Samwise Makers' News
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Requiem For Long Wave, As The BBC Goes Silent
The BBC permanently switched off its 198 kHz Long Wave signal from the Droitwich transmitter on June 27, 2026, ending decades of UK national broadcasting. The high-power transmitter relied on specialist vacuum tubes no longer manufactured, making the shutdown inevitable once critical components failed. Long Wave, occupying the 153–279 kHz range, had served listeners in remote coastal areas, onboard ships, and across Europe where FM coverage is unavailable. The Droitwich signal was stabilised by an atomic-controlled frequency standard ensuring extraordinary long-term precision. Shortwave enthusiasts and radio preservationists mourned the loss of one of the last active Long Wave broadcasters in western Europe.
World's Biggest RC A380 Is A Big Deal
Builder Ramy RC completed what is likely the world's largest RC airliner: a 1/8-scale Airbus A380 stretching 29 feet in length with a 32-foot wingspan, weighing approximately 800 pounds (362 kg). The fuselage was CNC-cut from EPS foam and reinforced with fiberglass and carbon fiber layups. Acrylic windows were fitted with 3D printed frames replicating the A380's distinctive upper deck. Four turbine engines power the model in flight. The aircraft made its public debut on June 28, 2026, drawing large crowds. Ramy RC meticulously reproduced full-scale A380 exterior proportions, including the characteristic double-deck hump visible through the transparent windows.
Cramming A Mini-ITX Gaming PC Into A 3D Printed Steam Machine Sized Case
Linux gaming community member 3DCatt 3D printed a custom Small Form Factor enclosure that mimics the footprint of Valve's original Steam Machine, but accepts standard Mini-ITX motherboards, ATX power supplies, and full-length discrete GPUs. The original Valve Steam Machine used non-standard PCB dimensions and a proprietary power connector, preventing modern hardware upgrades. 3DCatt's redesigned case, published on Printables and developed in collaboration with AMD engineer Jacob Terkelsen, fits components including the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060. The project is fully open-source, offering a fresh chassis option for Linux SFF gaming enthusiasts who want Steam Machine aesthetics with modern PC hardware.
Make Your Own Loudspeaker From Scratch
Dutch maker rvanderouderaa published a step-by-step Instructables guide for building a complete loudspeaker entirely from scratch, covered in a June 28 Hackaday writeup. The design uses a 3D printed frame and cone, while the suspension surround is formed from papier-mâché — wet toilet paper pressed into a 3D printed mould and left to dry. The result is a functional acoustic membrane with variable impedance, an unusual characteristic for a DIY speaker that affects frequency response. All build files and measurement data are included. English-speaking builders should run the original Dutch Instructables through a browser translator for detailed step-by-step construction instructions.
A Quantum Magic 8-Ball
David Noel Ng built a genuine quantum random number generator housed inside a standard novelty Magic 8-Ball enclosure. A single photon is directed at a 50/50 beam splitter; detection by photomultiplier tube A or B — an outcome determined by quantum superposition — generates each random binary bit. Ng validated the output using the NIST Statistical Test Suite (STS) applied across 1.6 billion generated bits, passing all 15 standard randomness tests in succession. Unlike pseudo-random number generators, which produce deterministic sequences from fixed seed values, this device derives entropy from an inherently unpredictable quantum mechanical measurement, making it a legitimate hardware true-random-number generator.
Bringing Swift To The Apple II
Developer Yeo Kheng Meng has ported a Swift language interpreter to the Apple II, running through a bytecode virtual machine on the 8-bit MOS 6502 processor. The project targets Apple II through Apple IIe hardware. The original Apple II shipped with 4 KB of RAM, but the Swift VM requires a 48 KB RAM expansion to operate. Swift source code is compiled to a compact bytecode format, which the 6502 executes at runtime via the interpreter. The project joins a growing body of retrocomputing software ports, demonstrating that modern high-level languages remain accessible on 1970s-era 8-bit hardware given sufficient RAM.
Do Metal Roofs Turn A Bird House Into An Oven?
YouTuber 'Of Human and Nature', covered by Hackaday's Navarre Bartz on June 27, 2026, tested whether a metal roof makes a birdhouse dangerously hot, as part of an ongoing 500-birdhouse build marathon. Using thermocouples and a heat lamp simulating solar radiation, the experiment found the metal roof surface reached approximately 70 °C. Interior cavity temperatures remained in the mid-20 °C range — a critical difference explained by the air gap between roof and cavity walls, which dramatically limits heat conduction. The results suggest that metal-roofed birdhouses are safe for nesting birds provided the air gap is maintained and ventilation holes are present.
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
1. Lumos Ultra — ~$4.6M funded (Kickstarter)
2. Revopoint POP 4 — ~$2.1M funded (Kickstarter)
3. CardputerZero — ~$1.4M funded (Kickstarter)
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
1. m3y54m/Embedded-Engineering-Roadmap — 11.9k★
2. earlephilhower/arduino-pico — 2.8k★
3. davidmonterocrespo24/velxio — 1.9k★
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Hamamatsu — July 4, 2026, Japan
Maker Faire Edmonton — July 17–19, 2026, Canada
Maker Faire Bay Area — Sept 25–27, 2026, California
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.