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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : CMM2 G2 sales....

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Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 11:00pm 22 Nov 2023
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@ Bill - never noticed that.  I certainly had no problem getting my test card in and out to make sure the SD card side of things was working.  I will check the next batch of boards.  matherp MIGHT have moved that slightly forward as he did with the audio jack in v1.5 of the gerbers vs v1.4 which is what I used for the first set of boards without realizing it.  Only five units were produced using the 1.4 gerber set, all units produced now use the 1.5 set.

Have a look at your ORIGINAL unit, and see what version of the board it is.
I suspect your first one might be 1.5
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1209
Posted: 07:58am 23 Nov 2023
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Well Grog's I'm finally going home after this shutdown so on Monday I'll be off hunting for a SD card and battery then let the fun begin
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 09:36pm 23 Nov 2023
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Shutdown?
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 5905
Posted: 09:52pm 23 Nov 2023
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  Grogster said  Shutdown?

A "shutdown" is when a factory shuts down its normal processes for maintenance.

I worked every Christmas/boxing day for 10 years when the local paper mill had a few days off.

Jim
VK7JH
MMedit   MMBasic Help
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 05:19am 24 Nov 2023
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Oh, OK, thanks.  
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
PeteCotton

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Joined: 13/08/2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 316
Posted: 03:58am 27 Nov 2023
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  Grogster said  
I'm thinking about allowing back-orders.
What do the members think?


In my unprofessional opinion - I think that in order to drive the sales of the CMM2 you will have to allow back orders. It's going to be difficult to drive sales enthusiasm for a product that is always out of stock (or only available in dribs and drabs). I've played with lots of the contemporary retro-computing solutions out there and the CMM2 blows them all out of the water.

I think the CMM2 would have a massive enthusiast following if more people knew they existed and could get their hands on them. That is the flip side of this question. How do we get the level of interest in the CMM2 up to the same level that X16 and old Amigas have achieved?

This is the dream computer of the 80's. The majority of people programming ZX Spectrums, C64's, Pets, Amstrads, Apple II's etc. were dabbling in BASIC, not machine code. Of course, they could never write the games they wanted because of the limitations of BASIC on those machines. CMM2 gives them the machine they've always wanted.
 
Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1209
Posted: 05:23am 27 Nov 2023
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Well back home and went out shopping for a new SD card and picked up a 64 gig one along with a 1220 battery and trying a search on this forum is like pulling a tooth out so a link to some software to load onto the card is needed.

As I do have the 1.4 gerber model it was nice a RC cable was supplied along with a heap of documentation.
I do have a few good quality usb cables here and the moniter I'm going to use is a 24" Leveno with a heap of USB ports so hopefully they will provide enough current to power this great unit out.

Cheers Bryan
 
Turbo46

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Joined: 24/12/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1593
Posted: 05:37am 27 Nov 2023
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You could try:
https://cmm2.fun/
Also Tom's Welcome tape and other programs:
https://sockpuppetstudios.com/

Bill
Keep safe. Live long and prosper.
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3659
Posted: 12:48pm 27 Nov 2023
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  Bryan1 said  trying a search on this forum is like pulling a tooth out

Try
site:www.thebackshed.com followed here by your search words

May only work on duckduckgo & google.

John
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 09:50pm 27 Nov 2023
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  PeteCotton said  
  Grogster said  
I'm thinking about allowing back-orders.
What do the members think?


In my unprofessional opinion - I think that in order to drive the sales of the CMM2 you will have to allow back orders. It's going to be difficult to drive sales enthusiasm for a product that is always out of stock (or only available in dribs and drabs). I've played with lots of the contemporary retro-computing solutions out there and the CMM2 blows them all out of the water.


I have come to the same conclusion, so I have adjusted my website to allow for back-orders.

As WhiteWizard appears to be very busy with other things and is not selling the units anymore, I wonder if PS-labs and CircuitGizmos are aware that they can build and sell them again?

I have not really seen any posts from either of those members on the forums for ages, so if they see this thread, perhaps they could chime in as to if they plan to restart sales of the CMM2 now that you can get the ARM chip at the heart of the beast.
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 3530
Posted: 08:21am 15 Mar 2024
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Hi Graeme,

The CMM2-G2 arrived in good condition. Thanks to the tracking I was able to follow it's progress all accross the globe. It was held at customs for few weeks, until I payed the 25 euro import duty. I totally forgot about that. New zealand is a civilised country, so you pay import duty. (China is not, so you pay no import duty). Easy to confuse people. So much for fair trade.

So yesterday, after work, my wife handed me the package with the words: "I have received your birthday present, congratulations". (my birthday was 1 month ago ).

I ordered a completely build unit (I like assembling myself, but thought I would do this to pamper myself). And it looks fabulous. Really as a commercial product. So I was overly excited, and could not wait until dinner was over, to plug it in.

In the package was a "QUICK STARTUP GUIDE". Well done !! It gives you important hints to get started...

Moved the PicoMiteVGA aside, plugged VGA in the unit, and ... started to read the quick startup guide. It was full of important debugging tips...

1/ place the CR1220 coin cell, or was it a CR2012. The CMM2 remembers it's time and OPTION settings in RAM. You need the battery. I remebered reading something like this 5 years ago when I got my CMM2-G1, but forgot all about it. Opened up the unit, and the battery was not installed (Graeme told me up forhand the battery was not installed). Ok, I went through my battery collection...plenty of 3016 and 3025, but no 2012. So I'll have to order it (no local store).

2/ Reading on in the quick startup guide: you can plug in a classic UBS keyboard. Luckilly I had one (from 5 years ago, my G1), dusted it off and plugged it in.

3/ You need a decent 5V adapter, not one of those phone chargers, and a USB-B cable. The old cable was (of coarse) not found, but between the stack of micro-USB cables (pico) I found a cable for the Arduino UNO. That worked.

4/ Mouse... ah yes... The G2 supports a mouse. And there where several games made that use the mouse. So I have to plug in a USB mouse that supports PS2. Good that that was clarified in the guide. After 15 minutes I had 7 mice lying on my workbench. Just find the one that works.... none... Only the mouse with the PS2 connector (yes, I still had one ) would work, but that was a pure PS2 mouse (roller ball), so could not be connected. What to do? The quick startup guide advises 1/ to buy a Microcoft mouse. 2/ install the Hobytronics chip. I was in doubt what to do. Option 3/ was to do some home-brewing, and put a pico inside as USB-PS2 convertor. At this moment I have not decided what.

I am still very excited about the CMM2, but for me it was not "plug and play". Once I find a battery, I will start using it. And maybe the HobyTronics chip is the cleanest  solution. I saw that the crystal for the chip was already installed on the board.

A little disappointed, I disconnected the CMM2, and plugged in the PicoMiteVGA, to work on the MaxiTrek game. The CMM2-G2 will have to wait a bit.

Volhout
PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS
 
mclout999
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Joined: 05/07/2020
Location: United States
Posts: 430
Posted: 04:13pm 15 Mar 2024
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  Quote  I am still very excited about the CMM2, but for me it was not "plug and play". Once I find a battery, I will start using it. And maybe the HobyTronics chip is the cleanest  solution. I saw that the crystal for the chip was already installed on the board.

A little disappointed, I disconnected the CMM2, and plugged in the PicoMiteVGA, to work on the MaxiTrek game. The CMM2-G2 will have to wait a bit.





there are PS/2 to USB pigtails if you have a PS/2-only mouse.  I made my own and later found one in one of my junk boxes.  That is the Cheapest solution but you need a PS/2 female port for the home brew cables. I got my port from a crappy motherboard. You can also get one off of a PS/2 extender cable. The pinout for the cables for both models of CMM2s are on here somewhere but I can't find them.  For my CMM2 Gen I s I made a 40-GPIO pin adapter that allows me to use either kind of mouse.  You might have all the parts you need lying around like I did.

you can just get the adapter as well.  Search for "PS/2 to USB adapter" on Amazon or AliExpress or wherever.
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 09:05pm 15 Mar 2024
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@ Volhout: I'm glad that for the most part, you seem happy with the unit.  Batteries are a prohibited item(in as far as NZ Post are concerned), which is why anything at all MM-based that uses an RTC battery, I cannot include it - legally.  The PM VGA_USB is the same - they will ship without the RTC battery for the same reason.

Interestingly, I often find if I order battery-powered things out of China from the likes of eBay or AliExpress, they come with the battery in them, so it does depend on the country as to if that is allowed or not.  In Kiwiland, not.

Also glad you found the quick setup instructions useful.  That is useful feedback, and will mean I will continue to include them - not that I was considering NOT including them, but you do wonder sometimes, if the extra printed material is ever read at the other end.  Your feedback proves that it is.

The mouse thing is a bit of a....thing.  This has, to a large extent, been dealt with in the new PM VGA_USB boards from Peter.  He MIGHT be able to port that concept over to the CMM2G2 so that more conventional USB mice can then be used without confusion.  If Peter reads this, perhaps he will comment on that, or I could ask him in a PM or something.  I THINK that both the CMM2 and the PM VGA_USB essentially use the same USB stack in the code, but I might be wrong on that.

Don't forget to run the demos included!
The CMM2 unit - mouse issues not withstanding - is a far superior unit to the PM VGA_USB in terms of it's brilliant graphics abilities.
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8582
Posted: 09:32pm 15 Mar 2024
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The STM32 USB stack does not support a hub so can either have a mouse or keyboard but not both. The TinyUSB stack does not support host mode on an STM32 at all
 
Grogster

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Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 02:42am 16 Mar 2024
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Thanks for the clarification.
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
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