An Innovator's Workspace for Electrical Engineering, Video Production, and Fun

Stephen Hawes is an electrical engineer passionate about designing electronics and sharing his experiences with a global audience. During work hours, he's an electrical engineer at FormLabs. In this free time, he develops innovative electronic systems and posts videos about them through his eponymous YouTube channel. Let's take a look at his workspace.

Stephen Hawes is an innovator passionate about designing electronics and sharing his electrical engineering experiences with a global audience. During work hours, he's an electrical engineer at Somerville, Massachusetts-based FormLabs. In his free time, he develops impressive electronic projects and posts videos about them on his eponymous YouTube channel. Let's take a look at Hawes's workspace, where he has created the Glowtie, a custom smartwatch, a pick-and-place (PnP) machine, and much more.

Stephen Hawes's workspace for electrical engineering and video production.

Tell us about yourself. What do you do for work?
I’m an electrical engineer at Formlabs! I’m on the Sustaining Engineering team — meaning, I help identify and fix issues with products in the field. It’s incredibly interesting, and has taught me a tremendous amount about what things to consider when trying to prevent in-field issues with a product.

Describe your workspace. How do you use it, and where is it located?
My space is a pretty even split between a general use shop, and a video production studio. I make videos about all my projects, so the space needs to support both the development and documentation of whatever I’m making. All of the layout is informed by window location for lighting, and what backgrounds would look most appealing in shots. It was a fun process figuring out how to balance that with shop usability! My shop is what would normally be the living room in my apartment. It takes up about half of the total square footage!

When you designed your workspace, did you have any specific requirements or goals? Where you focused on only electrical engineering projects?
I knew going in that the space would have to be able to accommodate a large range of different projects. I decided to allocate a smaller, dedicated area for each discipline (computer design work, electronics workstation, welding/grinding bench, etc.), and then leave a lot of open bench and floor space to adapt to whatever project was in progress.

You've posted a few dozen of videos on a wide range of topics on the Stephen Hawes YouTube channel: electrical engineering, 3D printing, a custom smartwatch, a robotic hand, and more. Tell us about what you use your space for.
Lately, I’ve been really passionate about making tools to help with medium-scale manufacturing. I did a kickstarter in 2019 where I had to make only 100 of a product, but it was an incredible amount of manual effort. I decided after this to try and start automating some of these tasks for other folks doing small production batches, but not quite enough to justify working with a contract manufacturer. Right now I’m working on an open source pick-and-place design.

Can you share some info about the tools you have in your workspace?
I use my Rigol DS1054Z very regularly, and it has more than enough functionality to suit my needs. My DMM is an Agilent U1232A, and I absolutely love it. My soldering station is a Weller WLC100 which works alright for my uses, but is a bit slow to heat up and the tips don’t last too long. I also own a cheap little CNC for milling my own circuit boards. It needs a bit of convincing to work, but I have it tuned well enough to make a single-sided board in a pinch.

Another view of Hawes's workspace — Hawes seems to have plenty of space for designing electronics and shooting video.

What's your more valued tool or piece of equipment?
It is quite tough to pick, as there are so many excellent pieces of equipment that excel at their own purpose. So I will cheat and pick two! First is my Taz 5 3D printer. Its usefulness cannot be overstated. I’ve had it for over 5 years now, and it still works just as well as it did on day one. Paired up with Octoprint, it’s an excellent and reliable workhorse that also captures time lapses of the build process! The second might be a bit strange, but the Hakko Omnivice has become an integral part of my electronics assembly process, and I am quite distraught without it. I’ve used dozens of helping hands and board holders over the years, but nothing comes close to the usability of the Omnivice.

Is there anything special or unique about your space?
Because my shop also doubles as a film studio, lighting is really important. I have all of the lights in there controllable with Google Assistant, so I can just say a command and easily adjust the lighting for my next shot. I matrixed the names of the lights as well, meaning I can selectively turn on certain sections of the room with a single command. Being able to adjust lighting on the fly like that lets me work much faster and more efficiently.

Any interesting plans for your workspace?
I’ll actually be leaving the space in a few months, so I’m in the process of redesigning my shop for a whole new layout! I’ll have about double the space, so there’s some room to expand and develop it further. A laser cutter, large format CNC, and a benchtop milling machine are on the list of tools to buy.

You post well-produced videos on your channel about many of your design projects. Do you have a favorite project?
It’s quite tough to choose, but I have to pick the Glowtie. The Glowtie is a light-up bowtie that you control over Wi-Fi. I did a Kickstarter for this project in 2019, and it was my first time taking something from prototype to final product. It was also my first custom PCB, and I learned an incredible amount about board design, power requirements, firmware development, and manufacturing jigs. The project itself wasn’t tremendously complicated, but all the things I picked up throughout the process were valuable in future projects.

Hawes with the Glowtie — You can control the open-source Glowtie with your phone.

Are you currently working on an electrical engineering or programming project?
Right now, I’m working on developing an open-source pick-and-place to help hobbyists and small business owners assemble PCBAs without having to do it by hand, or go to a contract manufacturer. It’s a pretty expansive project, requiring a number of custom PCBs, lots of 3D design, and firmware development. There’s a community of folks building and designing it alongside me, which has helped steer me away from bad design decisions multiple times. The feeders have been a particularly fun challenge!

Do you have a dream project or something you'd love to tackle?
I would absolutely love to play around with building a Binder Jetting-style 3D printer. Using a powder as a printing medium is an interesting challenge. Also, I’ve always wanted to try reverse engineering inkjet printer heads. They represent such a cool type of technology that I’d love to try testing the limits of. I have plenty of projects keeping my attention in the meantime though!

Do you have any advice, tips, or encouragement for other engineers or electrical engineering enthusiasts who are thinking of putting together a workspace?
When you’re using the space and you notice something difficult or frustrating to use or access, write it down! I have a whole list of shop improvements that I want to make. I find that if I don't write them down, I inevitably forget them until I run into the issue again. I’d also encourage folks to think about what kind of environment makes them comfortable and excited to work on projects. A useful layout is only half of the equation; if you don’t like being in the space, it won’t get used!

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