Ben Heckendorn (Ben Heck) at Makers Faire (pt2)

I knew Ben Heck would be there because he said so in his blog post;) I have been following his projects since the beginning.

For those who don't know Ben Heck (Ben Heckendorn) the hardware hacker from WI, back in 2000 he created a hand held Atari 2600 that even took cartridges. He has since built many similar custom things, some for fun, some for clients. His most recent two creations were a Bill Paxton fullsize pinball machine with lights/bumpers/sound effects....the works. Why? he wanted to. His other recent build is a "laptop" XBox 360. He took a brand new Slim model, created a shell for it, and mounted a 1280x720 LCD screen in the top (that is the highest 360 native resolution)

He recently joined up with Element 14, a electronics hobbyist site with parts and info, and now he has a bi-weekly video where he builds a small user submitted project, and continues work on a large project. The current large project is another laptop Xbox 360 (this is actually the 3rd)...he had it there at their booth, and fired it up, so it is almost done already...I want one...He has a couple other ideas for large projects...one is another pinball machine. I don't think they hinted at any others.

I was able to talk to him at his booth, nice normal hobbyist that was able to turn his hobby into his job.

Here (in 2 parts) he talks about his new show and new projects...and I ask him about Bill Paxton Pinball. (part 2-4:10)
Pt1
Pt2