Heck Show we always try to use the right tool for the job. In this episode Ben and Karen go through our workflow from bread board to finished product.

In this episode Ben takes apart the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation 1 and compares their specs. Ben goes over the pros and cons of each system and decides which of the two systems won the war!

In this episode Ben begins making a mechanical television using old records, a flash light, a drill motor and some Photoresistors.

In this episode Ben sets out to build a all in one development kit. This includes a screen, a key board, mouse and a few power options all in one convenient package.

In this episode Ben creates a data logging device that can be used to determine how your checked luggage is being handled. Let's get started!

In this episode Ben continues to make a mechanical television using old records, a flash light, a drill motor and some Photoresistors.

In this special Earth Day Episode of The Ben Heck Show Karen, Ben and Felix go to the thrift store and search for old electronics to salvage. Whoever finds the most useable components wins!

In this episode Ben and Felix make an auto doorknob sanitization unit out of some uv sanitizing lights. Let's get started!

In a previous episode Ben hand wired an Atari 2600, in this episode he finishes the job by making it portable. Let's get started!

In this episode Ben and Felix set out to create a solution for people who may sometimes forget to take their pills. With the invention of the Pill-Minder 2000 users will be alerted not only when they forget to take their pills but also when they are supposed to take their pills in the first place.

Ben and crew take a suggestion from the community. The idea was to create a real life Jumangi board game with pieces that seem to move all by themselves. In this episode Karen figures out the general design of the board game and Ben creates a mechanism for moving the pieces across the board using magnets and servos.

In this episode Ben tears down the Power Glove and reverse engineers it into a computer mouse!

In todays episode Ben works on a functional Sci-fi computer terminal for a space movie that he is working on.

This week Ben, Karen, and Felix continue to work on the Hackmanji board game puzzle portions to help make it educational with electronic logic gates, ranging from AND, OR, to XOR. Ben breaks down the puzzles and solutions to the logic puzzles while Felix solders the logic chips. Karen and Felix design and laser cut the housing, find out how they get on!

In this episode Ben goes over the basics of logic gates to coincide with the Hackmanji board game build.

In this episode the Ben Heck Crew visits the Music Tech Fest in Berlin, Germany. Ben and Felix will be judging some of the projects that take place in the hack camp portion of the festival.

In this episode Ben uses the Raspberry Pi Zero to create the smallest Pi portable computer that he has ever made!

Ben and crew take a suggestion from the community. The idea was to create a real life Jumangi board game with pieces that seem to move all by themselves. In this episode Ben, Felix and Karen finish building the Hackmanji board game.

In this special episode of 'The Ben Heck Show' Terry and Dan Diebold have brought us the Nintendo PlayStation Prototype. This rare console is thought to be the only one left in existence so we have handled it with extreme care. Our goal is to take it apart, find out how it works and in a future episode get it working again. Let's get started!

In this special episode of 'The Ben Heck Show' Terry and Dan Diebold have brought us the Nintendo PlayStation Prototype. This rare console is thought to be the only one left in existence so we have handled it with extreme care. In this episode our goal is to get it working again. Let's get started!

In this episode of The Ben Heck Show Karen, Felix and Ben engage in heated competition. Each competitor must build a robot that will have 3 balloons attached to it. The goal will be to pop the opposing robots balloons using weapons that are either built within the competition time frame or created from scrap found at a local thrift store. Only one robot's balloons will survive!

Ben and Felix produce a laser guided infra-red grid array sensor, connected via i2c to a micro controller with mechanical relays to disconnect the power to a device that causes fire! They integrate a Hitachi HDD44790 based LCD display to create a menu and interface for calibration with an enclosure designed with Autodesk Fusion 360. If advanced technology is almost distinguishable from magic then an electronics component that sets itself on fire has “let the magic blue smoke out” and killed the magic.

In this episode of The Ben Heck Show Karen, Felix and Ben engage in heated competition. Each competitor must build a robot that will have 3 balloons attached to it. The goal will be to pop the opposing robots balloons using weapons that are either built within the competition timeframe or created from scrap found at a local thrift store. Only one robot's balloons will survive!

In this episode of The Ben Heck Show Karen, Felix and Ben engage in heated competition. Each competitor must build a robot that will have3 balloons attached to it.The goal will be to pop the opposing robots balloons using weapons that are either built within the competition timeframe or created from scrap found at a local thrift store. Only one robot's balloons will survive!

There are few things that Ben Heck loves more than to teardown the newest gaming console release, watch how he unboxes the XBox One S and takes apart each component as he goes, including the controller. We learn how cost savings have been made with design alterations to the chassis and the printed circuit boards. Ben also compares the XBox One S side by side with the original XBox One and discovers that a connector is missing, which one could it be? The power supply is one major change with the new XBox console, compared to the early days where it was practically a huge brick! Ben also highlights the changes in the CPU/GPU heatsink and the limitations of hacking the HDMI ports on the board while considering if it can be turned into a laptop. Do you think there's something else we can do with it? Let us know on the element14 Community, where you can learn about upcoming episodes and join The Ben Heck Show team.

Ben works on a Laser Harp using lasers and a photoresistor while Felix sets up the intel Edison with VST: virtual studio technology MIDI music driver to play music on it. How would you use technology to discover a new way for the world to enjoy music?

Inspired by Music Tech Fest in Berlin, The Ben Heck team finishes work on the Intel Edison Laser Harp. Ben and Karen handle all the electromechanical work while Felix, the Linux guy, finishes the coding. Have you ever made an electronic music instrument?

The Ben Heck Team responds to the Pokemon Go craze by taking your suggestions and making them a reality. Their answer: a wrist-mounted, battery extending, team color indicating, phone holding, Pokemon Go Survival Device!

Ben builds a light compensator to supply indoor plants light when the sun isn’t able to provide enough light for them. He uses a Texas Instrument MSP430 Launchpad Development Board, a TI BOOST-AD7042, a DS1307 real time clock, and a grow light. Ben gets his hands on a Texas Instrument MSP430 Launchpad Microcontroller Development Board with a TI BOOST ADS7042 booster pack. BOOST-ADS7042 is a high-speed, low powered ADC analog-to-digital converter. Karen suggests making a light array that gives supplemental light to plants only when they need it suggest as in the winter time. Texas Instrument MSP430 Launchpads have top and bottom headers making it easy to stack many BoosterPacks. With this in mind they add a DS1307 real time clock via the I2C bus so they know what time of day it is. This is important because it gives plants a start time and an end time as well as resting points for receiving light. If the sun is not bright enough then a supplemental light will be activated to help the plant. DS1307 RTC is very common and there are many examples online to get you started. The booster pack has a light sensor on it which will allow the device to know how much light is needed. The booster pack includes an LCD and three buttons that you can use to program it. One button is used to set the default amount of light. The other two buttons are used to set the start and end time to cycle through the hours. The light box is controlled by an SSR controlled by the MSP430 so the microncontroller can turn on an alternating current device. Ben adds a header for a DS1307 real time clock via the 12C bus. Ben populates the board and wires up to the booster pack to the MSP430. He also handles all the coding to make the real time clock work. Ben introduces us to rudimentary electrics on wiring a USA mains plug and using a solid state relay to turn it on and off, and then guides us through using Code Composer Studio and Energia to compile code for the TI MSP430 with

Karen daydreams about being a Superhero. Can Ben transform Karen into Captain Tangent using accelerometers to detect speed, magnetometers to detect orientation, a microcontroller, and speakers that make sounds for punches and kicks? The team begins work on a Superhero combat costume for Halloween. To get started on the sound effects for punches and kicks; Ben uses a Parallax Propeller Prop Dev Stick, four FLORA LSM303 Accelerometers for each limb, and an I2C expander to multiplex the signal. The I2C expander allows communication with individual Accelerometers even though each one shares the same I2C bus address. Ben attaches and solders the Parallax Propeller and the IC2 expander onto a perf board. He then runs experiments with the help of an oscilloscope to get the Propeller to talk to the expander. You can send a command to the expander telling it what device you want then all further commands go to that device. First you tell I2C where to read from then you connect again and get the requested data. MCU’s have dedicated I2C lines, but you can also bit-bang it with any available I/O. Karen supplies speakers from a stereo that was taken apart. They use 3D printed parts to connect the speaker parts to a belt clip. The plan is to place an EL inverter in the back and stereo speakers on each side to provide good stereo separation. The EL wires require AC so they use a DC-AC converter, often called an inverter. To get the propeller to work Ben uses some Arduino code that Felix has already tested. Because there is a lot of example code for the ATMEGA328 (Arduino Uno) it’s a fast way to get stuff running. Ben works on the sensors profiles used to register kicks and punches. In phones, a magnetometer is used to determine the orientation of each sensor. Although phone apps use much more advanced sensor profiles but their profile should be enough to register fast movement. It’s also necessary to examine change over time (10-50ms) to determine the change spe

The team completes Karen’s SuperHero Costume to give it speakers, EL(electroluminescent) Wires, IC2 connected accelerometer sensors, a Parallax Propeller, and an Arduino Mini Microcontroller. Karen transforms into Captain Tangent giving her the power to diffuse problems with tangents! Ben attaches an Arduino Pro Mini Board underneath the board used for audio to get both boards working together. The Atmel chip will do the polling of the I2C Bus and if it sees a trigger event it will send that command to the Propeller telling it to play audio. Since it’s a 3.3 V board as well they can run everything at 3.3V and only use 5V for the audio amplifier. Before designing an enclosure to fit on the belt he runs some tests to make sure the board works with the sensors. He then wires up communication between the Atmel and the Propeller. Ben works on sound effects for Karen’s punches. He adds higher and lower frequencies to give the system three sounds to randomly pick from for variety. He also makes three different sounds for the kicks. After he runs some tests he moves onto the next part which is adding the audio amplifier and speakers and hooking this up to a battery pack. Ben runs into an issue with Adafruit LSM303 Library which he solves by commenting out the Wire.begin() function and going through each of the devices in the multiplexer to select the device and then begin it. You only need to call Wire.begin() once to initiate the I2C Bus on the microcontroller. It’s a good idea to examine a library’s H and CPP files to see what it’s actually doing. When the system initially booted some of the accelerometers weren’t initialized. When it boots you need to tell it to enable your accelerometer and enable your magnetometer. Some of the devices on the serial monitor were coming up as zeros meaning they weren’t properly initialized and causing the I2C bus to hang. The accelerometers aren’t enabled on boot, so proper initialization is a must. Feli

Ben tears apart a Playstation 4 Slim and compares it to the teardown of the recently released Xbox One S. Once he’s torn the PS4 apart it can be put together as a tablet or laptop. The back of the system includes AC in, a camera port for the upcoming Playstation VR , HDMI, and the TOSLINK optical audio port has been removed. PSVR is rumored to have an external processing box between it and the PS4. Ben removes the screw holding the hard drive in place so he can examine the hard drive to see if it’s changed. The hard drive is from a different brand than the previous version. He then removes the back to reveal the wifi module outside the RF cage and a small Blueray drive. The Blueray drive looks proprietary. Sony can create its own Blu-Ray solution whereas Microsoft uses an existing module. Ben removes the power brick to reveal what that looks like. The power supply has two different voltages, 4.8 V at 1.5 amps for the idle state and 12 V at 13 amps. The power supply for the PS4 is very different from the one used in the Xbox One S. Inside the PS4 there is a fan that brings air from the top of the unit and blows it through the reduced heat sink and through the power supply. The Playstation 4 uses [8] 1 gig RAM chips whereas the Xbox One S uses [16] 512 meg chips. Ben removes the CPU clamp to take out the main motherboard. You can guess what IC’s do based on what they’re next to. The power regulation is heat sunk, the APU looks identical to the Xbox One S, a Sega branded chip is most likely a custom video encoder for easily capturing video for streaming, there’s a camera hookup, Ethernet port, hardrive and power inputs, and USB ports. The motherboard for the Xbox One S is compared with the Playstation 4. The Playstation 4 has heatsinks on the RAM whereas the Xbox doesn’t. The Xbox has more RAM chips meaning each chip is smaller whereas the Playstation runs their RAM chips at a much higher frequency. AMD provides the APU (Accelerated Proc

The team builds the ultimate retro gaming controller using an ESP8266 WiFi Module, a transmitter controller, and a receiver on the game console. Universal support includes Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega, and Atari. To make the universal controller wireless they use the inexpensive ESP8266 WiFi Module. It runs on NodeMCU firmware which can be programmed using LUA. Once you write the script in LUA and NodeMCU executes it the controller module and the console module can talk to each other. The controller module is the transmitter and the console module is the receiver. The plan is to build a custom controller with two shift registers in it. The shift registers are used to read the buttons. Each shift register has 8 bits for total of 16 bits. 16 bits are used as there will not be more than 16 buttons. The controller module can shift the data out of the shift registers and into itself which is similar to how a Nintendo controller actually works. Because it reads in 16 bits it does not care what the buttons are for each console, it just gets the data. The custom controller then transmits a 16 bit package in one word to the receiver unit. The receiver takes that data and recreates it on its side with two more shift registers. These would be output registers which would be 74HC595 shift registers. Once again each shift register has 8 bits total for 16 bits, and they are going to be 0 or 1. From that point they connect up the console plugs. The way they connect the plugs to these shift depends on what the buttons actually do. After wiring everything up they use a multimeter to determine what button are being pressed. They then wire up their controllers to match. Each controller is different. In the case of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo there is going to be input shift registers to connect to the output shift registers. For the Sega Genesis they’ll need to take apart an old Sega Genesis and hook the pads beyond the chip directly to the output shift registers

The team begins working on an Atari Junk Keyboard, a version of the Atari Punk Console that combines 555 timers to make a simple circuit that makes Atari-like music and sound effects. Instead of using sequences to repeat Atari-like sounds they decide to make a whole keyboard of the sounds. B The plan is to take the matrix from a set of keys to figure out how they work, add discrete logic by using a circuit to read keys instead of opting for a microcontroller, and then feed that input into a number of Atari Junk Console integrated circuit pairs resulting in multiple sound effects playing at once. They begin their project by first getting the keyboard matrix working so they can later attach it to the Atari Junk Console to make music. Ben begins by wiring up an oscillator. An oscillator is different than a crystal in that the oscillator can output its own waveform whereas a crystal you have to attach something else to it in order to get a square wave. The 1mhz oscillator has power and ground going into it and pins for enable and output. When you hook up power and an oscilloscope to the output pin you should see a 1mhz square wave coming off of it. As that may be a little too fast for the switch matrix a CD74HC4017 Johnson Decade Counter is used to divide the frequencies. A second Johnson counter is also added. On the first Johnson counter one of the outputs is going into the clock input of the second Johnson counter. This prevents 2 useless cycles and keeps timing more consistent. Next he hooks up the outputs of the Johnson Counter to an inverting buffer that will drive the columns as well the flip flop driver that will load the data off of the switches. He uses an Inverting buffer 74HCT540 and wires it so that it so that it goes onto his breadboard. He does more analysis on the oscilloscope after he wires outputs from the Johnson Counter to the Inverting buffer and decides to use another Johnson counter to drive the flip flops. Ben attaches 8 octal fli

The Ben Heck team completes work on the Atari Junk Keyboard. Previously, they took apart a keyboard and made a manually activated switch matrix to read keys. Now it’s time to take those outputs and hook them up to a 555 array to create the Atari sound effects! For inspiration Ben and Felix view a diagram of an Atari Junk Console Circuit by the influential Maker, Forest Mims. To get polyphony, the ability to play multiple notes at one time, they are considering a 555 on every key and making it work through a combination of op-amps, resistors for outputs, and transistors to allow the switch matrix to activate the 555 circuit. Felix works on the PNP transistor bank that will act as a trigger for the 555 timers. He laser cuts a panel for the potentiometers. In order to have as much control over sound as possible, they are going to have one of panels per octave and attach potentiometers to the 555 timers to adjust the frequency of each key individually. There is a lot of wiring to do so Ben and Felix split up the tasks. Ben wires up the bank of 556s and 555s onto a board that will sit on top of the transistor array that Felix is wiring with a header interfacing them. The 555 drives each octave and having six 556s, 2555s in one package, gives you (6 multiplied by two) 12 different notes. There are 12 notes per octave in a musical scale. Ben walks you through wiring up the power bus first and gives tips on soldering and order of operation. He sets up convenient power and ground rails that are close to pins so that when he wires up the 555 circuit anything that has to go to ground has a very short path. This allows him to use fewer wires which is why it’s good to wire your power rails first. Ben makes the power rails using bits of wire cut off of resistors, capacitors, and other things to make the power rails. He attaches them at a right angle on the integrated circuit side, solders them in place, and then bends them at right angles using tweezers, going

A Game Boy printer is used to teach reverse engineering and how data transmission works. The printer is taken apart and hooked up to a Tektronix oscilloscope. Signals are captured, reverse engineered, and replaced with new signals. Using the Game Boy Camera, Ben manages to capture a solid white frame and a solid black frame for testing purposes. This allows him to see how the data is organized. He then hooks up the gamelink cable to the printer and made some test prints. The printer uses thermal paper so it doesn’t have any ink as that would have dried out by now. He discovers that even if you unplug the game boy half way through the print it still finishes the print. This means that the printer has local RAM that stores the image after it starts printing. Ben proceeds to do a teardown of the Game Boy printer. It contains 8 KB RAM to capture images and print it. There’s also an 8 Bit microcontroller. There are no other major IC’s so the code must be inside the MCU, not on an external ROM. There are two optocouplers, also called “opto isolators” because they’re used to isolate signals from each other. The optocoupler has a pair of LEDS inside of it, one emits light, while the other detects light and uses it to trigger a circuit. It’s like a buffer but it’s completely electrically isolated from one side to the other. This is most likely to prevent spikes of current on the print head from affecting the microcontroller. There are 18 pins going to the print head. It sends 5 V to the print head and only syncs to ground, turns on, when something is printing. This gives you power, ground, and 16 bits of data. The communication cable interfaces with the microcontroller, taking the 16 bit connection going into it and using it to send out all 16 pixels vertically and send out more data for every horizontal line. When data is sent over, the Microcontroller puts it into the RAM, once completed, the Microcontroller prints it itself from the RAM. A

Ben's seeing double this week with a retro virtual reality console that was ahead of its time, the Virtual Boy (codename VUE) by Nintendo. The technology behind the Virtual Boy was ahead of its time, and didn't prevent some of the dizzying problems that still affect VR today, as Ben quips "It's like a trip to the eye doctor!". Of course, this means Ben has to take it apart in a traditional teardown to find out what makes the Virtual Boy tick, inside we find a 32bit processor and graphics chip combined along with some very clever mechanical decisions. Unfortunately, as clever as the mechanics are, this hasn't prevented failure and Ben has to design and print a part using Autodesk Fusion 360 to help repair it. Though, now that it's repaired, it's time to improve it! Make sure you catch the next episode, meanwhile let us know what you think of VR technology on the element14 Community!

Join Ben as he leaves the workshop behind and goes on a journey to Portland's Retro Gaming Expo! There's little Ben loves more, and this time he's on the hunt for a copy of Road Rash for the Sega Genesis / Megadrive! Though with some happy distractions, Ben gets another chance at the Nintendo Playstation console and discusses the Commodore 64, Nintendo 64 disk drive and the collecting of retro hardware and games with fellow Youtubers. Will Ben manage to repair the Nintendo Playstation and play Super Boss Gaiden? Does he manage to find a copy of Road Rash? You'll have to watch and find out! What's your favorite retro gaming console, or game? Let Ben and the team know on the element14 Community!

Ben and Karen redesign a Nintendo Virtual Boy console as wearable virtual reality gaming headset. The new unit is sleeker and has different focus controls to allow it to be worn on your head like a modern VR helmet. It flips up like a welding helmet and promises portability not found on other VR systems! Ben prints out two layers of plastic. The first layer prevents the mirrors from hitting your eyes or acrylic. The second layer is a solid layer that completely blocks you off from the mirrors. Between these two layers, stiffening creates a solid unit. Additional screw hole tabs so that whatever else they build is easy to attach. Adding extra screw mounts gives you someplace to add the next thing. Ben designs from the “inside out” to ensure enough room for all critical components. He repositions the servo pc from the back to the front. He removes the cams that work the focus as that can be rebuilt later as they still have access to the focus tabs. He also removed the left and right mirror control connectors. Looking for additional ways to make the unit more compact he drops some capacitors down underneath. He does this while keeping track of the polarity. He attaches additional cables for added flexibility and also attaches servo cables directly to the circuit board. Ben recombines everything from the virtual boy into a more compact unit. The servo driver board is on the top instead of the back. He’ll add sliders for the focus rings when he goes to build them as an attachment. 3D printed clamps are on the end to hold the ribbon cables into place. On the bottom the main PCB has been moved back a little bit. A custom acrylic base has been added and connectors have been flipped around to connect through the bottom for added space. Next, he goes to work finding the best way to create some sort of head mounted unit. Ben opts to leave the battery pack and the controller the same as he decides that having a cable that runs down to your hand isn’t any

To untangle Karen from her mess of wires the team discusses everything related to wireless communication! Learn the difference between ELF, SLF, ULF, VLF, LF, MF, HF UHF, and THF frequency bands and different technologies for electronics communication such as WIFI, xBee, Bluetooth, RFID, NFC, and mobile networks. Are you also bit by the technology bug: http://bit.ly/2hbkALB Ben goes over commonly used radio frequency bands. ELF, extremely low frequency (3-30Hz range), is generally used for long range communication like submarine use and maritime use. SLF, super low frequency (30-300Hz range), is still mostly maritime use. VLF, Very Low Frequency (3kHz-30kHz range), is still used for mostly radio navigation and maritime military use. LF, Low Frequency (30kHz-300kHz range), is still used for a lot of radio navigation but it’s also used for amateur radio and universal clock signals. MF, Medium Frequency (300kHz-3MHz range), is used for AM radio. HF, High Frequency (3MHz-30MHz range), is used for short wave radio, CB radio, RFID radar, and more amateur radio. VHF, Very High Frequency (30MHz -300MHz range), is used for FM broadcasts and TV broadcasts. UHF, 300MHz-3000 MHz, is used for TV, cell phones, and other consumer devices. SHF, Super High Frequency (3GHz-30GHz range), is used for WIFI and cellular technology as well as microwave transmitters. EHF, Extremely High Frequency (30GHz-300GHz range) is used for radio astronomy and the millimeter wave scanner used for airport security. THF, Tremendously High Frequency (300GHz-3000GHz range), is used for crazy experimental stuff like particle physics, medical imaging, atomic blasters, and things of that elk. The 2.4 GHz /5 GHz wireless range is usually expressed when referring to the 802.11 (a, b, g, and n) wireless standards. 2.4 GHz is a popular range for products with their own proprietary protocols. 2.4 GHz is the most common protocol with the XBee signal. XBee signals are a little slower than Bluetooth

Ben takes an off-the shelf baby monitor and creates adaptive headphones that switch between a music device such as an iPod or phone and noise from a secondary input such as a crying baby. He does so using integrated circuits, discrete components built into the case. Bit by the bug? Visit: http://bit.ly/2gOSzx6 Ben takes apart a baby monitor to see if he can build the circuitry inside of it. Inside the baby monitor is a radio module, a glop top integrated circuit that runs everything, power regulator, crystal that runs the circuitry, some caps, an antenna, and an IC that might be some sort of memory or identification chip. It might be possible to use the battery that powers the baby monitor to also power the switching circuit. The speaker could also be removed entirely and turned into a headphone jack. In order to see if the amplification going to the speaker needs to be knocked down a bit to prevent hearing damage, Ben hooks it up to a battery to see how much current it draws. It’s drawing about 50 milliamps which isn’t too bad so Ben continues testing with Felix simulating baby sounds. For this project Ben uses the ADG 436 integrated circuit, a two channel switching circuit, so they can use logic on or off to switch from one channel to another. The outputs are hooked up to headphones and a pair of Nintendo Game Boys that act as inputs. There are pull down resistors so that both of the inputs are set to low. Ben looks for a way to combine the switching circuit with the baby monitor. The switching circuit has been tested to work down to about 1.8 volts. He then probes around to see where all the voltages are so that he can power the switching circuit. He finds a boost regulator used to boost the lower level of the batteries up to a stable level of 3.2 volts for device operation. He also finds that the system voltage can be found on many test pads around the unit as well as the positive terminals of several of the electrolytic capacitors. He then

Ben tears apart a PlayStation 4 Pro and compares it to a recently torn down PlayStation 4 Slim. He also compares it to an Xbox One S he recently tore apart as well and talks about its most glaring omission, the lack of 4K support for its blue ray drive. Like the Xbox One S it has a wireless module outside the main RF Cage but in this case they have 3 antennas on them. Unlike the Xbox One wireless isn’t a separate module it’s just an exposed module on the main board. The Pro4 is notable for its lack of 4K blue ray support and initially appears to be the same system as the original but with a bigger APU (accelerated processing unit). A large copper plane is used for the heat sink as opposed to the steel on the PS4 Slim. The top of the unit looks like its power supply, heat sink, and blue ray drive. There’s twice as much power regulation as the PS4 Slim. There’s a built in speaker beeper like the Xbox One. Ben gives his theory on why dies shrinks every time they do a new revision of a console. After getting the die of the PS4 Pro cleaned up he compares it with the Die of the PS4 Slim. There’s more surface area to pull heat from the chip. The biggest difference between the motherboards of the two systems is that they have a lot more power regulation going on and a larger die that sinks more heat in. The heat sink of the new system is about 30% bigger than the old one. It's longer and a little bit thicker. There’s three heat pipes coming out of a copper core and those heat pipes are going directly to the top of the fins of the heat sink. There’s quite a bit more heat dissipation going on with this unit. Ben compares the power supply of the PS4 Pro with the one on the Slim. There’s a pretty big jump in power consumption on the new system. The 12 Volt rail on the new power supply is 23.5 amps. That is nearly twice as much as the Xbox One S. Finally, Ben compares the Blue Ray Drive of both systems. In comparing both drivese, Ben ge

Ben uses a third party playstation 4 controller, a Hori Horitpad FPS Plus, to create a Playstation 4/Playstation 3 accessibility controller. Although he has ten years of experience building accessibility controllers, Ben’s avoided PS4/PS3 accessibility controllers in the past because their circuit board design makes it difficult to modify. Building accessibility controllers is a passion of Ben’s because it allows someone that does not have use of both hands to enjoy one more thing that many of us take for granted. The Xbox 360 and Xbox one use standard circuit boards so they can be easily hacked to make accessibility controllers. In fact, the Xbox One controller is easier to modify than the Xbox 360 controller! Ben’s preference for modding Xbox controllers has nothing to do with being biased against them, the PS4 will have sold over 40 million units after the holiday season and Ben has one too. It has to do with the silk screen printed circuit used on its controllers not allowing it to be modified easily because you can’t solder onto the plastic. After opening up the controller Ben finds circuit boards with well labeled test points. Ben walks you through using Autodesk Fusion 360 to design new parts for the accessibility controller. He moves the D-pad below to allow the face buttons space and works on getting 3D parts to match the curve of an existing part. Ben replaces the 4 buttons used to replace the dpad with lower profile buttons to allow them to rest flush on the circuit board. Felix works on placement for a trigger and an analog stick on the button of the controller. A spring is used for the trigger and button placement is set. After that Ben finds a place to put the PS4/PS3 toggle switch. Ben tests the new accessibility controller by playing some PS4 against Karen!

Ben assembles an Xbox One S Laptop using parts from a previous teardown of an Xbox One S. The new laptop includes 3D printed parts, an aluminum base cut with a CNC machine, a new power supply to power both the Xbox and LCD screen, and smaller fans powered by a rigged circuit using a Tip 102. The major components of the Xbox One S are a Blue Ray Drive, Power Supply Unit, a Motherboard, and a Hard Drive. Ben takes the motherboard and scans an image of it in Adobe Illustrator. He uses laser patterns to knock holes in the board. This gives him as many options for mounting this as possible. He puts together all the Xbox One components. He’s extended the power cable of the blue ray drive, he’s moved the hard drive, he’s put the front panel PCB at a right angle and ported out the buttons (eject, bind, and power), he’s moved the wifi module to an end degree angle, and he’s using the new short HDMI cable to connect to a screen. He replaces the power supply with a more powerful unit as the added power is needed for the LCD screen. He also replaces the large fans with two smaller fans for his laptop. By keeping the control line, the system can throttle the fans up and down as needed by heat load. To do this he rigs up a circuit using a Tip 102. The 12 V fans are wired in parallel, 12 V comes from the console and goes into the positive wire, and the negative wire from the fans goes into the collector of the Tip 102 NPN Darlington Transistor allowing you to switch the current on and off. The control line from the Xbox goes through a 1K resistor and into the base of the Tip 102. Finally, the emitter of the Tip 102 goes into ground. The Tip 102 acts as the circuitry inside the fan did allowing the fan to turn on with their speed controlled by the system. Ben cuts the aluminum base for the Xbox One S laptop with a CNC machine. He can then attach the 3D printed wall sections to the aluminum. Next he attaches the power supply and the blue ray drive to

The Ben Team does a rebuild and repair of a vintage Japanese Pachinko machine! Using a “Prop Dev Stick” microcontroller, a single board audio amplifier, 2N4401 NPN transistors, repurposed speakers, and lighting; they do a refresh of this 70s era classic gambling machine; complete with lights and sound effects!

In the 1980s and 1990s, ‘Boomboxes’ were very popular. The sight of a person carrying a huge music player on their shoulder was iconic, until the Walkman came along. The team decided it's time for a retro-fit, using the intel Edison, with thanks to its Arduino compatible breakout board, and a USB soundcard it's time to make the Boombox smarter while keeping with its original parts. After all, the more parts that's kept, the easier it is to modify! Find out how Ben and the team powered the intel Edison using standard batteries and kept the good times rolling.

It is time to learn the Essentials with Karen and Ben this week, Karen has a project that requires a bit of intelligence and discrete electronics can provide just that. To make the laser cut Star Wars BB8 art light reactive, Ben helps to explain and design a circuit using active and passive components, from resistors, capacitors and inductors to diodes and transistors. These components make the basis of smart electronics we experience today, from video cameras to smart phones. Watch now to find out how you can make your project light reactive with a photoresistor and discrete logic!