The Dublin Hackerspace
Here are some of the events in TOG over the next 2 weeks:
A few months ago we did a blog post about our variac. It was tripping the circuit breakers on our distribution board and we made some mods to the variac to reduce the inrush current. Our story generated a lot of interest and was picked up by Hackaday. We used a 2 terminal NTC inrush current limiter from Ametherm.
Following our story, the good folks at Ametherm and Rhopoint Components (our local distributor) were in touch with us. They gave us some great technical advice and did some calculations for us. They have a whole range of limiters and it turns out that we had actually chosen quite a good model for our application. They kindly sent us some samples.
There are many ways to soft start a load. We originally thought about adding a series power resistor and a shorting relay. We also had some suggestions around Triac and IGBT solutions. Each of these methods have their merits and can allow fine grained control of switch-on. Unfortunately there was very little room inside the variac case and we didn’t want some kind of external box. So we looked at these relatively simple 2 terminal limiters.
Carefully chosen, these components are an elegant solution. They can probably last the life of the application with no maintenance. Placed in series with the load, they have a relatively high resistance at room temperature which limits the initial inrush current. When current flows through them they self-heat and the resistance falls very quickly, so they have little effect on the normal operating current.
TOG members and Capital Brewers return to TOG HQ this coming Saturday (4th February). Hearty brews are on the menu, in both brewing with guidance and instructions from the experts, and tasting craft beer made at previous brew days!
A very rough time-line of a brew day is as follows (a little earlier than usual to be finished before AGM):
Every brew day is slightly different with a mix of brewers, recipes and techniques. The long term goal would be to get a full set of brewing equipment that TOG members can use themselves at the space and make your own beer, cider or wine whenever you like! All you need are the ingredients. We are already well on our way to achieving that goal with several sets of equipment for members to choose from.
Its always a fun and engaging day, the cost is free (donations are welcome) so come along, ask questions and even help with the brewing!
We have been improving our workshop a lot lately. Check out some of the work below.
We have found a new home for our air compressor and mounted it on our metal shelves. We also mounted a air hose reel. It makes using air tools in our workshop very easy.
Label all the things. If you have a lot of stuff, soon you find yourself in a situation where you can’t find anythings. We have done a big sorting job of our stuff. So now most things have their own box.
We have long things like pipes hat need to be put somewhere but they don’t fit in our current wood storage area. Long things now have their own area . aka Long things storage.
Drop by our upcoming Birthday Party to see a host of changes we have made to the space since our opening last year.
With less than a week to go, TOG is holding a competition to celebrate our 8th Birthday Party. The party is taking place after 7pm on Saturday, 28th January in our space, 22 Blackpits. You can find the details on our meetup page.
TOG is a hackerspace based in the centre of Dublin. It is a shared space where members have a place to be creative and work on their projects in an environment that is both inspiring and supportive of both new and old technologies. In the past 8 years we have worked on everything from giant LEDs to Raspberry Pis, we have made a twitter knitter and a pizza oven.
The prizes are a personalized laser cut pencil and a surprise from our 3D printer. Entering is really easy. Simply Retweet this tweet or Share this Facebook post. 5 winners will be pseudorandomly picked from Twitter and 5 from Facebook, on Saturday the 28th, prizes can be picked up in the space.
Update: To enter the Facebook competition you will also need to leave a comment on the post.
Well we’re at it again. Once a year we all have our birthday and TOG is no different. This month we have reached the ripe old age of 8 years. We’ll be celebrating in style on Saturday 28th January in Blackpitts. Last year we combined our January Open Social, birthday party and grand opening, into one monster bash. It didn’t disappoint. It was our biggest social event ever. The craic was so mighty, that we’ve decided to do it again this month for our 8th birthday party. So note that time and date….. Saturday 28th January from 7PM. There are strong rumours of cake, TOG beer and pizza.
If you’ve never been to one of our shindigs, you’ll find it a great alternative Saturday evening in town. Come in and look around. Kick the tyres. If you’ve never been in before, we’ll give you the grand tour of the space. Talk to members and visitors about projects or things you’d like to do. Ask about our plans for 2017. If you like what you see, ask about joining as a full member. What a great New Years resolution that would be!
Last year, we invited just about everyone that we could think of, and most of them came. Now if you’re one of the few who were invited last year and didn’t come, well we know who you are, and we won’t be taking any excuses this year. The dog ate your homework, the cat was sick, or you’re washing your hair just won’t do 🙂 So get yourself in on the 28th. 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. No need to book…. just turn up. You can drop in for 10 minutes, or stay the whole night. We have parking available. Bring beer, food, gadgets! Our doors are open from 7PM. Hope to see you there. Expect mighty craic.
https://www.meetup.com/Tog-Dublin-Hackerspace/
https://twitter.com/TOG_Dublin
https://www.facebook.com/togdublin
https://lists.tog.ie/mailman/listinfo/tog