Samwise Makers' News
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
PewCB One Laser-Ablation Desktop System Cuts PCB Prototyping to 30 Minutes
The PewCB One is a fully enclosed desktop PCB fabrication system designed to cut wait times for hardware developers from days to under an hour. Unlike chemical wet-etch methods, PewCB One uses a 1,064 nm laser with 20 W average optical power and a 35 micrometer spot diameter to ablate copper traces as fine as 0.1 mm from double-sided PCB blanks. The machine integrates air filtration and supports the complete process from bare board to assembled PCBA in a single workspace. The company reports a 30-minute turnaround after Gerber files are ready. Early-bird orders are live at $5,000 including a 30 percent deposit, with production scheduled to begin September 1.
Sources: CNX Software
The PiShot Packs a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and Camera Module 3 Into a 3D-Printed Body
Maker Irtaza2009 has published the PiShot, a compact handheld camera built around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and Camera Module 3, housed inside a 3D-printed enclosure in a traditional compact camera form factor with a screen on the rear. The build features an ST7789 SPI display for rear-panel viewing, an 18650 lithium cell managed by a battery management and power supply board, and tactile switches wired to GPIO pins for shutter and other controls. A cold shoe mount on top allows accessory attachment. Hackaday notes the project repository is a few months old but continues to receive active updates, with firmware and enclosure refinements ongoing.
Printed Japanese Cotton Meets Aircraft Composite Techniques in an RV Countertop Build
A new project from Whitburn Studio demonstrates how printed Japanese cotton can replace standard woven glass cloth in fiber-reinforced plastic to produce lightweight, visually striking countertops for RV van conversions. The technique adapts moldless composite methods originally developed for homebuilt aircraft, forming a finished panel over a positive foam-and-plywood buck that stays inside the part as structural core and backing. The sandwich uses two 3.6 mm plywood layers with XPS foam between them, reducing the fiber count needed to resist surface denting. Unlike pure Styrofoam-core aircraft designs, the plywood backing adds stiffness without heavy laminate schedules. Full build video and process notes are available through the studio’s channel.
Adafruit Designates August 21 as CircuitPython Day 2026
Adafruit has designated August 21, 2026 as CircuitPython Day, an annual community celebration of the CircuitPython open-source microcontroller firmware platform. The company plans special shows and live streams throughout the day, and is inviting makers to tag projects with #CircuitPythonDay2026 for a chance to be featured. Adafruit’s August 10 ICYMI Python on Microcontrollers newsletter also highlights an experimental MicroPython port currently in development for the Bao chip, the open-source silicon distributed in DEF CON 34 badges, alongside Coldcard hardware wallet firmware updates and other news from across the Python-on-microcontrollers community.
Prusa CORE One ‘Nozzlegate’: Bondtech Nozzles Ship Surface-Hardened Instead of Through-Hardened
A quality control dispute has broken out in the 3D printing community after Prusa CORE One kits began arriving with Bondtech-supplied steel nozzles that are surface-hardened rather than fully hardened as originally specified. Bondtech has acknowledged machining flaws and admitted there is no quick fix available, leaving buyers with nozzles that wear faster than expected, particularly with abrasive filaments. Dubbed ‘Nozzlegate’ by the community, the issue has also delayed Prusa INDX toolchanger conversion kit shipments, which were planned to start July 31 but have slipped to mid-August. Multiple users have reported mid-print crashes and layer shifts requiring firmware workarounds, with some issues surfacing after return windows had already closed.
Sources: Tom's Hardware
Maker Catalogues UK Government GitHub Repositories Going Quietly Dark
Jonty of Electromagnetic Field has compiled a list of UK government GitHub repositories that have been quietly deleted or set to private, covering web projects, R-based data analytics, server code, and climate modelling data from the Met Office Informatics Lab. The uk-gov-mirror repository on GitHub tracks these removals and performs weekly backups; because most government repos carry open-source licences, deleted code can be legally republished. Hackaday reports community concern not primarily about the specific code removed, much of which is unremarkable infrastructure, but about what might be deleted without notice in the future and whether publicly funded code should remain publicly accessible.
PyBLE Brings Wireless MicroPython Development to iPad and Android Tablets via Bluetooth LE
PyBLE is a new open-source, MIT-licensed integrated development environment that allows iPad and Android tablet users to write and run MicroPython code on microcontroller boards entirely over Bluetooth Low Energy, with no USB cable required after an initial one-time firmware installation. The Flutter-based application supports editing, a live REPL console, and wireless file management, using a fully documented PBLE/1 protocol. Initial firmware targets include the ESP32, ESP32-S3, and ESP32-C3 families. The system operates fully locally with no cloud account, analytics, or remote dependency. PyBLE firmware version 0.5.1 is available for download, with the project’s source code hosted at pyble.dev.
Sources: CNX Software
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
1. HeyGears G1 Series — $10.8M raised, 2,537 backers (Kickstarter)
2. None this week
3. None this week
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
None this week — trending data unavailable
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Hannover — Aug 15–16, Hannover, Germany
CircuitPython Day — Aug 21, 2026 (global/online)
Maker Faire Bay Area (20th anniv.) — Sep 25–27, Mare Island, CA
Every newsletter preserved and searchable
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.