Samwise Makers' News
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Long-Theorized GPS Weakness Now Exploited at Scale — LEO Constellation Offers a Path Forward
GPS satellites orbit approximately 20,000 kilometers above Earth, making their signals incredibly weak by the time they reach the surface. This well-known vulnerability to jamming and spoofing has recently been put to the test by a large-scale interference attempt, stress-testing existing mitigation efforts. One proposed solution comes from Xona, whose Pulsar-0 satellite operates in low Earth orbit and broadcasts positioning and timing signals around 100 times stronger than conventional GPS/GNSS signals. Pulsar-0 also receives GPS signals to ensure the two systems agree with one another, allowing receivers to detect discrepancies. Xona expects LEO-based navigation signals to be significantly more resistant to jamming than traditional GPS.
Sources: Hackaday
LightComposer: Hockey-Puck Lamp Pairs ATmega328P with SK6812 LEDs and Rotary Control
Inspired by the rotary phone, maker John has created the LightComposer, a lamp roughly the size of a hockey puck that uses a 3D-printed enclosure and a custom PCB. The design features a TPU ring on the base to prevent sliding and 32 SK6812 LEDs — compatible with NeoPixels — for the light source. An ATmega328P microcontroller runs the show and can be programmed via the Arduino IDE. A rotary encoder in the center couples to the top diffuser, letting you control LED brightness and color with a simple twist. The firmware also includes several hidden light-effect modes. Build files and premade kits are available on the creator's website.
Sources: Hackaday
Post-Print Annealing Does Not Fix Carbon Fiber Filament Adhesion in FDM, Research Concludes
A new investigation into carbon fiber filament performance in FDM 3D printing examines whether post-print annealing can improve the poor adhesion between chopped carbon fiber and thermoplastic filaments. Researcher “I built a thing” tested PETG, PETG-CF, PLA, and PLA-CF across 160 samples — 20 per material and annealing state — measuring tensile strength, stiffness, dimensional accuracy, and warping, with scanning electron microscope imaging. PETG showed the most dramatic benefit from annealing, becoming significantly more resilient to breaking. However, PETG-CF performed worse than plain PETG, and neither PLA nor PLA-CF gained much improvement. CCF addition did reduce annealing-related shrinkage and expansion, but no improvement to the CCF-thermoplastic interface adhesion was found.
Sources: Hackaday
SDS-Remote Adds Waveform Capture, SCPI Scripting, and AI Integration to Siglent SDS 1000X-E Scopes
Maker Winfried has released SDS-Remote, an open-source web interface for Siglent SDS 1000X-E series oscilloscopes. While most scope remote interfaces are rudimentary, SDS-Remote adds genuine power-user features: remote control over USB or network, waveform capture with CSV export for further analysis, screenshot capture for easy signal comparison, and a built-in data logger for long experiments. A macro recorder automates complex test sequences via SCPI commands, providing basic scripting without needing separate code. An optional AI LLM integration can translate plain-language descriptions into the correct scope configuration. The project is available on GitHub at klumw/sdsremote.
Sources: Hackaday
Teardown: US Prison Tablet Runs Windows 10 Kiosk Mode Inside Hermetically Sealed Opaque Case
YouTuber Hugh Jeffreys received and tore down a US prison tablet, examining a device specifically engineered to restrict unauthorized access. The tablet is housed in a hermetically sealed opaque plastic case, with no accessible external markings about internal hardware. Inside, it runs Windows 10 configured in kiosk mode, restricting users to only prison-provided services accessible through a locked-down browser. Jeffreys documents the hardware construction and investigates what options exist for accessing the underlying system beyond what the prison service permits. The teardown offers an informative look at how standard commercial hardware is adapted and locked down for institutional correctional deployment.
Sources: Hackaday
Four Ungrounded NES PPU Pins Unlock Extra Graphics Capabilities in Retro Hardware Hack
A hardware hacking project for the original Nintendo Entertainment System exploits a behavior of the system's Picture Processing Unit (PPU). In the standard NES design, four PPU pins are grounded, telling the system to display the background color whenever a foreground pixel is transparent. The key discovery is that these four pins do not need to remain grounded — and that modifying their state enables additional graphics capabilities beyond what the stock NES hardware normally supports. By manipulating these pins, a hacker can extend the visual output of the console, opening a new avenue for retrocomputing projects and NES-based homebrew development that push past the original hardware's apparent limitations.
Sources: Hackaday
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1. xTool WonderPress — Active, Kickstarter
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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