Posts

Posted on

More Test Equipment from Testwall

Back in 2024, we wrote about a generous donation from Testwall that supported our electronics lab, Repair Cafés and member projects. We are delighted to say they have supported TOG again, with another collection of professional test and measurement equipment.

This latest donation includes an Advantest R3754A network analyser, an HP 75000 Series B modular test system, an Anritsu data transmission analyser and other RF and communications test equipment.

The equipment has already made its way onto the benches. Members have been carefully checking each unit, powering it up and opening up some of the equipment for inspection where needed. The next job is to find out what can be brought back into regular use.

Older test equipment can still be extremely useful. It gives members hands-on access to specialist tools that would otherwise be difficult for a community workshop to purchase. It also creates plenty of opportunities to learn about fault-finding, repair and how professional test systems are put together.

Keeping useful equipment in service is also much better than seeing it become electronic waste.

A big thank you to everyone at Testwall for thinking of TOG again. Their continued support gives equipment a second life and gives our members new tools to learn, repair and build with. Testwall works across a broad range of RF, communications and electronic test equipment, making this a particularly fitting donation for the space.

Companies sometimes have equipment, tools, components or materials that are no longer needed but still have plenty of life left. If you think something could find a useful home in a community workshop, please get in touch with us.

Posted on

EI0MEOW: TOG’s Cats Take to the Air

TOG Hackerspace has registered the special event callsign EI0MEOW, and throughout August we will be getting on the radio in support of cats.

With around 100 members in the TOG community, it will probably come as no surprise that many of us are cat people. For the month of August, our radio operators will be taking part in two international amateur radio activities celebrating cats and raising awareness of animal welfare.

Cat Day on the Air

Cat Day on the Air runs from 1 to 31 August, with amateur radio stations around the world getting on the air to support cats and the organisations that care for abandoned, abused and homeless animals.

Listen out for EI0MEOW during the month and give us a call when you hear us.

Find out more on the Cat Day on the Air website.

Cat Pix on the Air

We are also taking part in Cat Pix on the Air, an SSTV activity taking place on International Cat Day, Saturday 8 August.

SSTV, or Slow-Scan Television, allows amateur radio operators to send pictures over the air. Instead of only exchanging callsigns and signal reports, operators will also be exchanging pictures of cats.

TOG members have contributed photographs of their own cats, and we have created a gallery of 14 special EI0MEOW SSTV images.

We are revealing the first one here: Swanson, Cat 01.

To see the other 13 cats, you will need to find EI0MEOW on the air and receive the images yourself.

More information about the activity is available from the Cat Pix on the Air website.

Find us at Hamfest

EI0MEOW will be operating from Hamfest in Mullingar on Saturday 8 August, where we will be transmitting images from the gallery throughout the day.

Come over and meet the TOG radio operators, see SSTV in action and find out how pictures can be transmitted using amateur radio.

Everyone else can listen for EI0MEOW on the bands throughout August. Have a QSO with us, exchange a signal report and see which of TOG’s cats arrives through the noise.

Can you collect all 14?

Posted on

PCB Design from Scratch: From Schematic to Finished Board

Have you ever built an electronics project on a breadboard and wondered how to turn it into a finished printed circuit board?

Join us at TOG Hackerspace for PCB Design from Scratch, a live demonstration of the complete PCB design process using KiCad, a free and open-source electronics design application.

Starting with a blank project, Roman will demonstrate how a circuit develops from its first schematic diagram into a PCB layout that can be sent to a manufacturer. The example will be a deliberately simple circuit featuring an LED, a couple of integrated circuits and a selection of passive components.

The aim of the evening is to show the complete journey from an electronic idea to a professionally manufactured circuit board without getting lost in an overly complicated design.

What will be covered?

During the demonstration, you will see:

  • How to start a new PCB project in KiCad
  • How to create a schematic diagram
  • How to turn the schematic into a PCB layout
  • How electronic components are positioned and connected
  • How the finished design is prepared for manufacturing
  • How a PCB order is submitted to a manufacturer

This event is ideal for electronics hobbyists, makers and anyone curious about how printed circuit boards are designed.

Please note that this is a live demonstration rather than a hands-on workshop.

Event details

Date: Friday, 14 August 2026
Time: 7:30 pm–9:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Places: Limited to 20 people

The demonstration is expected to take approximately 90 minutes.

Booking

Places are strictly limited to 20 attendees, and advance booking is required.

Book your place through Eventbrite

Early booking is recommended, as this is a small session and places may fill quickly.

A note about the photos

The circuit boards shown in the photos were made during a previous project at TOG and are included for illustration only. They are not the boards that will be designed during this event.

Posted on

The Irish Embassy Returns to Electromagnetic Field 2026

TOG members and friends are heading to Electromagnetic Field 2026 from 16 to 19 July, where we will once again be helping to run the Irish Embassy village.

Electromagnetic Field, better known as EMF Camp, is a volunteer-run camping festival for hackers, makers, artists, engineers, scientists and anyone interested in technology and creativity. The festival brings together talks, workshops, installations, projects and villages for four days at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in the UK.

At EMF, villages are self-organised camping and activity areas built around shared interests. The Irish Embassy is a loose collective of people with a connection to, or interest in, Ireland.

Despite the name, we are not connected to the Irish Government. Expect tea, projects, power adaptors and microcontrollers rather than passports and visas.

Following on from the Irish Embassy at EMF 2024, we have another busy programme planned.

Landing, Setup and Getting to Know Each Other

We will begin on Thursday with an informal landing and setup session. Drop by the village, meet your neighbours and help us get the shared space ready for the weekend.

Hardware CTF

On Friday, the Irish Embassy will host a drop-in Hardware CTF challenge.

Participants will use one of our custom ESP8266 challenge boards to solve a series of hardware and software puzzles. Bring a laptop and see how many flags you can capture.

Make Your Own Extension Lead

Our Make Your Own Extension Lead workshop will introduce participants to safely wiring a Type G plug and extension lead.

The session will cover cable preparation, plug wiring, fuses, strain relief and basic electrical safety.

IoT with Arduino Cloud

The beginner-friendly IoT with Arduino Cloud workshop will show participants how to connect an ESP32 and environmental sensors to the internet.

Participants will collect sensor readings and display them through an online Arduino Cloud dashboard.

Build Your Own Satellite Ground Station

In the Build Your Own Satellite Ground Station workshop, participants will assemble a TinyGS station and antenna.

TinyGS is a community network of low-cost ground stations that can receive signals from LoRa satellites, CubeSats and other objects passing overhead.

Build Your Own Air Quality Sensor

Our Build Your Own Air Quality Sensor workshop will introduce participants to environmental monitoring and citizen science.

Participants will assemble an internet-connected sensor that measures particulate matter, temperature, humidity and air pressure.

Visit the Irish Embassy

When there is no workshop or challenge running, the Irish Embassy will be a place to meet people, share projects, compare notes and relax with a cup of tea.

Anyone attending EMF with a connection to, or interest in, Ireland is welcome to visit. Check the Irish Embassy village page for our location and the latest programme information.

You can also follow the Irish Embassy on Mastodon at @irishembassy@chaos.social for updates from the village during EMF Camp.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.