So from now on we have our social nights on the 1st Saturday of the month, and the 3rd Thursday of the month (just before the Hackathon). This means that our first Social Night in the new slot is Saturday the 7th August and the next will be Thursday the 19th of August. I have also added these new dates to our calender on the blog so you can also check there if you are unsure.

The suggested themes for these nights will be a food night where people can bring food to the space and share some nibbles and a laugh, and a movie night ( the first one was great ). These can of course change as more suggestions are made.

We watched Sneakers ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/ ) last night with the projector on one of our newly painted walls and it worked quite well. We had 6 visitors to the space last night and it was great to show people around the space after so much hard work has gone into making it our new home.

Our Social nights are always great ways to check out the space as well as have a chat with a few of our members and get a feel for what we want to do with the space. As usual, we have events on in the space during the weeks ahead and the list is always growing. I even got a few ideas for some bi-weekly/monthly group nights and I’ll try ask about these on the list next week. RFID and/or lock picking anyone?

We are kicking things off with an open social night on Friday from 7.30pm. If you haven’t been to the new space, it’s a great chance to drop in for a chat and have a look around. We promise we wont make you do any painting, well only if you want to .

On Saturday and Sunday the hackathon starts at about 1pm each day until late. Feel free to come along and work on your own project for a few hours or give a hand around the space. There will be members hacking the space over the weekend running cable, power points, painting, putting together furniture and all sorts of things.

As always are events are open to all at no cost (expect classes).

update: Also will be having bit of a BBQ tomorrow starting around 5 ish see you there.

After nearly 6 months of searching for a new home we finally have found one. Our new space is located on Chancery Lane, Dublin 8. It’s a large Industrial unit. With a number of large rooms. At 196sq meters it is over 4 times the size of our current space with a much wider scope of possible activities.

The new space has a shared courtyard with one other tenant. We will have 3 private parking spaces and on street parking near by. There is also a Dublin bikes station close by and many bus routes. Some photos of the outside and the inside.

We are currently in the process of renovating the new space. When it’s finished we hope to have a full size kitchen, class room, library, server room, common room, science lab, arts and craft room, and workshop.

Over the next two weeks we will be cleaning it up and moving all our equipment from Arran Quay over to our new space. We hope to be open to the public again for the next hackathon. Until then all groups nights will be cancelled until we have finished the move.

Some photos of the work being done here.

In the near future, we will be making a call for equipment and furniture. So if you have any thing keep us in mind. As always if you would like to get involved don’t hesitate to contact us.

Some of the members of TOG will be giving a talk in UL , entitled  “So you want to build a Hackerspace” on Saturday 27 of February.

*Edit. It now looks like Galway will have a hackerspace soon. Its called 091labs. We wish them the best of luck in getting a space soon.*

Happy Birthday to TOG…. Happy Birthday to TOG…

One year ago on the 29th of January 2009,  17 people came together with a common goal  of setting up a shared work space.

We met in the bar area of a hotel in Dublin and started TOG.  It started with very little structure, design and almost no plan.  It was a blank piece of paper just waiting for the TOG members to design what they wanted from a workspace.

Lots of people at the time (not including our first members) that we pushed the idea to said it would never work… that it could not be done.  Sorry to all of you – we proved you wrong.  The meetings continued with no space for a few months while we created both our plans and our funding.  In May 2009 we opened the door on the first workspace.

If you look back at the minutes from the first few meetings the space has evolved into a pretty close match for what people wanted.

A BIG thank you go out to all our members for paying for the space, for working ‘on’ and ‘in’ the space and for believing in the project from day 1.

Happy Birthday…. and here’s to the next year and the years that follow.

As part of Science Week, TOG will be hosting an afternoon soldering workshop with DIY circuit board demonstration.

Workshop Description:

This hands on workshop will cover various aspects of soldering; from the basic techniques of soldering, to soldering electronic components to make simple circuits, right up to manual techniques to solder surface mount chips.

This workshop is split into levels so we can work with you to increase your skills. We are ready to work with both absolute beginners and those who would like to move onto more advanced surface mount soldering.

Demonstration Description:

The demonstration will cover the steps involved in DIY circuit board fabrication, showing the processes and the chemicals used to produce a circuit board at home.

Update Nov 1, 2009.

Saturday 14th booked out.

Update Nov 6, 2009.

Sunday 15th booked out.

Cost:

€15 General public

€12 Students/Unwaged.

€10 TOG members

When:

14th, 15th of November from 14.00 to 18.00.

Where:

In TOG. See location page.

No electronics skills required. Participants must be at least 18 years old. Workshop open to ALL. Limited to 8 participants per Workshop.

To book please use the contact form below.

There will be a €15 (€12 students/unwaged, €10 TOG members) participation fee to take part in the workshops.  Non-members are welcome to participate in the workshops.

The participation fee includes a basic electroluminescent wire kit and an item of clothing from an Irish menswear fashion label which is a canvas for your creations.  A range of sewing materials (including conductive wire), extra el wire, LilyPad’s and other electronic devices will be available for use during the workshop.

No experience of electronics or sewing is required, though it would help.

The number of places in each workshop will be limited to 12, so please reserve a place by posting a comment to this blog post, giving details of which workshop you would like to attend.

Participants and visitors must be at least 18 years of age.

Update Oct 15, 2009.

Selection of parts and materials for the Electronic Fashion workshop. Top left electroluminescent wire. Bottom left electroluminescent drivers. Top center conductive wire. Top right sewing materials. Bottom right LilyPad controllers, sensors and transducers.

Some of the electroluminescent wire in action.

Getting to the space. The space is located above the Voodoo Card Club on Array Quay, which is on the north-side of the river approximately 15 minutes walk form O’Connell Street Bridge or couple of minutes walk from the Smithfield Luas stop. Also see the map for more details.

The building number is 40 and we are on the 2nd Floor. To gain access to the building please press the number 2 intercom, please speak up as the noise from traffic can make it hard to hear, but we can then buzzer you into the building. Then the fun begins.