College donates old electronic equipment to charity

Analogue power packs and oscilloscopes, which are no longer used at Telford College in the digital era, have been given to Telford Makerspace.

The charity, which has just relocated to new premises in Park Street, Wellington, describes itself as ‘a diverse, friendly and inclusive group of community-focused tinkerers, makers and hackers’.

Andy D’Arcy Jewell, who chairs the group, visited the college campus to take delivery of the equipment, including more than 20 oscilloscopes which capture, display and analyse the waveform and bandwidth of electronic signals.

He said: “We aim to help people learn new skills, design, build and mend gadgets and most of all have fun using arts and crafts, electronics, programming, 3D printing, laser cutting and even more traditional manual tools and powered machinery.

“We like to help people make things, try out new techniques, and learn new skills. In order to make that possible, we provide equipment, space, and nurture a community to help glue it all together.

“We are very grateful to the college for this donation. We will be able to use this equipment to help with a range of projects including diagnostics and testing – it will definitely be put to good use.”

George Heeks, Telford College’s aviation and engineering learner manager, said: “We’re delighted to be able to help this local group, and to see the equipment get a new lease of life.

“Technology has moved on significantly in the world of electronics, and this analogue equipment was surplus to requirements here at the college, where we are now operating very much in a digital world.

“But we didn’t simply want to send this off for scrap, when there was a locally-based charity which could make good use of it.”

Telford College is now enrolling for its latest engineering and aviation courses. For all the details, see www.telfordcollege.ac.uk/join-us/