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TOG Turns 17: Birthday Open Social, Pizza, Cake, and a Bit of Craic

TOG is turning 17, and we’re marking it the best way we know how: by rolling our regular Open Social Night into a proper birthday session with pizza, cake, and plenty of chatting, tinkering, and general messing.

If you’ve been meaning to drop in for ages, this is a lovely one to start with. If you’re a regular, you already know the vibe: good people, interesting projects on benches, and the sort of conversations that start with “what’s that board?” and end up with someone soldering at 1am.

When and where

  • Date: Saturday 24th January
  • Time: 7:00pm until late
  • Location: TOG Hackerspace

The space stays open until the last member calls it a night, which often means we drift happily into the small hours of Sunday morning. Pop in for 10 minutes or stay for the whole stretch, you’re very welcome.

What to expect

  • Homemade pizza from the TOG pizza oven, rolling out through the evening
  • Birthday cake (because we’re not animals)
  • A relaxed open evening: tours, chats, and a look at whatever weird and wonderful builds are on the go
  • Community craic: talk, tunes, and the usual “oh go on, I’ll show you how that works” energy

Our Open Social Nights are an easy, no-pressure way to see the space and meet the people. There’s no agenda and no expectation that you’re “good at” anything. Curiosity is the only requirement.

Make a full day of it: Finish-a-thon earlier that day

This birthday party is happening the same day as our Finish-a-thon, running 11:00am to 7:00pm. So if you’ve got a project half-done, a box of parts staring at you, or a nagging “I really should finish that”, you can spend the day getting it wrapped up, then roll straight into the birthday celebrations at 7pm.

Have a look here for the Finish-a-thon details:
https://www.tog.ie/2026/01/a-day-to-finish-what-you-started-finish-a-thon-2/

What to bring

We’ll have food covered between pizza and cake, but feel free to bring along:

  • A drink (or your beverage of choice)
  • Snacks to share
  • A project to show off, or something you want advice on
  • A friend who’s curious about makerspaces

We’ve also got plenty of free parking, so it’s handy to swing by with gear, gadgets, or something for show-and-tell.

Come celebrate 17 years of TOG

Seventeen years of TOG is a bit mad, in the best way. What started as a small group of people who wanted a place to build and learn has grown into a proper community workshop full of skills, tools, and good humour.

So come in, grab a slice of pizza, have a wander, meet the crew, and help us celebrate.

See you Saturday 24th January from 7pm.

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A Day to Finish What You Started – Finish-a-thon

At TOG, we love hacking, tinkering, and making things… but we’re also very good at accumulating half-finished projects. You know the ones: the “nearly working” circuit, the “just needs a weekend” code refactor, the 3D print that needs sanding, the costume that needs one final stitch, the repair you definitely meant to do months ago.

So we’re doing something about it.

We’re hosting a Finish-a-thon, a one-day, community-powered mini hackathon dedicated to making real progress on the projects that have been sitting in a box, on a shelf, or in a Git branch called final_final_v3.

Whether it’s coding, crafting, designing, writing, fixing, soldering, sewing, or sorting, this is your day to get it done (or at least get it properly moving again).

Event Details

  • Date: Saturday 24th of January
  • Time: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
  • Location: TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 CF6V

And afterwards

After the Finish-a-thon we’ll roll straight into our monthly social night, but this one will be a bit special, because it’s also TOG’s birthday. 🎂
So: progress during the day, then a proper catch-up in the evening with the gang.

What’s the plan?

Nothing too formal. The whole point is momentum and community:

  • 11:00 AM: Arrive, grab a bench, tea/coffee, and settle in
  • Share what you’re working on (or keep it quiet and just crack on, no pressure)
  • Work through the day, ask questions, borrow a hand, offer a hand
  • No prizes, just the satisfaction of progress, plus the usual TOG encouragement and problem-solving

What can you work on?

Anything goes. If it’s a thing you started and you want to push it forward, it belongs here:

  • Squash that annoying bug in your project or open-source code
  • Finish an electronics kit gathering dust
  • Finally wire up the enclosure, label the panel, tidy the loom
  • Repair something that’s been sitting in the “I must fix that” pile
  • Wrap up a design, write-up, or documentation you’ve been meaning to publish
  • Revive a project you love but stalled on

No project? Also grand. There’s always someone who’d love a second pair of hands.

What should you bring?

  • Whatever parts, tools, and materials your project needs
  • A laptop is usually a good shout
  • TOG has plenty of tools and bits, but assume you’ll take home what you bring (and any half-finished bits you create)

No tickets this time

There are no tickets or registration for this event, just show up and join in.

If you’ve any questions (or you’re not sure if your project idea fits), give us a shout and we’ll point you in the right direction.

See you Saturday. Let’s finish some things. 🔧✨

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More Philips Boombox Tinkering

new AA cells

Having recently fixed the Philips boombox CD player, we decided to review the battery compartment mod, done at least 20 years ago, and still working.

The original idea was to fill the battery compartment with 8x rechargeable D cells and arrange that they would be constantly trickle-charged while the mains lead was plugged in. The battery compartment’s positive terminal was connected via a current-limiting resistor to the power supply section of the PCB. This trickle charges the cells at about 10mA. This is enough to charge them up over a few days, but not enough to cook them.

Good quality branded rechargeable D-cells are relatively expensive…. about €10 a pop for a ~10Ah cell, so it’s about €80 to fill the battery compartment. Given that the thing is not used that often on battery, this was a bit much. So instead, 8x AA cells were used in holders, and soldered to the existing connections in the battery compartment. The cells were NiMH made by GP and rated at 1.2V, 1500mAHr. This mod was done, we guess sometime around 2000.

So today, ~25 years later, new cells were fitted and we measured the capacity of the original cells. Discharging at 200mA to a cutoff voltage of 0.9V, the original cells tested at 599mAHr…. about 40% of their original nameplate capacity. The new cells fitted are from Lidl and are rated at 2500mAHr.

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The Irish Embassy at 39C3

This Christmas saw the largest group ever travel to the Chaos Communication Congress, 39C3. A four-day conference that brings hackers and makers from across the world to Hamburg. https://events.ccc.de/congress/2025/infos/index.html

A collective of hackers and makers with ties to Ireland formed the “Irish Embassy” Assembly. A self-organised space where shared interests or projects gather to collaborate, learn, and share. Lots of our members joined in with the fun of this space to celebrate Type G power sockets and give out Tog stamps to hackerspace passports.

Our own Jeffrey gave lots of workshops in the Hardware Hacking Area this year, and fun with TOTA – Toilets on the Air, but that’s for another blog post.

Looking ahead, the Irish Embassy will be reuniting at Electromagnetic Field this July. You can stay updated on their plans and activities through their Mastodon account: https://chaos.social/@irishembassy.

For a glimpse into the action, check out our gallery.

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January Repair Cafe

Bring your broken tech and trinkets to get them fixed by the skilled volunteers at TOG Hackerspace – with a bit of help from our friends at Dublin Maker!

On Sunday, 18 January 2026, between 12 pm and 4 pm, TOG Hackerspace will host the first Repair Cafe of the new year in our own space. At this event, volunteers will share their expertise and passion for repair, helping you fix your broken items and breathe new life into them. Whether it’s a malfunctioning gadget, a piece of clothing in need of mending, or a household item that’s seen better days, bring it along and let the team work their magic.

What can you bring in?

  • Clothes and accessories
  • Toys
  • Small electrical appliances and electronics
  • Small furniture

… and many other things!

Safety testing (PAT) for electrical devices will be available.

Continue reading “January Repair Cafe”
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A Holiday Hangout

We will be open for a relaxed holiday hangout over the Christmas and New Year holidays. We’ll be here on Tuesday, 30th December, from 12:00 noon until late.

If you have some time off over the holidays, it’s a great time to drop in to the space. If you’ve never been in before, we’ll give you a tour. Maybe you got some nice gadgets as a present this year…. why not bring them in and show us!

If you’ve any plans for making or hacking in 2026, come in and let us know…. we’d love to hear what’s grabbed your interest and to swap stories.

The kettle will be on all day, with plenty of tea , coffee and biscuits. Bring food if you like.

Drop in for an hour, or stay the whole day! Friends and family welcome.