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Building Hardware Flags for WICC 2026

We were delighted to be one of the community organisations supporting the Women’s International Cybersecurity Challenge 2026, held at St Laurence’s on TU Dublin’s Grangegorman Campus on 9 and 10 July.

WICC brought together teams of women cybersecurity competitors from Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas for two days of technical competition, collaboration and international networking.

Fifteen ESP8266 hardware flags

As part of TOG’s contribution to the event, we built 15 hardware flags for use during the Capture the Flag competition.

Each flag was based around an ESP8266 board and housed in a custom 3D-printed case. The finished devices were prepared and tested at TOG before being brought to TU Dublin for the competition.

The different cases featured a range of coloured designs, helping turn the electronics into distinctive physical flags for the competitors to find and interact with.

WICC’s Capture the Flag competition included challenges across areas such as cryptography, reverse engineering, digital forensics, web exploitation, binary exploitation, hardware security and open-source intelligence.

Building physical devices for a cybersecurity competition was a great example of the overlap between making, electronics, programming, 3D printing and cybersecurity that we regularly see at TOG.

Thank you, Ambrose

A huge thank you goes to Ambrose for all their work building, printing, assembling and preparing the flags. Getting 15 devices ready for an international competition takes a significant amount of careful work, and it was fantastic to see them in use at the event.

Thank you also to Zero Days for running WICC and inviting TOG to be part of it. Zero Days runs Capture the Flag competitions and cybersecurity challenges in Ireland, helping participants develop their skills through practical and engaging technical challenges.

Events such as WICC demonstrate how community organisations, universities and industry can work together to create practical and engaging opportunities for people to develop technical skills.

You can learn more about the Women’s International Cybersecurity Challenge at wicc.ie.

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TOG joins 145 Alive for a day on 2 metres

On Sunday 12 July, TOG Hackerspace will be putting the club callsign EI0TOG on the air for 145 Alive.

145 Alive is a day to get people chatting on 2 metres, dust off the handhelds, call into a local net and see who is about. TOG will be one of four Irish nets taking part, alongside stations in Tipperary, Mayo and Donegal.

Jeffrey, EI7IRB, and Tomasz, EI2KSB, will be running the Dublin City net from TOG. Listen out for EI0TOG on 145.425 MHz FM between 12pm and 3pm, and give us a call. Whether you are on a home station, in the car or out with a handheld, we would love to hear you.

Of course, the nicest way to take part is to come along in person. Everyone is welcome at TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 CF6V. Licensed amateurs can get on the air, while SWLs and anyone who is simply curious about amateur radio can see the station in use, meet a few radio people and have a supervised go themselves.

It should be a nice relaxed afternoon of calls, chat and hopefully a busy band. See you on 2 metres.

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Ealaín Solas: Build & Explore Polarised Light

Cancelled due to Jeffrey getting his arm in a cast. It will be back soon again.

Ever wondered what hidden colours and patterns are waiting inside ordinary transparent materials?

Join us at TOG Hackerspace on Sunday 12 July for Ealaín Solas: Build & Explore Polarised Light, a hands-on workshop where art, science and making come together.

Using simple materials, you will make your own polarised-light viewer and use it to explore tape, plastics, screens and other everyday objects in a completely new way. With the right combination of light and polarising film, these familiar materials can reveal bright colours, stress patterns and unexpected geometric designs.

During the workshop, you will:

  • Make a polarised-light viewer to take home
  • Explore colourful effects in transparent materials
  • Experiment with tape, plastics and other everyday objects
  • Learn a little about how polarised light works
  • Create your own light-based patterns and images

No previous experience is needed, and all tools and materials are provided. It is a relaxed, beginner-friendly workshop for anyone interested in light, colour, science, art or making.

Date: Sunday 12 July 2026
Time: 3:30 pm–6:00 pm
Cost: €20
Location: TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12

Places are limited, so booking is essential.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/ealain-solas-build-explore-polarised-light-tickets-1992782032704?aff=oddtdtcreator

Stay for Craft Night

It is also Sunday Craft Night at TOG. The workshop will finish in plenty of time before Craft Night starts at 6:30 pm, so bring along a project or stay on afterwards for all sorts of crafting fun.

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Repair Club: Buttons & Patches Edition

Our new Repair Club series is back, and this time we are turning our attention to clothes.

After taking a look at lamp repair in our first session, the next Repair Club will focus on buttons, patches, and simple textile repairs. It is a practical evening for anyone who would like to make their clothes last a little longer, learn a useful skill, or finally tackle that missing button that has been sitting in a drawer for months.

Repair Club is a little different from a Repair Café. Rather than bringing along a whole range of broken things to be fixed, we take a deeper dive into one type of repair and learn about it together.

For this session, we will be getting hands-on with simple repairs for woven fabrics. We will practise sewing buttons back on by hand, adding patches by hand, and looking at when a machine-sewn patch might make more sense. We will also talk about visible versus invisible mending, and how a small repair can help keep a favourite item in use for years to come.

The focus will be on items such as shirts, trousers, jackets, cushions, toys, bags, and similar things. Stretchy fabrics such as socks and T-shirts are a different challenge, so they will have to wait for another day.

Please bring along one or two clean items that need a button replaced or a small hole patched. This will be a friendly, beginner-focused session, so no sewing experience is needed. If you are not sure whether your item is suitable, get in touch with us before the event.

The session will be led by TOG member Tríona.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, 22 July 2026
Time: 7:30 pm–9:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Cost: €7.50, with ticket income going as a donation to TOG

Book your place on Eventbrite

Come along, learn a few useful skills, and give a favourite item a better chance of staying out of the bin.

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Back to the Pixels: Retro Computing & Gaming Day 2026

Dust off your joystick skills, prepare for the glow of a proper CRT, and join us for an afternoon of old computers, consoles and games at TOG Hackerspace.

Our Retro Computing & Gaming Day is back on Saturday 11 July, bringing together a collection of machines that have survived several decades in exhibitors’ houses, attics, sheds and increasingly full spare rooms.

Expect a mix of computers and consoles from the 1970s through to the 2000s. There will be classic home computers, old consoles, games, controllers, demos, and plenty of odd bits of technology that have been kept alive long after their manufacturers expected.

We are hoping to have everything from ZX Spectrums and early home computers to consoles, Windows XP-era machines and, most importantly, plenty of CRTs.

What to expect

  • Retro computers and consoles from the 1970s to the 2000s
  • Games, demos and hands-on play
  • A chance to chat with fellow retro computing and gaming fans
  • Proper CRT screens, complete with their unmistakable glow and occasional hum
  • A relaxed random game tournament on the day

Many of the machines will be available to try out. Please ask the exhibitor before touching anything, as some of these machines are older than many of the people attending and can be a little temperamental.

Want to exhibit?

We would love to have more people showing off their retro computers, consoles, games, peripherals and strange old technology.

If you have something you would like to bring along, get in touch through our contact form. Let us know what you would like to show, roughly how much table space you need, and whether you have any particular power or display requirements.

Event details

Date: Saturday 11 July 2026
Time: 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Cost: Free, with optional donations welcome

Book your free place on Eventbrite

Pizza, chats and LAN gaming afterwards

Once Retro Computing & Gaming Day wraps up, we will head straight into our TOG open social night.

We will fire up the wood-fired pizza oven, have a chat, and set up a Quake III Arena or Unreal Tournament ’99 LAN party. Bring your own laptop if you would like to join in, as we do not have enough machines to lend out.

Come along for old hardware, strange peripherals, games from another era, pizza and some late-1990s multiplayer chaos.

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Touchdesigner Dublin Meetup – June Event

image created in touchdesigner software depicting a statue of Oscar Wilde in Dublin's Merrion Square
Touchdesigner Dublin Meetup -June event

We are hosting an open TouchDesigner meetup with demos, hands-on learning, and space to share work with others using the software.

The meetup is part of a series of monthly events in collaboration with @noid_lab typically on the last Wednesday each month in the space, so this month it’s 1st July 7-10pm.

This will be our last meetup for the summer! We are taking a small break for the holiday season, and hope to resume in the Autumn.

Workshop

This month’s event will focus on MIDI integration in TouchDesigner, exploring how MIDI data can be used to control visuals, trigger events, manipulate parameters, and connect external hardware to interactive and audiovisual systems. Through demonstrations, we’ll look at practical workflows for working with MIDI devices.

Format

The session will run for around three hours in a relaxed, hands-on setting.

The event will focus on learning, with a combination of scheduled short and long presentations/demonstrations. The last hour will take a more flattened and open approach, allowing the space for people to chat, share, learn, and explore TouchDesigner.

Expect an informal, community-driven environment where the format adapts to participants. So if you would like to bring your laptop and learn the basics, share your projects, or connect with other using the software, this meetup offers a welcoming and supportive space to do so.

The event is also a great opportunity to meet other creative technologists and artists, and to continue building the growing the digital art community in Ireland.

Contact us at noidlab.collective@gmail.com to share ideas for future sessions or to express interest in presenting your work.

@noid_lab offer thanks to @toghackerspace for use of the space for these events, and Derivative for supporting the project. The meetups are hosted each month by a group of artists and creative technologists.

https://www.tog.ie