Samwise Makers' News
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Looking At A TRS-80 12 MB External Hard Drive From 1983
Maya Posch opens a rare piece of 1983 computing history: a 12 MB external hard drive for the TRS-80, originally priced at $3,495 — equivalent to nearly $12,000 today. Inside sits a Tandon TM-603 full-height 5.25-inch drive paired with a Signetics 8X300 microprocessor, all powered by a 60-watt supply. This particular unit arrived in rough shape: shorted voltage rails, significant rust and corrosion, and at least one exploded capacitor that had ripped traces off the PCB. The teardown offers a fascinating look at early portable mass storage engineering and the brutal realities of decades-old hardware recovery.
All The Best Computers Boot To Python
Jordan Hubbard's open source “pythonos” project challenges the convention of C-based boot sequences by loading a full Python interpreter directly on x86-64 hardware. The system supports a GUI mode and runs on bare metal or inside QEMU, making it easy to test without dedicated hardware. Hubbard built much of the project using an LLM as a coding assistant, and the full source is available on GitHub. While not a replacement for production operating systems, pythonos represents an intriguing experiment in lowering the barrier between hardware and a high-level language — boot your machine and you're in a REPL.
Trying To Fix A Suspiciously Cheap Enterprise-Grade Network Switch
A Juniper EX4100-F-12P enterprise switch bought for under $300 — a fraction of its $3,000 original price — turns out to be an expensive disappointment. Maya Posch cracks it open hoping for a quick repair, and finds the damage is severe: a shorted 48VDC input, evidence of water ingression, rust throughout, and component explosions powerful enough to rip traces from the PCB's inner layers. With no schematics available from Juniper, the repair is a dead end. The teardown is still valuable for its look at enterprise switching hardware construction — and as a cautionary tale about suspiciously cheap gear.
Making A Neo Nuvistor Project In 2026
Eric Schlaepfer, known online as TubeTimeUS, built a working discrete 555-timer equivalent using eight RCA tetrode nuvistor vacuum tubes — a tube type introduced by RCA in 1959 and used in VHF and UHF applications until the early 1970s. Nuvistors are remarkably immune to ESD, EMI, and EMP, making them an interesting choice for rugged applications today. The complete circuit draws 7.5 watts from the heaters alone, a far cry from the original CMOS chip's milliwatt-range consumption. Schlaepfer documented the build process on YouTube, offering a rare deep-dive into a largely forgotten tube technology that once competed with early transistors.
Hand-Coded ASM Powers Homebrew SNES Game
Developer Inkbox is building a top-down Zelda-style game for the original Super Nintendo entirely in hand-coded 65816 assembly language — no high-level language shortcuts allowed. The project runs on real SNES hardware using two 64KB RAM banks and the console's 3.58 MHz CPU. Inkbox has open-sourced the SNES Sound Engine powering the game on GitHub under InkboxSoftware/SimpleSNESSoundEngine, making it a useful resource for other homebrew developers. The game itself is available on itch.io as pay-what-you-want. It's a compelling demonstration of what patient, precise low-level programming can produce on constrained vintage hardware.
Arduino RDA5807M FM Stereo Radio With Nokia 5110 Display
Building a functional FM stereo receiver with minimal components is a satisfying weekend project, and this one uses the RDA5807M — a single-chip FM receiver with RDS support — paired with an Arduino Nano or Uno. A Nokia 5110 graphic LCD provides a compact, readable display for station frequency and signal information. The RDA5807M handles all the heavy lifting of demodulation and stereo separation via its I2C interface, leaving the Arduino free for display management and user input. The complete build makes a compelling case for how capable modern RF chips have become for hobbyist electronics projects.
Sources: Hackster.io
I Built a Modular Solar Inverter: One Battery, Multiple Use
Frustrated by the all-in-one design of commercial solar inverters, HumanixTechLab designed a 150-watt system split into four discrete modules connected via XT60 connectors: a battery module, a lighting module, a DC charging module, and a 220V AC inverter module. Each module can be swapped or replaced independently, making field repairs practical. The design targets off-grid fieldwork scenarios where a single failure in a monolithic unit would kill all power. Schematics and build details are shared on the Hackster project page. It's a thoughtful take on modularity applied to power electronics, with real-world utility for makers working away from the grid.
Sources: Hackster.io
Ready, Set, Make: 5 Inaugural September Maker Faires
Make: Magazine reports on five inaugural September Maker Faires launching globally this month — a sign that the Maker Faire movement is expanding well beyond its Bay Area roots. Highlights include Maker Faire Calais 2026 (September 11–12), which featured a dedicated Education Day connecting students with hands-on making. Also notable: the University of Waterloo Rocketry Team is bringing their Polaris rocket — a world record-holder — to a Maker Faire, bridging student engineering and the maker community. Separately, Maker Faire Bay Area celebrates its 20th anniversary September 25–27 at Historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California.
Sources: Make: Magazine
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
Kynooe Modular AI Robot Arm — No-code personal robot arm, Kickstarter May 2026
Hacknect Wireless Hacking Cable — ESP32-S3 Wi-Fi USB cable for makers, Kickstarter
eufyMake E1 3D-Texture UV Printer — Prints on 300+ materials, active on Kickstarter
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
hrvach/deskhop — 7,903★ Fast KVM switch via Raspberry Pi Pico
tinygo-org/bluetooth — 1,005★ Bluetooth API for Go/TinyGo on ESP32 & Pico
jblanked/Picoware — 328★ Custom firmware for PicoCalc, Flipper Zero, ESP32/Pico
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Bay Area 20th Anniversary — Sept 25–27, Mare Island, Vallejo CA
Maker Faire Calais 2026 — Sept 11–12, Calais, France (happening now)
Every newsletter preserved and searchable
Curated by JD · samwise.agency