Over the weekend, we hit the road and went to Laois, and what a weekend it was! We managed to fix over 45 items, ranging from toasters to clothes to a whole host of quirky gadgets. People came in with broken stuff, and by the end of the event, many of them were walking out with their favourite items fixed and ready for another lease of life.
But the real heartwarming story of the weekend? It has to be Pauline’s rocking chair, which got a fresh lease of life thanks to our very own Shane Phelan. Now, this wasn’t just any chair; it had history.
Pauline shared a bit about it: “Thanks a million! Chair is fantastic work—my husband is currently sat on it watching a match! It was purchased for my dad (by my mother—they married in 1973) in 1968 for his 21st birthday in June 1968, in Roches Store, Patrick St. Cork! I got it recovered, sanded, varnished, and refurbished (!!🤡) in 2021 but it wasn’t right. Today my husband said he feels more secure in it, so thank you Shane!!”
The rocking chair had been through a lot, but with a little TLC and a touch of Shane’s magic, it’s now back in action and more solid than ever.
The Laois Repair Café was filled with similar stories. There were people bringing in everything from old radios and lamps to stuffed toys and even kitchen appliances, all with one goal: to keep it out of the landfill, and give it another chance. And that’s exactly what we did.
As always, it wasn’t just about repairs. The event was a great chance for people to learn a few tricks, share some stories, and connect with their community. The event was hosted by The CUBE – Low Carbon Centre of Excellence in their lovely building.
These special Repair Café events were only possible with the support of Laois County Council, in collaboration with the Eastern-Midlands Waste Region, and with the generous backing of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.
Massive thanks to everyone who came along, and to the volunteers who made it all happen. Check out some of the photos from the weekend in our gallery, and we can’t wait to do it all again soon!
We are excited to announce that we have received support through the Local Enhancement Programme 2025, an initiative from the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. This grant will play a key role in enhancing our facilities and ensuring the continued success of our community-driven projects.
The Local Enhancement Programme 2025 is designed to assist community organisations, particularly those serving disadvantaged areas, by providing funding for capital improvements and operational costs. For Tog, this means we will be able to improve our infrastructure, expand our offerings, and continue providing a space for innovation, creativity, and hands-on learning. The grant will help ensure that Tog can continue to serve as a collaborative hub for individuals to explore and develop their skills in technology and problem-solving.
With this support, we can offer even more opportunities for our members and visitors to engage in a wide range of workshops and activities, from electronics and 3D printing to IoT and programming. It’s an exciting time for the hackerspace, and we look forward to welcoming more people into our vibrant community.
We encourage everyone to visit Tog Hackerspace during our open nights! Whether you’re a maker, tech enthusiast, or just curious, there’s always something new to discover. Come see what we’re working on and find out how you can get involved in shaping the future of innovation and creativity in our community.
For more information about the Local Enhancement Programme and to see the full list of other projects supported, check out the press release.
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.
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.
Over the course of five engaging evenings this May, Tog Hackerspace hosted a hands-on Physical Computing Course that brought participants deep into the world of electronics and programming.
Led by our talented members Ambrose Clarke and Jeffrey Roe, the course introduced a wide range of hardware components and coding concepts using the Arduino platform. Each week, participants explored a new set of tools and ideas, steadily building up their skills and confidence.
Throughout the sessions, participants worked with:
LEDs and buzzers to understand output and tone
Temperature sensors to measure and display data
Servos to create movement
RFID readers to identify objects with tags
LCD screens to show custom messages
The final session focused on combining what they had learned into a small project inspired by their own interests—whether that was a simple alert system, an environmental monitor, or just a fun interactive device.
We’re incredibly proud of the creativity and curiosity shown by everyone involved. The supportive, social environment made the class a great success—and we’re looking forward to running similar workshops in the future.
We’d like to give a huge thank you to Dublin City Council for supporting this initiative through their Informal Adult Education Grant Scheme 2024. Grants like this allow us to open our doors wider and create opportunities for people to explore technology in a hands-on, welcoming setting.
Want to get involved? Join us for our Electronics Nights every second Monday or check out our Events Page for upcoming workshops and courses.
With energy prices climbing and smart homes becoming the norm, having a clear view of your household power usage has never been more valuable. That’s what motivated me to create a compact, real-time energy display powered by an ESP32 and a 2.8″ TFT touchscreen—fully integrated with Home Assistant for accurate, live data at a glance.
Why I Built This I already had a power monitoring system installed through my home energy provider. While it gave a general idea of usage, it was far from ideal:
It only updated every 30 minutes to an hour, making real-time decision-making impossible.
It didn’t show live solar production, even though I had solar panels installed.
It lacked any visual clarity—just vague numbers with no context on where power was flowing.
Most importantly, there was no breakdown of grid vs solar vs battery usage. – Without opening my phone
Also existing power monitor does not do negative number so any feedin from solar does not show.
That’s when I realised I needed something more flexible, accurate, and immediate—custom-built to show the exact figures I cared about.
2.8” TFT Touch Display (320×240) – A colourful and responsive screen with touch input, perfect for compact dashboards.
Home Assistant – My existing setup, which already tracks energy through integrations like the Energy Dashboard or MQTT sensors. Shelly
What It Shows
The display cycles through or organises a simple dashboard view with key stats:
🌞 Solar Power: Current generation in watts.
🏠 Home Consumption: Real-time power draw.
⚡ Grid Usage: Whether I’m importing or exporting electricity.
🔋 Battery Level: Charge percentage and power flow.
Water temperature in boiler
These are live, accurate figures from my energy system—not delayed estimates.
How It Works The ESP32 fetches data from Home Assistant using either its REST API or MQTT feed. I chose to parse JSON data from Home Assistant’s /api/states endpoint, which allows me to pull specific sensor values and display them on the TFT screen.
To keep it fast and responsive:
Sensor values update every few seconds.
Touch input can be added for toggling views or brightness.
The layout is clean, using large fonts and colour-coded elements for clarity.
