springfield.community

Our second Build-a-PC workshop was a huge success! MASSIVE THANKS to Kristina D’Amours from WWLP22 News for coming down and sharing in our amazing students’ perspectives as they gain tech literacy that will support them far into their future career paths! youtu.be/gJJ6-Htpqyw

This chromebook’s touch pad was no longer working due to a loose ribbon cable, but thanks to a spare piece of plastic (from a gum package, no less) it’s once again functional and ready for action!!

The third evening of our drop-in repair event in partnership with the FabVille makerspace at Somerville Highschool this week has us diagnosing a Yamaha DX27 synthesizer!!

Last night we started Repair Week at Fabville in Boston! Here we cleaned up and repaired a MacBook Pro. There was a noise inside it, and one of the standoffs had broken off. We cleaned it with a duster, and its running without problems now! #repair #rightToRepair

Our incredible Abbie Gonzalez was just awarded a brand new Hyundai Tuscon in recognition of her unwavering service of our community!! HUGE THANKS to Gary Rome Hyundai for giving her the recognition she so greatly deserves! www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tV...

We need your help. Please donate or share and help us continue our mission of providing essential digital access to Springfield, Massachusetts residents in need www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...

This is really sad. Also: if this has left some genuinely usable wonderful old tech hanging around your neck like an albatross, please consider donating it to Springfield.community! We’ve been having incredible luck with #KolibriOS on older devices! kotaku.com/trumps-new-e...

huge congratulations to Abbie and Erica on their amazing talk at DEFCON 34 highlighting all the hard work we do at Springfield.community!

HUGE CONGRATS to our amazing Springfield.community Co-founder and President Erica Rachel Andrews on her receipt of the 2026 Commonwealth Pride Award!!

MASSIVE CONGRATS to our very own Erica Rachel Andrews, nominated for a 2026 Commonwealth Pride Award by 11th Hampden District Massachusetts State Representative Bud L. Williams. The award ceremony will be held at 11AM in the Senate Reading Room of the Massachusetts State House Wednesday June 17th.

We are truly grateful for the amazing donation of tech recently provided to us by Academy Hill! Check out the amazing work they do on behalf of their students and the community we’re proud to share at academyhill.org Rock on, ye good stewards of the next generation 🤘🎸

When we work together the possibilities are limitless. The amazing folks at Academy Hill just donated over 40 laptops and numerous desktops, monitors, and peripherals. They save on recycling; we get to continue our mission of helping residents of Greater Springfield 🥳

MASSIVE THANKS to Academy Hill for donating this AMAZING collection of second-hand tech! Once we’re done refurbishing, we’re excited to get this all out into the community and into the hands of Greater Springfield residents in need! W😳W!!!

The 3D-printed ASA adapter Erica designed for us in FreeCAD works perfectly! Welcome to the world, spfld.net-0001! #LoRa #MeshCore

youtu.be/RTjZx5p7fKo

Spear of LoRaginus #LoRa #MeshCore

Looks like a successful print! Time to get up on the roof and start the installation of our next (technically first?) #MeshCore #LoRa repeater spfld.net-0001 a full week after the installation of spfld.net-0002 😜

Mating the 3.34” diameter laminated wooden dowel our #MeshCore #LoRa repeater lives at the top of to a 4.78” diameter iron roof vent pipe isn’t easy, but with FreeCAD, PrusaSlicer, the correct settings for printing ASA, a functional adapter design, and a set of adjustable straps it’s totally doable!

our original prototype #MeshCore repeater design (heavily based on www.instructables.com/Meshtastic-H...) spfld.net-0001 is going live tomorrow! (It’s too dark to install it on the roof of HQ this evening lol) Huge thanks to Patrick Sliney for donating the solar panel pictured! #LoRa

Our first deployed #MeshCore repeater, spfld.net-0002, is live! (0001 is on the bench while we work out a few additional kinks) Huge thanks to Strong Young Minds, LLC for the valuable roof space! Check out their amazing work and give them some love at StrongYoungMind.com!

Spoilers: other than making a difference in the lives of the young people of Greater Springfield Massachusetts, the best part of helping out at Strong Young Minds LLC’s 980 Bay St. Dream Center is the combined Amtrak passenger rail and CSX freight traffic and all the art we see!

Holy moly is that… Farmington, Connecticut!? Hello BULLRUN! I have a sneaking suspicion that our little corner of the mesh is about to get a lot more talkative a lot more quickly than we expected 🥳

A repeater that isn’t ours?! Soapstone Mountain?!?! Oh sh!t Connecticut what up!!!!! We hear them but they don’t seem to be able to hear us - maybe that changes once our first outdoor repeater goes up later this week? Good work Noah and RJS Radioman, whoever you are!!! 🥳

🥳 🥳 SUCCESS!! After setting baud to 9600 our T-Decks now have GPS functionality and sync clocks automatically (and more or less instantaneously) when turned on! Tomorrow we'll load them with maps and begin range testing in earnest 👾

The same HT1818Z3G5L module used in hpsaturn’s build is confirmed to be correctly installed but seems to be having a little bit of trouble finding satellites. Could this be because we’re indoors? Perhaps a configuration issue?

We’re building hpsaturn’s case for the LilyGO T-Deck out of transparent lime green PCTG filament in preparation for all the testing that will necessary to bring meshcore to Springfield! This design is beautiful and looks v snazzy with 5mm sockethead screws www.thingiverse.com/thing:6580397

A small stack of these laptops was donated, in good condition but with one problem: the rubberized coating had degraded and is sticky. The chassis has been removed for cleaning. Afterwards, they will be reassembled, packaged with software and redistributed.

AppleTalk router crashed and cut the Mac Plus off from the internet. Got the router back online, but it wouldn’t pass traffic. Just as I was about to post about it and take a break, it started working. #MARCHintosh

The Cracked Mac Plus survived the bot onslaught and is still, slowly, serving its web site. It saw about 30 visitors since last night. Visit at crackedmac.ddns.net:8080 or crackedmac.ddns.net

link got clobbered crackedmac.ddns.net:8080

Don’t have my PowerBook 165 on the network yet, thus I pulled out the 3400c to update the website hosted on my Mac Plus #MARCHintosh

Progress made! The Performa 476 got a fresh System 7.1 install along with the Appletalk Router and Gateway Managers. Everything is configured and seems to be working. Plan to finish tonight 😄 #MARCHintosh

Getting close to having the Cracked Mac Plus back online. All the working disk images I've found boot 7.5, not 7.1. Digging out a CDROM or my FloppyEmu and installing System 7.1 next, hopefully tonight. #MARCHintosh

Wires found, everything connected, Mac Plus troubleshot and booting, AppleTalk gateway offline … misplaced the drive for it and haven’t found the right image yet 😆 #MARCHintosh

It’s been a few years, it is past time to get this cracked Mac Plus back online. #MARCHintosh

Our second gaming PC build class is underway! Students too young to remember spinning rust hard drives are getting a simultaneous history lesson AND inside look! HUGE THANKS to the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Springfield Rotary Club for helping make this happen!!

Please join us at Make-It Springfield this upcoming Wednesday February 18th at 4:30 PM for a look at our students’ incredible DIY computer projects! Students will showcase their AMAZING Gaming PC builds! Press welcome! 📸 Visit springfield.community for more info!

Your unwanted tech can make a MASSIVE difference in the life of a Springfield-area resident! To make a donation or learn more visit springfield.community All donations are tax-deductible!

Huge thanks once again to Giovanni Basile from the City of Chicopee DPW for connecting the dots and helping us continue our mission with this AMAZING donation equipment! 👀👀WOW!! Greater Springfield is stronger together! 💪🏋️‍♀️💪🏋️🎉

These thirteen laptops will be used in support of Strong Young Minds’ youth programming! Learn more at wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampden-county/local-organization-donates-laptops-to-empower-springfield-youth/

MASSIVE THANKS to Executive Director Abbie Gonzalez for her hard work getting these laptops ready for donation to Strong Young Minds’ Dream Center this past Monday! Truly a rockstar performance 🎸🎶 strongyoungmind.com

HUGE THANKS to Giovanni Basile from the Chicopee Department of Public Works for reaching out and supporting us with this AMAZING donation of laptops, desktops, and networking equipment! WE LOVE MUNICIPAL PARTNERSHIPS!!! 🥳💖🥰

HUGE THANKS to State Representative Bud L. Williams, Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila, Teka Jones and Asha Israel of Strong Young Minds LLC, Areta Odiah from WWLP22 News, Kim Rivera, Desi Jackson, Darryl Wilson, and everyone else who made today such a huge success! www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8k0...

A huge thank you to Massachusetts State Representative Bud L. Williams and Committee Director Cynthia Lewis for helping us get the word out about the work we’re doing! Please join us 11AM Monday January 12, 2026 at Strong Young Minds LLC’s Dream Center 980 Bay Street Springfield MA to learn more!

Huge thanks to Alice Rhodes for designing our newest flyer! alicerhodes.com Accessibility is central to our mission, so we love using Abbie Gonzalez’s groundbreaking OpenDyslexic font whenever we can! opendyslexic.org You can download it here: springfield.community/flyers/sprin...

Join us 11AM Monday January 10, 2026 at 980 Bay St. Springfield MA as we announce our support of Strong Young Minds LLC’s Dream Center! Event hosted by Massachusetts State Representative Bud L. Williams. strongyoungmind.com Flyer by Alice Rhodes, alicerhodes.com using OpenDyslexic, opendyslexic.org

Huge thanks again to Make-It Springfield and Mass Cultural Council for helping make this wonderful program (among others) happen! Be sure to check both out to learn all about the amazing things they’re doing in your community! makeitspringfield.org massculturalcouncil.org

We gamin’ 🥳🤙

Prepping the systems with the system preparation tool 👩‍🔧✨

Time to install Windows 11 🥳