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📻 Radio Day at TOG Hackerspace – Saturday, June 14th

We’re excited to announce a special event at TOG Hackerspace: a full day dedicated to radio, electronics, and signal experimentation, celebrating our recent membership with the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS).

Whether you’re a maker curious about what amateur radio is, a licensed operator interested in digital modes and SDR, or just love to learn how signals fly through the air, Radio Day at TOG has something for you.

This is a unique day to connect the local radio and tech communities, explore the fascinating world of wireless communication, and get hands-on with tools and concepts that are often invisible, yet all around us.

🗓 Date: Saturday, 14th June 2025
📍 Location: TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 CF6V
🎟️ Tickets: Free, but registration required – Reserve your free ticket here
🍕 Bonus: From 7 pm, join us for TOG’s famous monthly open social night — meet the community over chats, demos, and pizza!

📅 Event Schedule

🔧 11:00–12:30 — Multimeter Masterclass

Instructor: Jeffrey Roe EI7IRB
Want to confidently measure voltage, resistance, and current? This class will give you hands-on training in using a multimeter properly. You’ll leave knowing how to troubleshoot circuits and understand key electronic measurements.

💶 Fee: €25
🎟️ Booking required – Book here
Note: This is the only paid session of the day. All talks and demos afterward are free with a general ticket.

📡 13:00 — What Is Amateur Radio? A Beginner-Friendly Introduction to the Radio Hobby

Speaker: Adrian Connor EI9HAB

Ever wondered what amateur radio is all about? Adrian will walk us through this rich and varied hobby, from chatting across the globe with handheld radios to decoding digital signals and building antennas in your garden.

This talk highlights:

  • Voice, Morse code, and digital modes
  • Fun, license-free projects (like listening to satellites or airband)
  • How to get started in Ireland, including the path to licensing
  • The creativity, experimentation, and global community that makes amateur radio unique

To wrap up, Adrian will demonstrate a portable station setup, and if conditions allow, attempt a live radio contact!

🛠️ 14:00 — Packet Radio for a New Generation: Reimagined

Speaker: Ben Field EI9IUB

Once the backbone of digital amateur communication, packet radio is getting a fresh look. This talk explores the current state of packet radio, its potential in a modern context, and the ambitious goals for building a new Irish packet radio network.

We’ll look at:

  • What packet radio is and why it still matters
  • Emerging uses with low-power devices, mesh networking, and APRS
  • Ideas and inspiration from international efforts
  • How you can get involved in shaping a next-gen Irish system

Whether you’re into digital comms, infrastructure, or retro-tech with a modern twist—this one’s for you.

📊 15:00 — Hands-On With Filters

Speaker: Gary Cooke

This live, practical session dives into one of radio’s core building blocks—filters. Using function generators and oscilloscopes, Gary will demonstrate:

  • Band-pass, low-pass, and high-pass filters in action
  • How frequency and signal type affect filter behaviour
  • Applications in real radio systems—reducing interference, improving clarity, and isolating desired signals

This is ideal for anyone into RF design, SDR, or improving their shack’s performance. Come see waveforms in motion and leave with real-world insights.

This will be a drop-in in hands-on session and a chance to also get a cup of tea and have a chat.

🛰️ 16:00 — Talking to Space: Connecting Students with the International Space Station

Speaker: Daniel Cussen EI9FHB

How do students get to ask astronauts questions live from Earth? Through ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station)—a program that brings space communication to schools around the globe.

Dan shares the behind-the-scenes experience of helping set up an ARISS contact event:

  • Tracking the ISS as it races overhead at 28,000 km/h
  • The antennas, radios, and audio/video gear involved
  • Challenges in receiving video and audio from space
  • The human impact of seeing kids speak live to astronauts

An inspiring talk for fans of space, education, and the power of amateur radio to bridge worlds—literally.

🏠 17:00 — A Homebrew Amateur Radio Setup

Speaker: Tony Breathnach EI5EM

Tony takes us on a tour of his personal amateur radio station, built with DIY and budget-friendly gear. He’ll explain how he put together antennas, tuned radios, and tackled interference challenges—all from a home setting.

This talk is perfect for those looking to start their own station, especially with limited space or funds. Come see how creativity and perseverance can bring the airwaves to life.

📶 18:00 — Drones For Sensing and Communications in Emergency Applications

Speaker: Dr. Boris Galkin EI6HDB

Tyndall National Institute and the CONNECT Centre are involved in a number of projects with the Department of Defence and Civil Defence to explore ways to support emergency personnel using emerging technologies. Drones have shown themselves to be a powerful tool in a variety of applications in this talk, I will describe how radio communication equipment mounted on drones can be a gamechanger in the field.

🌐 Bonus Demos (during the day)

We’ll also have demos, tours and plenty of tea and coffee throughout the day.

🍕 From 19:00 — TOG’s Open Social Night

Once the talks end, the fun continues with our legendary Open Social Night. Meet the TOG community, hang out with radio operators and makers, and enjoy an evening of conversation, demos, and pizza. Everyone welcome!

🎟️ Tickets

This event is free, but registration is required so we can plan seating and space.

👉 Reserve your free ticket here

(Separate booking is required for the multimeter class – link above.)

👋 Get Involved

Want to demo something, share your gear, or help out on the day? We’d love to hear from you. Email info@tog.ie or come along to one of our open nights before the event.

We’re looking forward to seeing you on June 14th for a day of radio waves, learning, community, and fun.

We would like to thank the members of the North Dublin Radio club and the South Dublin Radio club for their help and encouragement in putting on this event.

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Another USB-C upgrade

USB-C conversions are becoming a bit of a thing around here. We repaired a faulty work light earlier this year, and we took the opportunity to upgrade the charging socket to USB-C. A few other items have had the same treatment over the last few months. This latest one is an old-school light box for viewing film negatives and slides. We’re still keen on our film photography at TOG, and we still have all of our dark room equipment. 

As-built, this particular light box came with with a foot-long fluorescent tube. Inside, there is a driver PCB for the tube, and a 6x D-cell battery compartment. It also has a 3.5mm power input socket if you want to run it from some kind of adapter.  

The small driver PCB inside takes the ~9V battery voltage and bumps it up to the high voltage required to to run the fluorescent tube. The switching transistor on the driver has already failed once in the past, and its heat sink gets very hot during operation. Probably not a very optimal design or power efficient.

A bit of work with a Dremel and we have a nice oval hole for the new USB-C socket. A few touches with a soldering iron to melt the plastic, and the socket is now joined firmly to the case. The intention was to feed in 5v, and then bump it up to something closer to 12v to charge the batteries via a current limiting resistor. A cheap voltage converter sourced from the usual websites would look after that.

That was the intended upgrade, but a bit of feature creep came along last night. We thought that it would be nice to replace the fluorescent lamp with a more power efficient LED one. This would also allow us to eliminate that iffy driver PCB. Rummaging around the space, an old emergency light fitting had a nice LED strip ripe for harvesting. Check back in with us over the next while to see the finished article. If you have anything that you think might benefit from a USB-C upgrade, drop in to our regular Monday and Tuesday open nights.

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Hitting the Road and Rails: Tog Hackerspace at the Cork Carnival of Science 🚗🚆🔬

We’re packing up projects, charging the batteries, and heading south—Tog Hackerspace is back at the Cork Carnival of Science this weekend, Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th of June, in the beautiful Fitzgerald Park.

As veterans of this fantastic festival, we’re excited to return and share our love of making with the people of Cork once again. It’s one of our favourite science outreach events of the year!

This year, we’re making the journey by car and train, carrying our interactive projects across the country to take part in the science-fuelled fun. Whether by road or rail, no distance is too far when it comes to spreading maker magic and hands-on learning.

The Cork Carnival of Science is packed with family-friendly experiments, live shows, garden games, food stalls, and all kinds of interactive activities. It’s an amazing celebration of curiosity and creativity—and a perfect match for what we love to do.

📍 You’ll find us on Discover Drive, where we’ll be showing off an assortment of interactive games and projects built in our hackerspace. Expect blinking LEDs, DIY gadgets, mechanical puzzles, and more. Come explore what’s possible when creativity meets technology!

We believe strongly in science outreach—in sparking curiosity, encouraging learning, and making tech more approachable for everyone. Events like this are how we connect with communities, share our knowledge, and hopefully inspire the next generation of makers.

🕚 We’ll be there both days from 11 am to 6 pm, ready to welcome visitors of all ages.

So if you’re in the Cork area, come join us for some hands-on fun! Bring your curiosity—we’ll bring the projects.

🚗🚆🔧 See you in Fitzgerald Park!

More info on the festival: https://www.corkcity.ie/en/cork-carnival-of-science/

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Edinburgh and the Open Hardware Summit 2025

A blog post by our member, Jeffrey Roe, on his trip to Edinburgh.

At the end of May, I headed off to Edinburgh for a long weekend full of hardware hacking, radio waves, refurbished tech, and just a little too much cake. The trip centred around the Open Hardware Summit 2025, which took place on the 30th and 31st of May in The Nucleus Building at The University of Edinburgh.

The last time I attended an Open Hardware Summit was way back in Maker Faire New York 2012, so it was a real treat to be back at such a key event in the open hardware calendar. The talks this year were fantastic, touching on everything from accessible design to space exploration.

One of the nice surprises of the summit was getting to meet up with others from Dublin who were also attending. I had a great chat with the team behind EIRSAT-1, Ireland’s first satellite, who were showcasing their testing equipment. It’s always refreshing to run into familiar faces and see Irish projects represented at international events, and we even had dinner together.

Saturday: Workshop Day

Saturday was all about rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck into workshops. I signed up for three sessions and left each one with a new creation in hand.

  • Opencyclone – A Vacuum You Can Build Yourself
    This workshop involved assembling a fully working vacuum cleaner using open source plans and a bit of elbow grease. Loud? Yes. Satisfying? Absolutely. More details on the project here: Opencyclone Project
  • Shortwave Collective – Open Wave Receiver
    A beautiful, social workshop where we built a basic but effective radio receiver that can tune into the shortwave bands. There’s something magical about hearing signals bounce around the world using only passive components and a wire for an antenna.
  • Ribbit Network – CO₂ Sensor Workshop
    Frogs and sensors—what’s not to love? This community science project helps build a distributed network of open hardware CO₂ sensors. I now have my own Ribbit sensor ready to go!

The evening ended with the Open Source Open Mic, where makers shared stories, sang songs, and showcased their creative projects in a welcoming atmosphere. It was a lovely way to wind down after a busy day of building.

Sunday: Art, Nature & Hacking Spaces

On Sunday, I took some time to explore more of what Edinburgh had to offer beyond the summit. I started the morning with a peaceful stroll through the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, soaking up some greenery and grabbing a moment to reflect after two busy days of hardware excitement.

I made a return visit to Summerhall (Last visited in 2017 for Maker Faire), this time exploring more of its galleries and installations. It’s an inspiring venue for both art and tech events, with a real sense of creative energy running through its halls.

Later, I visited Edinburgh Hackspace, a highlight of the day. Tucked away but buzzing with activity, the space was full of tools, interesting projects, and most importantly, very welcoming people. We chatted about how their space operates, community challenges, and shared experiences around running public workshops and events. It reminded me a lot of Tog, and I left with a few ideas we might borrow!

Monday: From Cake to Circular Tech

After all the indulgences of the weekend (I’ll link to my full vegan cake round-up below!), I kicked off Monday with a workout at a local health club before taking a short walk to the Scottish Parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse for a tour.

That afternoon, I headed out to Leith to visit the Edinburgh Remakery. The team there were incredibly generous with their time. We talked about their work in tech refurbishment, sustainability education, and their Repair Café events. There are a lot of parallels between their mission and the work we do at Tog, especially around community-led repair and reuse. It’s always great to meet people tackling e-waste in practical, inclusive ways.

Wrapping Up

All in all, it was a brilliant weekend packed with tech, community, creativity, and inspiration. Edinburgh has a lot to offer, both for hackers and visitors alike. If you’re curious about the non-maker side of the trip, including my deep dive into Edinburgh’s vegan cafés and cake scene, check out my Mastodon account.

More photos

https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/album/2025-open-hardware-summit

https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/album/edinburgh-hackspace-2025

https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/album/edinburgh-remakery-2025

Until next time, OHS!

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Mastering the Multimeter: A Beginner’s Guide

Join us for a practical, hands-on workshop at Tog Hackerspace where you’ll learn everything you need to know about using a multimeter! Whether you’re a beginner or looking to sharpen your skills, this session will cover the essential functions of a multimeter, from measuring voltage to testing resistors, capacitors, and diodes.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Understand the symbols and functions on a multimeter.
  • Safely measure DC voltage.
  • Test resistance and continuity.
  • Compare different multimeter models to help you choose the right one.

This beginner-friendly workshop will give you the confidence to troubleshoot electronics and work with electrical devices safely. Multimeters will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you’d like to get familiar with them.

Who Should Attend:

  • Anyone interested in electronics, DIY repairs, or home projects.
  • Beginners looking to learn how to safely use a multimeter.
  • Makers, tinkerers, and hobbyists working on electronics.

Workshop Details:

  • Duration: 1.5 hours
  • Cost: €25 Plus Booking Fee
  • What to Bring: Just yourself! If you have a multimeter, feel free to bring it along.

Saturday, June 14 · 11am – 12:30 pm

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/mastering-the-multimeter-a-beginners-guide-tickets-1391260390279?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Tog Hackerspace Featured on the All Things TechIE Podcast

We’re excited to share that Tog Hackerspace was recently featured on Episode 115 of the All Things TechIE Podcast! In this jam-packed episode, the conversation dives into what makes Tog a unique community space in the heart of Dublin and highlights all the exciting things we have planned for Dublin Tech Week, taking place from May 23rd to 30th.

Hosted by tech educator and AV expert Justin Dawson, the episode explores cutting-edge global tech—from a record-breaking drone show in Abu Dhabi to Google’s smart glasses—but one of the highlights is the in-depth interview about Tog’s mission, community, and hands-on approach to making.

Continue reading “Tog Hackerspace Featured on the All Things TechIE Podcast”