Samwise Makers' News
Saturday, June 27, 2026
A Century of Radio History Ends as BBC Silences 198 kHz Long Wave
A century of radio history came to an end today as the BBC permanently silenced Radio 4 on 198 kHz longwave. The transmitter at Droitwich, UK — the last of its kind — has been decommissioned after manufacturers discontinued the high-power vacuum tubes that kept it running. The BBC first began longwave broadcasting in the mid-1920s, and the 198 kHz frequency became a beloved institution, serving mariners, night-shift workers, and shortwave enthusiasts. It was home to the Shipping Forecast and the original radio premiere of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The band (153–279 kHz) was also widely used as a precision frequency standard.
3D-Printed Case Squeezes Mini-ITX Hardware Into Steam Machine Footprint
Valve’s 2026 Steam Machine uses a custom non-standard PCB that can’t be swapped for off-the-shelf components — but maker [3DCatt] found a way around that limitation. Working in cooperation with AMD’s Jacob Terkelsen, 3DCatt designed a 3D-printed enclosure (Printables model #1493449) that matches the Steam Machine’s footprint while accommodating a standard Mini-ITX motherboard, SFF power supply, and even a full-size discrete GPU — including the RTX 5060. The biggest hurdle was cooling: Valve’s design shares a heatsink between CPU and GPU, so the DIY version required extra ventilation cutouts to keep temperatures in check.
Swift Comes to the Apple II via a Custom 6502 Bytecode VM
Software engineer Yeo Kheng Meng has achieved an improbable first: a working Swift development environment targeting the Apple II platform. Swift — Apple’s modern programming language introduced in 2014 as an Objective-C successor — now compiles to bytecode interpreted by a custom virtual machine running on the 6502 CPU. The Apple II, launched in 1977 with a 1 MHz processor and just 4 KB of RAM, requires at least 48 KB once upgraded. The implementation works on the original Apple II through the IIe. Yeo used Claude Code and GPT 5.5 Codex to help piece together the bytecode interpreter.
This Magic 8-Ball Draws Its Answers From Real Quantum Randomness
David Noel Ng has built what might be the world’s most philosophically defensible magic 8-ball: one powered by genuine quantum randomness. The device attenuates light down to roughly one photon at a time, then passes each photon through a beam splitter. A photon that passes through reaches photomultiplier A; one that bounces reaches photomultiplier B — a binary outcome governed by quantum mechanics rather than classical statistics. The output was validated with the NIST Statistical Test Suite across 1.6 billion bits, passing all tests. The device also exposes a live public API at quantumlever.stream/api/magic-8-ball, so you can query the quantum oracle from anywhere.
Science Settles It: Metal-Roofed Birdhouses Are Not Ovens
Do metal-roofed birdhouses turn into ovens for their occupants? Builder [Of Human and Nature] — part of a 500-birdhouse marathon — decided to find out empirically. Using thermocouples and a calibrated heat lamp, the setup held the metal roof at a sustained 70°C for four hours. The interior temperature, however, barely budged — staying comfortably in the mid-20°C range throughout. The key factor is the air gap between the metal roof and the wooden box, which allows convective airflow to carry heat away before it reaches the interior. Conclusion: metal roofs pose no thermal threat to cavity-nesting birds.
Discounted Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Surfaces at 1.25 GHz Clock Speed
A lower-binned variant of the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is now appearing online at a discounted price — sold as a 1.25 GHz unit, compared to the 1.5 to 1.8 GHz range of standard Pi 4 boards. The chip binning practice — common in the semiconductor industry — refers to sorting processors by their verified maximum stable clock speed before sale. Units that don’t quite reach the standard threshold get sold at a lower frequency and a reduced price. For makers running less demanding workloads, this offers a budget-friendly entry to the Pi 4 ecosystem without sacrificing compatibility.
Sources: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Makerfabs MaTouch ESP32-P4: 10.1-Inch HMI with 4G LTE, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 6
Makerfabs has launched the MaTouch ESP32-P4, a 10.1-inch HMI display board packing serious connectivity into a maker-friendly package. The board pairs an ESP32-P4 dual-core RISC-V processor (400 MHz) with an ESP32-C6 for wireless, delivering Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, and 802.15.4 alongside a SIMCom SIM7670G 4G LTE Cat 1 module and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet. The 1280×800 IPS display is joined by a 2MP MIPI camera, 32 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash, and six USB-C ports. Compatible with ESP-IDF, Arduino, PlatformIO, and LVGL, it targets industrial HMI and IoT applications. Available for $79.80 at the Makerfabs store.
Sources: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
1. nLab — World's smallest electronics lab (breadboard PSU + oscilloscope + function generator), $169 early bird — Kickstarter
2. CardputerZero — M5Stack pocket Linux-capable maker computer, ~$1.4M raised — Kickstarter
3. Lumos Ultra — World's first UV + MOPA laser engraver, ~$4.6M raised — Kickstarter
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
1. ollama/ollama — 175,900★ — Run any LLM locally on your hardware
2. Makerfabs/Matouch_ESP32-P4_TFT_with_Touch_10_1 — ESP32-P4 HMI display platform
3. DataTalksClub/llm-zoomcamp — Free LLM engineering course, trending this week
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Edmonton — July 17–19, 2026, Edmonton, Canada
Maker Faire Tulsa — August 29, 2026, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Maker Faire Bay Area — September 25–27, 2026, Bay Area, CA, USA
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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