Science Hack Day Dublin 2015

Science HacScience Hack Day Dublink Day Dublin is a 36 hour hardware and software hackathon. A social event with creativity and love of science at its heart.  Each year it brings together coders, designers, scientists, engineers and makers simply to make interesting things. Why? For adventure, for playfulness, for science! The event takes place in UCD on the 14th & 15th November.

Here in TOG, we are proud to be supporting Science Hack Day again. Since it inception we have always found it to be the best community hackathon around.  It’s rare these days for big events to keep their community feel. Now entering its 4th year, and with an FAQ that just gets better each year, you have no reason not to go . The ideas for this years event have already started to pile in. They include lasers, can we say more ? pew pew. For tickets see eventbrite.

 

 

 

 

OSM MapJam Saturday 12th Sept

MapJam
OpenStreetMap (OSM) Ireland members will meet next Sat 12th in Dublin and do OSM mappy stuff on laptops in TOG. Like an indoor mapping party / hack day / social meet up / barcamp.
What is OpenStreetMap?
OpenStreetMap is a world wide, open content map. It’s often referred to as the Wikipedia of maps in reference to the fact that it is open to be edited by anyone.
If you’d like to learn more about OpenStreetMap, come along! Want to start mapping your local area, and want help? Come along! Want to find out how to use the low level OpenStreetMap data? Come along! This event is open to all.
If you’re already an OSM mapper and would like come, but not sure what to do, don’t worry we have loads of townlands to map and plenty of people who will give you a hand learning the details.
Where and When?
Tog Dublin Hackerspace
Saturday 12th Sept 12-6pm
map-is-not-territory

Lockpicking @ Science Gallery SECRET Exhibition

Pin_tumbler_unlocked.svgJester here, I have been invited to run a 2 hour hands on lockpicking workshop in the Science Gallery as part of their SECRET Exhibition on the 10th and 15th of September 2015. The first date sold out quicker than I would get around to putting up a blog post, so allow me to tell you about the 2nd one.

The event description is on the Science Gallery website is HERE. In the 2 hour session I will include 30 minutes of presentation slides showing the inside of a lock, and how we manipulate the lock without the use of a key. I will also show examples of other types of locks that you might see on a regular basis, and the possible insecurities of these locks. This is followed by us giving lockpicking a go ourselves. The Science Gallery were kind enough to supply locks and lockpicks for the session, but I will also bring along some of TOG’s collection from the Ha’penny Bridge.

If you are interested, I have placed the booking form below, or please jump over to the Science Gallery booking page HERE and grab yourself a place

Playing with the IMAX charger

chargerGot an IMAX B6 mini charger to play with. Pics here. This charger will charge and discharge lots of different battery chemistries. We recently acquired some 6-volt lead acid sealed lead acid batteries….believed to be from a UPS.

Two of them powered our buzzer game during the recent Dublin Maker. We’re using the discharge function to test their capacity. It will be interesting to see what capacity they have left.

Drop in if you’d like to try the charger or some other electronics.

 

Vintage Electronics 2

bikeFollowing the build of our 1978 Metal Detector, next up in our Vintage Electronics series will be a Digital Bicycle Speedometer.  In the March 1977 issue of Popular Electronics, they published an article for a digital speedometer complete with red LED displays. This will be a build from the original magazine which we have in TOG.

 
You can get an LCD digital bike speedometer nowadays for as little as 5 euro. These multi function devices can do much more than speed. Back in 1977 however, this thing must have been space age…..  red LED displays and all!

We think it will look suitably retro on a modern carbon fibre road bike 🙂 We will be building the speedometer over the next few weeks. Come in and join in the build, or keep in touch with the build online.

Dublin Maker Wind-down BBQ & en-Pizza-ing

Dublin Maker logo Can’t you feel the excitement in the air?! Dublin Maker is on this Saturday! From bitter experience we know that all the Makers will be at Panic Stations this entire week. And as we here at TOG are a caring bunch, we’ll be holding our traditional post-Dublin-Maker BBQ (now with added pizza!) on Sunday, 26th July, from 2pm-5pm.

It will be a chance for the Makers to unwind in an understanding and supportive environment. But it’s not just an event for official Dublin Makers! Now is a great opportunity to finally take a look around TOG, or to get to know our members better. It’s a chance for anyone, and everyone, to chill out with some interesting people, who do interesting things, while filling their bellies. So come one, come all, satisfy your curiosity, and your appetites!