Category: Repair

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Repair Club: Lamps Edition – Shedding a Little Light on Lamp Repair

We are trying something a little different at TOG with a new event format we are calling Repair Club.

Inspired by the work of Circular Square in Clonmel, this is a bit different from our usual Repair Café model. Instead of bringing along broken items for fixing, Repair Club is more like a focused class or workshop where we take one repair topic and explore it in more detail.

For our first session, we are starting with lamps.

We will be looking at common faults, how to test them safely, and some of the repairs you can carry out once you know what has gone wrong. That includes more than just the electrical side of things. We will also look at glueing, rewiring, testing, and the kind of practical fixes that often come up when bringing an old lamp back into use.

This event will be half class, half discussion, and half people standing around a lamp saying, “go on, try that there.” The idea is to share skills, compare notes, and build confidence around fixing things.

This is also a bit of an experiment for us. We want to see how this format works and whether it might become something we can repeat with other topics in future. There is no shortage of everyday objects that deserve their own repair night.

The event is taking place as part of Dublin Climate Action Week, which makes it a great fit. Repair is one of the simplest ways to reduce waste, keep useful things in use for longer, and help more people feel confident about understanding and maintaining the objects around them.

This session will be led by Jeffrey Roe, an engineer, maker, and long-time TOG member who has spent years running workshops, Repair Cafés, and hands-on events that help people build practical skills.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, 14 May
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Cost: €5 via Eventbrite, with the fee going as a donation to TOG

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/repair-club-lamps-edition-shedding-a-little-light-on-lamp-repair-tickets-1987020952157?aff=oddtdtcreator

If you are curious about repair, want to learn a bit more about fault-finding, or just fancy trying something new, this should be a good way to spend an evening at the space.

And if this goes well, we would love to run more Repair Clubs in future. If there is a repair topic you would like to see covered, or if you would like to lead one yourself, please let us know. There is always something worth taking apart, figuring out, and bringing back to life.

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April Repair Café

Got something broken at home that you have been meaning to sort out for a while?

Maybe it is a lamp that has gone dark, a toy that has stopped doing toy things, a kitchen gadget that has packed it in, or a jacket that is hanging on by optimism alone. Instead of letting it rattle around in a press for another six months, bring it along to our next Repair Café at TOG Hackerspace.

We will be hosting the event on Saturday 11th April 2026, from 12 noon to 4pm, in TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12. Tickets are free, but booking ahead really helps us plan the day.

A Repair Café is a chance to bring along broken or worn items and sit down with volunteer fixers to see what can be done. Sometimes the repair is quick. Sometimes it takes a bit of testing, fiddling, tightening, stitching, glueing, soldering, or thoughtful staring. Sometimes, the item makes it very clear that it has other plans. But even then, you usually come away knowing a bit more than when you arrived.

That is part of what makes a Repair Café different. It is not a drop-off service where your item vanishes into the back room. You stay with it, chat through the issue, and get to see what is involved in trying to bring it back to life. It is about repair, but it is also about sharing skills, building confidence, and showing that plenty of everyday items still have a bit more life left in them.

What can you bring?

You can bring along things like:

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

And usually a few other bits besides.

There is always a good mix on the day. Some things arrive with an obvious fault, some arrive in several emotional pieces, and some arrive with the immortal phrase, “It was working grand until…” We cannot promise miracles, but we do enjoy a challenge.

Why bother?

Because a surprising number of things do not need to be replaced. They just need a bit of time, attention, and somebody willing to open them up and have a look.

Repairing things keeps useful items in use for longer, saves money, reduces waste, and helps people learn practical skills that are too easy to lose. It is also a genuinely nice way to spend an afternoon: a room full of people helping each other, cups of tea, odd screws on tables, and the occasional round of applause when something suddenly starts working again.

Event details

When: Saturday 11th April 2026, 12 noon to 4 pm
Where: TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12
Tickets: Free, but please book in advance

Book your free ticket here:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/repair-cafe-tickets-1980452469649

This event is supported by Dublin Maker, and we are delighted to have their support again for another afternoon of community repair.

So if you have something broken, worn out, or just acting up, bring it along and we will see what can be done.

And if you would like to be a fixer or volunteer at a future Repair Café, we would love to hear from you. We are always glad to have more people involved, whether that is helping with repairs, welcoming visitors, keeping the tea flowing, or making sure the day runs smoothly. If that sounds like your kind of thing, please get in touch.

Come by, fix something, learn something, and help us keep a few more things out of the bin.

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Reviving a 20+ year old mini-DV camcorder

camcorder revival

This Canon mini-DV camcorder was bought new, sometime around 2002 / 2003. Even then however, the writing was on the wall for tape-based video recording. Mobile “feature” phones of the time were already starting to have better and better cameras, and the price of USB sticks and memory cards were falling rapidly while increasing in capacity.

In 2005, the camcorder was connected to a PC via its FireWire socket. Many of the video clips were pulled over onto the PC. In the transfer process however, the metadata from the clips including the timestamps were not copied. It’s impossible to tell today when the clips were taken. So the plan was to fire up the camcorder and see if the clips could be copied again, or even the date stamps transcribed manually.

First and most obvious thing was that the battery was stone dead. Popping the battery case open, there were two lithium cells in series and both were absolutely dead….. zero volts. We replaced the two cells with two 18650’s, but the battery pack output was still zero. A little trick we’ve learned, and one that we put to use several times at our repair cafe this week, was to charge the pack briefly which seems to wake up the onboard BMS. After doing this, the pack was now outputting almost 8 volts.

Now the next hurdle. Would the thing actually switch on and work? 20 years is a long time for electrolytic capacitors, and rubber belts and drive wheels turn to a sticky goo over time.

Snapping the battery into place and switching on, amazingly the thing came to life! The pop-out video screen was alive, but the look-through viewfinder seemed to be dead. Next test was to see would it accept a tape. It did, and the tape threaded up okay. Pressed play and the thing worked! You can see the timestamps on the clips from 2004!

If you have any mini-DV tapes that you want to check, or you like tinkering with this kind of stuff, come and see us in the space any Monday or Tuesday evening. There’s always something interesting going on.

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TOG Repair Café at DCU’s Climate Action Fair (Green Week 2026)

We’re heading to DCU Green Week as part of the Climate Action Fair — and we’re bringing a mini TOG Repair Café setup with us. Come say hello, meet loads of other brilliant groups on the day, and if you’ve something small that’s broken, bring it along and we’ll do our best to help you get it working again.

Repair Café details

  • When: Wednesday 4 March 2026, 11:00–14:00
  • Where: Ground Floor, U Building (GLA), bottom of the steps
  • What to bring: “broken tech and trinkets” (small, carry-in items work best)
  • Cost: Free to drop by (it’s part of the fair)

What is a Repair Café?

It’s a friendly, drop-in repair meetup: you bring the item, we bring the tools and volunteer know-how, and we’ll troubleshoot it together. Even when something can’t be fixed on the spot, you’ll usually leave with a better idea of what’s going on (and what to try next).

More info

DCU have the full Green Week / Climate Action Fair listing here:
https://www.dcu.ie/sustainability/campaigns

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Repair Cafe for Trinity’s Green Week!

We’re teaming up with Unit 18 (Trinity in the Community) to run a special Repair Café as part of Trinity’s Green Week. It’s a smaller Repair Café than our usual big TOG events, but it’ll still have all the best bits: friendly fixers, practical repairs, and plenty of good chats.

Got something broken? Bring along your small household items, small furniture, or electrical bits that have stopped working, and we’ll do our best to help you repair them while you wait. Expect a bit of hands-on problem solving, a cup of tea, and a nice lunchtime vibe.

When: Friday, 13 March 2026 — 12:30–2:30pm
Where: Unit 18, Trinity in the Community (Trinity College Dublin)
Cost: Free / all welcome
Tickets: Booking required — very limited places

👉 Full details + booking link:

https://www.tcd.ie/sustainability/event/?trumbaEmbed=eventid%3D197629508%26seotitle%3DGreen-Week-Repair-Caf%26view%3Devent%26-childview%3D%26returnUrl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.tcd.ie%252Fsustainability%252Fevents-listing%252F

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New power tools added to “Repair Café in a Box”

We’re delighted to share an upgrade to our Repair Café in a Box programme: we’ve added a range of power tools to the equipment kit that community groups can borrow to help run repair events.

This work is funded by the Community Climate Action Programme (Round 1) under the Government’s Climate Action Fund. It builds on our 2024 funding and helps us expand what we can offer through our Repair Café rental programme, making it easier for more groups across the Dublin region to host repairs safely and confidently.

What’s included?

Alongside the usual Repair Café essentials, we now have a suite of power tools and related kit available to loan. The goal is simple: help fix more things, reduce waste, and keep useful items in service for longer.

Borrow the kit for your Repair Café (free)

Since 2024, this programme has supported Repair Cafés and community events all over the place — including plenty hosted by ourselves at TOG. If you’re organising a Repair Café (or planning one) and you’d like to borrow the equipment at no cost, just get in touch and we’ll help you figure out what you need.

Thanks

This project is made possible with support from Dublin City Council, in partnership with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications.

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