Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Benjamin J. Heckendorn and I'm the host of element14's The Ben Heck Show, a weekly show at the element14 online community that covers electronics engineering and the modding community. I live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Before the show, electronics was always a hobby. It wasn't my job or education, but I was always interested in it. I used to be a graphic artist, which is one of the reasons the show and its projects are visually sharp. My background influenced what I do now.
In 2004, I quite literally quit my day job to write a book. I had been "hacking" projects on the side and people were paying for them, and I decided to enter the electronic modding world full-time. Then the element14 Community entered the picture and helped quite a bit. Their sponsorship allows me to make projects that I probably wouldn't have been able to make before -- either because they were too expensive or too hard to justify. In a show format, you can explore new ideas and try crazy things.
What hardware do you use?
We use a lot of CNC machinery on the show. I have a CNC machine I use to mill large objects and do plastic and woodworking. I use my Epilogue laser cutter a lot as well.
I have a MakerBot 3D printer that I use to 3D print parts, but I also have my own portable 3D printer that comes in handy! Along those lines, we have a 3D Systems Cube 3D Printer and a new 3D scanner we've been testing out for an episode of the show.
Of course, I have computers for laying out all of my designs. We also use a variety of hand tools, the favorite of which is my pair of tweezers that I cannot live without. I have a nice Weller soldering iron from element14 that is great for modding. These are all the major hardware I use on a daily basis.
In terms of favorites, I enjoy using microcontrollers. We use microcontrollers quite a bit to create our builds and those are a lot of fun. Arduino is a great place to start for those people who are new to hacking and modding.
And what software?
I do a lot of my layout in Adobe Illustrator, the two-dimensional art program, because of my background as a graphic artist. Often when laying out designs I'll draw it in 2D because that's faster than 3D. We also use Autodesk 123 to make three-dimensional objects. Autodesk is becoming popular for DIYers, and they offer a lot of free options on their website to learn from if you're new to hacking.
Of course, we edit element14's The Ben Heck Show using Adobe Premiere. I have been an Adobe guy since the 90s. I still use Photoshop quite a bit from my graphic artist days.
Element14 has CadSoft EAGLE, which is quite standard for printed circuit board (PCB) layout. There is also a free version of EAGLE's program which is very common, well-documented and helpful for people looking to design PCBs.
What would be your dream setup?
The shop I have now is pretty great, but I do wish we had more outlets. That's really the one thing we're lacking. We need plenty of power rails and a clean power supply or power source.
I don't necessarily need more space - just better utilization of it; something that is easy to get around in and is designed for hacking. There's nothing super fancy I would want or need out of a shop. Really that's just where you make things. The tools and skills are really what matter, and I already have a good set of tools.
That being said, a better break room -- or a break room in general -- wouldn't hurt!