The front of our building is getting a bit of a makeover. Pics here. New cement render on the outside, painting, new bike racks, steps and ramp cleaned up. Inside we’re getting a spruced up entrance lobby, a new entrance door and other works. Drop in and have a look.
TOG April Open Social
Our April Open Social takes place on Sat 16th April at 7pm. If you fancy a great alternative Saturday evening in town, why not drop in and see us. We’ll show you around the space and update you on the progress. Things are moving along nicely. Our workshop walls are going up and we’ve now had our first brewday. We might even have some beer samples for you to try 🙂
The Open Social is a great informal way to visit us. You can talk to members and visitors, see what’s going on, or just hang out for the evening. The space stays open until the last member is left……usually the small hours of Sunday morning. The evening is free to attend for members and visitors alike. Drop in for 10 minutes, or stay the whole evening. We have parking available. Bring beer, food, gadgets! Hope to see you there.
Fixing the Variac
Actually there was nothing wrong with it. It didn’t really need “fixing”. A variac is a kind of variable AC transformer. They are very useful for testing AC loads because they can give a variable output voltage usually from 0 up to some value. This particular one can output from 0 to 250V and supply about 12A of current.
It is rated at 3kVA which is quite a bit. A big horse of a transformer like this has a big inrush current when it is plugged in. The surge is so great, that it was tripping the circuit breaker on our distribution board. The breakers on TOG’s board have C-curve trip characteristic, so they’re really not suited to this kind of load.
So something had to be done to limit the inrush current. We thought about a power resistor and a shorting relay, but in the end opted to try an NTC type surge limiter. This is a type of resistor where the resistance falls with temperature. At room temperature the resistance measured was about 12 ohms. The resistance falls rapidly as the temperature rises. Even so, the thing gets hot at heavy load. We used the 2kw heatgun as a heavy test load. We mounted the limiter high up inside the enclosure, in free air. Plenty of insulation and some cable ties to secure it. Tested it and no tripping now. A bit more testing is required however. particularly at higher currents. Need to do some I²R calculations and temperature measurements. Pics here.
March (St Patrick’s) Open Social
Our March open social takes place during St Patrick’s weekend on Saturday 19th March from 7PM. If you’re around town and you’re not exhausted from the St Patrick’s Day festivities, drop in and see us. We’ll show you around and update you on the progress of our new space.
Our open social is a great informal way to visit us. You can talk to members and visitors, see what’s going on, or just hang out for the evening. The space stays open until the last member is left……usually the small hours of Sunday morning. The open social is free to attend for members and visitors alike. Our doors will be open from 7pm. You can drop in for 10 minutes, or stay the whole night. We have parking available. Bring beer, food, gadgets! Hope to see you there.
(Don’t forget that we’ll also be at the Big Day Out on Sunday 20th March in Merrion Square from 12:00 midday.)
UPDATE
From 5pm there will be a demo of an automatic finding satellite dish. The project is hoping to pick up video from the international space station passes overhead.
Also on the same evening we will be playing with a brand new
evaluation kit to enable data transmission over the Dublin Sigfox
network.
evaluation kit to enable data transmission over the Dublin Sigfox
network.
Goodbye Old TOG, Hello New
At the stroke of midnight just past, the original TOG organisation that was started back in 2009 ceased to be. At our AGM in January, we voted to wind up that organisation. From today, our new TOG Hackerspace DAC will continue to take us forward.
Last summer we started a process of building a new legal and organisational structure that would better serve the members and the organisation itself. We started a new company with a new constitution, elected directors and moved to a new space with a new lease. We set up a new bank account, created a new method for members to join and restarted all of our regular evenings and events. If you’re interested in joining us, drop in to see us anytime or contact us online. We’ll be glad to give you a tour of our space and tell you about some of our activities.
February Open Social
Our February Open Social takes place this weekend on Saturday 20th February at 7PM.
If you came to our Grand Opening Bash in January, you’ll know what a mega event that was. This months regular open social will probably be a bit of a more “normal” affair, if our open socials could ever be called normal. Come in and catch up with us. We’ll give you a tour of our fantastic new space. The open social is a great informal way to visit us. You can talk to members and visitors, see what’s going on, or just hang out for the evening.
The space stays open until the last member is left……usually the small hours of Sunday morning. The open social is free to attend for members and visitors alike. Our doors will be open from 7pm. Drop in for 10 minutes, or stay the whole night. We have parking available. Bring beer, food, gadgets! If you like the place, ask about joining as a member. Hope to see you there.