The Dublin Hackerspace
Two of our members have launched a podcast, “Irish Makers Podcast“.
Congratulations Nathan & Vicky.
“From Satellites to Salvage Artists we cover all aspects of making!
Join us as we explore how Makers create amazing items !”
https://beacons.ai/irishmakerspodcast
The podcast already has two great episodes out all out Cosplayers and Prop Makers.
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.
https://www.dublincomiccon.com/ticket-information
Check out our gallery for lots of photos from the event.
https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/all/dcc-spring-22
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.
Date: Sunday 6th of March 12:00 – 14:00
Cost: €35 plus fees
Location: Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 KRW1
Booking via the following link https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/274454509827
No electronics skills are required. Participants must be at least 18 years old. Workshop open to ALL. Limited to 8 participants per Workshop.
This event is one of many taking place during Engineers Week. Visit for more -> https://www.engineersireland.ie/schools/Engineers-Week
Check out photos from the event on our gallery.
https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/all/eng-week-soldering-workshop-22
Local Enterprise Week is organised every year by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices across the country. Taking place from Monday 7th to Friday 11th March.
We are delighted to be taking part in a panel discussion called “The value of enterprise spaces & their unique offering to your business”. Event details are below.
Learn how Enterprise and Innovation Hubs can help entrepreneurs and small businesses start, sustain and grow”
Panel Discussion with time for Q&A (the panel will participate in a discussion on the ecosystem, their perspective and their unique offering – services / supports) and how their Hub contributes to economic development and community.
This is a panel discussion is facilitated by Heidi Corr
Participating are 5 Enterprise and Innovation Hubs offering space and services to assist for startups and small businesses.
Eamonn Sayers, GEC, https://www.gec.ie/
Bernie Everard, Spade, https://www.spade.ie/
Nicole Edgerton, Talent Garden, https://talentgarden.org/en/
David Graham, Terenure Enterprise Centre, https://terenure-enterprise.ie/
Jeffrey Roe TOG, https://www.tog.ie/
To book your please visit https://www.localenterprise.ie/!QMB3AV
Space is fun. Receiving data from space is even better. Below is a project built by our own Jeffrey Roe.
TinyGS is an open network of Ground Stations distributed around the world to receive and operate LoRa satellites, weather probes and other flying objects, using cheap and versatile modules.
The first step of the project is to load the software onto the TTGO LoRa32 V2. The TinyGS project provides a cross-platform flashing tool. It is then a very simple program to flash the firmware onto the microcontroller. The project then makes use of a Telegram bot to set up your station, issues you a username/password. If you wish to enable data transmission to the satellite you must have an amateur radio licence.
The main motivation for this project was to try out building my own antenna. A quarter-wave ground plane antenna is a great first project for people interested in radio. It requires only a small amount of tools. A youtube video from Andreas Spiess pushed me to think this was possible.
The first step of the antenna is to know the length of the radials(the bits on the side) and the monopole(the bit coming out the top). If you go along to this website, it has a handy calculator. We are trying to build a 433 Mhz for our purpose. I started out cutting up lengths of wire that I think is used for fencing. Sanding the ends of the wires to ensure an electrical connection.
Using the insides of terminal blocks, I connected the radials to an SMA Female Chassis Panel Mount. It made the build much easier. But the holes on the panel mount are just a little too small for the screws from the terminal blocks. I drilled them out a little to make enough room.
My brother helped to make a wooden plate and a little stand for the project. This allowed our outdoor testing as seen above. The next step was to bring the project outside and see would we receive any data. I was a bit unsure how the project would work out, so I had bought two units and one commercial antenna. The plan was to set them up in the back garden to test if my first antenna was up for the challenge of receiving data from a satellite in space.
The above photo shows both units in action. The unit on the right is our homemade antenna. They are on top of my washing line, held on with clamps in my back garden. It is in an urban back garden surrounded by houses. I had to wait around an hour for the first pass of a satellite.
The above is a side by side of the data received from both ground stations. The one on the left has the commercial antenna and the one on the right is my shiny new homemade antenna. I was very proud to see it working and even picked up an extra packet in the process. The data came from a CubeSat called Norby. You can read this paper about its build.
As darkness fell, so did the experiment end. Both units have now come into the house. I am still running my homemade unit on a windowsill until I get a chance to build an enclosure for it. Another task is to test out the antenna performance with a NanoVNA tool a member has loaned me. For more project photos check out our gallery. You can view the data the station is receiving online in real-time. https://tinygs.com/station/EI7IRB_2@747769602
If you are interested in taking up Amateur Radio as a hobby come along to this webinar. Amateur Radio – A Life Long Technical Hobby. A special Engineers Week event hosted by the Electronic and Computing division in Engineers Ireland and South Dublin Radio Club. It will feature me and Adrian Connor. Join us on March 10th.
It has been a while since we gave an update on our fitout works on Tog 4. Below are the highlights.
We have put down a wooden floor in our electronics room and common room. The flooring came from Tog 2 and Tog 3. it has been a big cost saving to be able to reuse the flooring.
Our machine room is made up of a cement plinth but it has lots of high points and holes. We have done our best to give it a rough levelling. Below is a video of Gary mixing up some self-levelling screed.