element14 Presents

Ben and Felix meet with Terry from Mathworks to find out how he can use Matlab and Simulink to create a simulation of the mini Pinball Table and teensy microcontroller. Terry talks through how Simulink, and hardware running a Real Time Operating System, can help to simulate an embedded hardware system. When this is combined with an accurate 3D model created with Autodesk's Fusion 360 the team can get a good idea of how the prototypes will work without having to rebuild the design. The team can even control it with an XBox One controller! Join in with the build on the element14 Community.

t's time to code with Arduino and the Teensy 3.6 to create the game logic and sound for the Miniature Pinball machine. Using the C++ Programming language, Ben takes Felix's C code and makes it suitable for embedded microcontroller hardware with a logic state machine, this virtualised state machine monitors what is going on with the Pinball hardware, such as buttons and what the pinball touches, to react to it by increasing your score or playing music and sounds! Follow along with the build and give the team your suggestions on the element14 Community!

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

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.