Derby Computer Museum is a registered charity run entirely by volunteers.
Our mission is to preserve & maintain computing history, put smiles on the faces of our visitors, and to provide work experience for young adults with special educational needs.
We open to the public on Saturdays, for half a dozen BYOB nights, for school trips, birthday parties, and corporate events.
The museum has been open since Dec 2022 and it's now bringing in enough money to cover the bills (which are mainly rent and electricity) however there are some maintenance costs and project costs we need help with and we're hoping you can help!
We are entirely independent and do not receive on grants.
This is what we're trying to fund...
A-frame signs with weights
- When we open on Saturdays we put A-frame signs on the street to draw visitors in.
- We currently have four, one is broken, and the others are on their last legs.
- We need to place them with some sturdier ones with weights in the bottom which will better survive wind and weather.
- £150 per a-frame
- 4 required, £600 in total
Repair tools
- We have a team of repair volunteers who keep all the kit going. We have around 60 hands on exhibits which you can see, touch and use, but we have to have a lot more than this behind the scenes to swap out exhibits when they need repair.
- We'd like to teach some more of our volunteers how to do the repairs at the museum, but to do this we need some equipment.
- This is...
- Solder station - £70 (basic one, £200 for better one)
- Hot air rework station - £200
- Oscilloscope - £400
- Misc tools - £100
CCTV cameras
- We have around 24 cameras already but there's some blind spots (we won't say where they are here for obvious reasons!)
- We need to purchase 8 additional 4K PoE cameras
- These cost £79.99 each so £639.92 in total
Merch, merch, merch!
- We have a gift shop at the museum which sells novelty gifts to put smiles on the faces of visitors.
- We are regularly asked if we sell DCM branded pens, pencils, and erasers.
- We'd love to sell these items, but these typically require a minimum order quantity of 200 or 300, and we need the up-front cash to buy them.
Portable air conditioning units
- Vintage computer kit generates a whole bunch of HEAT!
- We'd love to purchase some portable air conditioning units (circa £500 each) to cool the museum down on hot days
Organizer
Rob Watson
Organizer
England
Derby Computer Museum
Beneficiary