Portable Spectrum

if you ask nicely he might supply the plans but really what the the real use of the videos is two fold.

1. To entertain

Its fun to watch the campy acting and see how the how, what, and why of each project is.

2. To inspire

If all we did was make the same thing as Ben, well there would be no orginality. Since I started  watching I have design a hat and a cheap MP# player into a MP3 Hat and my latest I am using a Pi 2 to create a 3D printer. I would not have tried any of the half dozen projects I have done or working on with out a little nudge from Ben's videos.

I'm probably coming across as a bit grumpy - that's not my intention. I have only fairly recently stumbled on these videos, and watch almost all of them over a fairly short period.

I could understand the 'inspiration' angle, but for the fact that so many of the projects are essentially taking a games console and turning it into a portable. One or two projects like these may be inspirational, but dozens? My argument is that this could be a great learning experience, but really it isn't (at least as far as I can see). For example, sticking to this one particular project, Ben states he used 2 different schematics and took some circuitry from each. Now I would love to know his reasoning, but accept that would be too much to show in a video, and perhaps too much work to put into note form, but if the end schematic was released, then at least I could study the 3 schematics and try to deduce why he made that decision. That would be inspiring. Or to take another example, a short scene in the video shows Ben used an older ULA known to have bugs - again it would be good to know why he chose that particular ULA (yes - it may be the only one he had, but it may also have been due to design decisions, and again a schematic would perhaps shed some light on that).

I accept that Ben may want to sell books or kits based on these videos, so there may be a valid commercial reason not to publish, but again it would be better if he was up-front about that so that expectations can be managed.

In summary:

Entertaining? Yes probably, though many episodes are quite similar.

Inspirational? Maybe some episodes are, but I would suggest these are in the minority.

Eductional? Not really, as not enough information is given on the videos (understandably), and very few projects have extra resources published.

All in all, I will still watch the videos - they are entertaining after all, but I am left with a sense of disappointment that they could have been so much more.

to the video games, Ben wrote a book on this and sells it on his website. Here is the link. For Sale | The Official Website of Benjamin J Heckendorn

Just a final quick comment.

Looking at the new trailer for the Apple Watch teardown, at the end of the video there are

are a number of bullet points:

Suggest a build

Watch the latest episodes each Friday

Discuss projects

Download project files

I particularly draw your attention to the 4th point....

My final two points.

"Download project files"

Episode 155: Intel Galileo Bar Brawlin' Bots Build Kit Ben Heck’s Intel Galileo Bar Brawlin' Bots Watch Now	Download
Episode 128: WASD Gaming Pedals Build Kit Ben's Beyond WASD: Foot Pedals for PC Gaming Watch Now	Download
Episode 125-127: Build Kit for Persistence of Vision Display Ben's Steampunk Persistence of Vision Display (Part 3) Watch Now Ben's Steampunk Persistence of Vision Display (Part 2) Watch Now Ben's Steampunk Persistence of Vision Display (Part 1) Watch Now	Download
Episode 124:  PlayStation 4 Accessibility Controller Build Kit Ben Heck’s PS4 Accessibility Controller Watch Now	Download
Episode 123: Bicycle Handlebar Warmers Build Kit Ben Heck Gets a Handle on Winter Watch Now	Download
Episode 120-122: Ouya Portable Build Kit Ben Heck Kickstarts his OUYA Portable Build (Part 3) Watch Now Ben Heck Kickstarts his OUYA Portable Build (Part 2) Watch Now Ben Heck Kickstarts his OUYA Portable Build (Part 1) Watch Now	Download

So he does post them, just not everyone and final thought. Make a new thread and ask Ben to post the plan for the Spectrum if you want them instead of this thread which comes off as rude even if you did not mean it to be. If he sees there is enough interest he might be willing to go and gather all the info to do it.

My final two points.

"Download project files"

Episode 155: Intel Galileo Bar Brawlin' Bots Build Kit Ben Heck’s Intel Galileo Bar Brawlin' Bots Watch Now	Download
Episode 128: WASD Gaming Pedals Build Kit Ben's Beyond WASD: Foot Pedals for PC Gaming Watch Now	Download
Episode 125-127: Build Kit for Persistence of Vision Display Ben's Steampunk Persistence of Vision Display (Part 3) Watch Now Ben's Steampunk Persistence of Vision Display (Part 2) Watch Now Ben's Steampunk Persistence of Vision Display (Part 1) Watch Now	Download
Episode 124:  PlayStation 4 Accessibility Controller Build Kit Ben Heck’s PS4 Accessibility Controller Watch Now	Download
Episode 123: Bicycle Handlebar Warmers Build Kit Ben Heck Gets a Handle on Winter Watch Now	Download
Episode 120-122: Ouya Portable Build Kit Ben Heck Kickstarts his OUYA Portable Build (Part 3) Watch Now Ben Heck Kickstarts his OUYA Portable Build (Part 2) Watch Now Ben Heck Kickstarts his OUYA Portable Build (Part 1) Watch Now	Download

So he does post them, just not everyone and final thought. Make a new thread and ask Ben to post the plan for the Spectrum if you want them instead of this thread which comes off as rude even if you did not mean it to be. If he sees there is enough interest he might be willing to go and gather all the info to do it.

If you don't know an answer, then it may be better for you to not reply rather than just be condescending.

For information Ben has many project files (including the ones I was hoping to look at) on Github.

For anyone else that may be interested, the link is https://github.com/thebenheckshow