Do you have broken items at-home – clothes, small appliances, toys, electronics?
No need to throw them away! Save your things from the landfill and your wallet from having to replace them.
Bring them to our repair café and learn how to fix them together with our volunteers. We have tools, materials, space to work on your item, and repair experts who will help you with your repair.
TOG members will be on hand to show you around the space – come and enjoy a tea or coffee and a tour while you wait!
What objects can you bring in?
Clothes and accessories
Toys
Small electrical appliances and electronics
Small furniture … and many other things! Safety (PAT) testng for electrical devices will be available.
Let’s go on a journey of repair with Jeffrey. We have a Dynatron radio model SRX 26. I think it’s from the 1970s. The radio came from Henry which has been in his family since it was new. Unfortunately it has been waiting on me to repair it since September 2020.
I started off by wiping all the dust I have let fall on it. It is a crazy heavy thing. The best way to start is to have a good look over the radio. The point is to find any problems with the cable and to check it is safe before ever plugging it in. It also seems to be missing its record player cartridge (the needle).
The radio lead and fuse are the next places to check. It is using an older style of plug that should be replaced at some point. The fuse and lead are fine. Now for a power-on test. the unit is not showing any signs of life.
Now to take it apart and show everyone’s favourite part the insides. There looks to be other historical repairs carried out. If you look at the above image on the left-hand side.
An internal mains fuse looks very “crusty”. After taking it out it’s clearly blown. There are also two more fuses that are blown. The type of fuse is nicely labelled on the radio but I had none in stock. A short walk down to RS and picked up a bag of replacement fuses.
It came alive! Well it turns on anyway. The next step to try and find some suitable audio leads to test the sound. I only had a headphone adaptor but soon was getting sound from the radio but with a lot of hisses.
To overcome the hiss, I attacked all the knobs with some switch cleaner. You take off all the knobs and spray in the fluid. Give the knobs a good turn, backwards and forwards to work in the cleaner.
The last job was to mount the speaker port that was loose in the cabinet. Unfortunately without that type of lead, I could not test it.
Check out the radio in action in the video above. The radio seems to work fine with headphones. The turntable needs a cartridge but that is a job for the radio owner. If you would like to see more photos of the repair check out our gallery.
Security BSides Dublin is taking place in the Convention Centre Dublin for an in-person event on the 19th of March 2022.
The conference brings together renowned Information Security professionals from all over the world and gives to all participants the opportunity to network, learn and participate among like-minded individuals while sharing or presenting their work.
We are delighted to be once again a community sponsor of this great event. We will be bringing our lockpicking skills and providing a lockpicking station. So while you drink your coffee drop by our table and try your hand at lockpicking and have a chat.
Dublin Comic Con returns to the Convention Centre Dublin on March 12th and 13th and we will be there. This is Ireland’s leading pop culture event. An event for the whole family. Covering everything from movies/tv shows to comics, cosplay and gaming! Whether you are coming to find rare collectables, meet some Hollywood actors and local artists, have your portfolio reviews by industry professionals or simply cosplay.
We will have a fan table on the 1st-floor both days. We are excited to showcase some cosplays that were built by our members. Sample projects to give everyone the idea of what can be built in our space. Please drop by and say hello.
You can find out more about the event via the following link.
We are delighted to bring our first workshop to our new space. We are kicking things off in time for Engineers Week with a soldering workshop.
This hands-on workshop will cover various aspects of soldering; from the basic techniques of soldering to soldering electronic components to make simple circuits. Participants will learn how to solder and finish off the workshop with a kit they can bring home.
If you ever wanted to start your journey into electronics or want to move on from breadboard, learning to solder is a great step. We will have all the equipment and safety gear that you will need. The workshop will be led by Jeffrey and Gary. They have many years of experience building projects and leading workshops.
