Beekeeping is one of the many and varied interests of TOG members. Our member John is a keen beekeeper, and he recently captured a swarm to create a new colony.
As the number of honeybees in a hive increases, the usual natural way to prevent overcrowding is by swarming. A few scout bees will find a new location, and the old Queen will leave the hive with about two-thirds of the bees. They often cluster on a tree branch before settling into a new location.
One way to catch a swarm is to put a box containing comb frames in a tree. Drops of lemongrass oil act as an attractant because they resemble the pheromone of a Queen bee.
In this case, a swarm of honeybees have gathered under the box, rather than inside. These bees were removed by gloved hands and placed in the box. The Queen will start to lay eggs and establish a new hive. The bees remaining in the old queenless hive will raise a new virgin Queen who will fly out, get mated and return to lay eggs.
Taking some inspiration from our aquarium project in the space, John is planning a monitoring project for a hive, including some sensors and a camera to watch the bees remotely.
Here’s a travel post from one of our members, Jeffrey, who recently spent a week off-grid (and delightfully offbeat) at Electric Wonderland — a 7-day international maker/hacker camp in the Croatian countryside. Combining art, technology, science, nature, and community, the camp is built around DIY, DIWO, and DITO culture. Think campfires and coding, soldering and skywatching.
Electric Wonderland is run by Radiona, a hackerspace we’ve built strong links over the years through exchanges, visits, sharing of ideas, and plenty of friendships.
But before we get to the forest…
🎥 Pre-Camp: Days -3 to 0 – Zagreb Warm-Up
Day -3 (Friday 18) Back in Zagreb, a city I’ve grown to love visiting over the years. This time, I was travelling with my mother again (link to FAB25 trip). I dropped into FabLab Zagreb to see my friend Richard and the crew — always great to catch up.
The last time I spent time with them was during my island-hopping trip along the Croatian coast (link).
Day -2 (Saturday 19) Beat the heat with a morning gym session, then squeezed in some geocaching, ice cream, a tasty vegan lunch, and a visit to the Zagreb Cat Café — where I made more furry friends than I could count.
Is your computer facing retirement just because Windows 10 is reaching its end of life?
On Saturday, 13th September 2025, from 11:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Tog Hackerspace is proud to host the Dublin Linux Group for a special event that’s all about giving old computers a new lease of life — with Linux!
Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 on 14th October 2025. If your device isn’t eligible for an upgrade to Windows 11, it means no more security updates or virus protection — and for many, that sounds like the end of the road. But don’t panic: there’s a better way.
Most computers from 2010 onwards are perfectly capable of running a modern Linux operating system. With a clean, secure, and supported version of Linux, you can keep using your computer for years to come — no need to buy a new one or send more electronics to landfill.
During this free event, friendly Linux users and volunteers will be on hand to:
Help you install Linux on your laptop or desktop
Show you how to use Linux day to day
Answer your questions and help you get comfortable with this powerful and user-friendly alternative
Whether you’re a total beginner or just curious about making the switch, this is a great chance to learn more, try things out, and meet like-minded folks.
Event Details: 📅 Saturday, 13th September 2025 🕚 11:00 AM – 4:30 PM 📍 Tog Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, D12 CF6V, Dublin
We’re thrilled to be one of the venues worldwide helping people make the switch to free and open-source software. See you there — and bring a laptop if you want help installing Linux!
WHY2025 is a nonprofit outdoors hacker camp taking place in Geestmerambacht, the Netherlands (approx 42km North of Amsterdam), on 8-12 August 2025. The event is organised for and by volunteers from the worldwide hacker community. Knowledge sharing, technological advancement, experimentation, connecting with your hacker peers, forging friendships and hacking (everything from computers to food) are at the core of this event.
WHY2025 is the successor of GHP, HEU, HIP, HAL, WTH, HAR, OHM, SHA, and MCH making it the tenth event in the series, continuing the quadrennial hacker camp tradition in The Netherlands since 1989, a proper milestone!
This is What Hackers Yearn 2025!
The Irish grouping of hackerspaces/makerspaces and wider community are travelling to the camp and will form a village aka the Irish Embassy. You will find us in the larger Milliways Cluster. Find out more about us on the wiki, drop by or follow our Masdadon account.
Calling all DIY enthusiasts! Are you searching for an exhilarating and wallet-friendly project that promotes eco-friendliness? Look no further than converting your very own electric vehicle (EV)!
Embrace the philosophy of “reduce, reuse, recycle” for your personal transportation.
Picture that beloved car from your youth, revamped into an EV. Or envision a compact and low-maintenance runaround that’s affordable to operate.
Join a community of passionate bike, car, and motorbike tinkerers who have embarked on the journey of converting their vehicles to electric power.
📅 Date: Saturday, August 16th ⏰ Time: 3 pm – 7 pm
This casual meetup is the perfect occasion to discuss, explore, and inquire about the EV conversion process. Bring the entire family along, as this event is child-friendly. Reserve your tickets here and get ready for an inspiring afternoon.
We’ll have tea and coffee available on site, and Tog has an affordable tuck shop with fizzy drinks and snacks. After the event, Tog’s monthly open social night will be on with pizza and chats. Please consider adding a donation to your ticket to support this non-profit space. Suggested donation: €10
This event is run in partnership with the Electronic and Computing division of Engineers Ireland. The Electronic and Computing division members work in software development and testing, including the gaming industry; mobile and fixed line telecommunications; internet services; embedded systems development, and signal processing.
Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to delve into the world of electric vehicle conversion and meet like-minded individuals. See you there! 🔌🌿 #DIYEV #ElectricVehicles #GreenTransportation #EVConversion #SustainableMobility
Over the years, I’ve collected several rare machines and long dreamed of building add-on devices for them, something to expand their memory or load software from modern storage devices like SD cards, or even over Wi-Fi. These vintage devices typically load from tape or floppy disks, which is a painfully slow process. However, due to a lack of time and experience with complex electronics, I hadn’t been able to complete any such project.
That changed last month when I met Roman, a new TOG member. He offered to help and turned out to be much more experienced in electronics design. Using KiCad and modern components like an FPGA and ESP32, Roman designed a custom board. These chips are incredibly small and require special tools and techniques to work with.
We had the board manufactured at JLCPCB.
While I have a general understanding of electronics, I had never soldered such tiny components before. Roman had some experience with small parts, but even for him, this was a new level of precision.
We found a preheating plate at TOG and ordered a stencil to apply solder paste. Yesterday, we met at the space to try soldering the smallest chip on the board.
The first step was applying the solder paste using the stencil. This turned out to be trickier than expected. We had to align the stencil perfectly with the board’s pads, spread a thin, even layer of paste, and carefully lift the stencil without smearing it. It took us several tries. Sometimes the stencil shifted, and other times we applied too much paste.
Before soldering the actual chip, we did a test run on a spare board without placing any components, just to see how the paste would behave during reflow. That helped us understand how the solder would spread and whether it would stay properly on the pads. It was a useful trial that gave us more confidence before working with the real part.
Eventually, we decided to go ahead and solder the chip, even though some areas had a bit more paste than ideal.
We used a special hot plate that gradually heats the board to around 240°C. As it warms up, the solder paste melts and flows onto the pads, guided by surface tension.
The process is slow, so the whole operation took a while. But in the end, the chip was successfully soldered. You can see it in the photo, though there’s still some leftover flux that we’ll need to clean off with isopropyl alcohol. Unfortunately, we ran out of time on Monday evening, so that step will have to wait.
We can’t fully test whether the chip is working yet, as other components on the board still need to be soldered. However, we’ve checked for shorts between adjacent pins, and everything looks good so far.
This was just the first step, but it already feels like a big achievement. With a bit more work, we hope to bring some of these old machines back to life, with modern upgrades that keep the retro spirit alive.
