I'm sort of new here. I created the account some years ago after seeing Geoff’s CMM2 reviewed on YouTube. Not sure who covered it, but anyway—I forgot the account even existed, and when I went to sign up again, the site told me the username was already taken. Woot. One old, bad password to update.

I had one posting, so it’s no wonder I forgot.

The last few months have been interesting for me, as a new hobby entered my life: homebrew rigs combined with retro computing. Between learning electronics, learning and using kiCAD software, and reading through assembly books, I can honestly say I’ve dove headfirst into this hobby. My den — previously a messy place with books, stacks of crap, and etc. — has been organized and transformed into a workshop.

I have quite an eclectic set of hardware for daily use and, well, my interest in the CMM2 has been renewed as the software layer has matured since the first time I looked at it.

The CMM2 is, more or less, a modern equivalent of my favorite style of computer, and I’m eager to dig into the design of that board and build my first machine. I also intend to take a stab at redesigning it to fit inside a keyboard tray and make it a system-in-a-keyboard (like my current modern computer, a Raspberry Pi 500). Except I’ll use a keyboard more functional than a pile of dog excrement.

(pi 500 keyboard) < (dog excrement)

Otherwise, I work as a network engineer for the government. My days are usually spent sitting in design sessions with the developer side of the house, managing the firewalls and load balancers in our environment, and reading through a constant, veritable whirlwind of emails. By night, I’m either cooking dinner, spending time with the wife, face buried in a book, or in KiCad designing an add-on board for my Tandy Model 102 laptop.

On occasion, I pull out my airplane for day trips to the coast with friends and/or relatives. Flying is less a hobby and more a lifestyle, considering how multi-disciplinary it is.

That is all,

Welcome calmandan,

Have a nice time and do not fall out of the sky.

Kind regards,

Marcel27

Welcome back. :)
Things have moved on rapidly in the last few years. During the "great chip shortage" of 2020-23 there was no production of the CMM2. The chips simply weren't available. After a false start or two matherp ported MMBasic to the Raspberry Pi Pico as that was still readily available. And thus the PicoMite was born. You'll find a heck of a lot of stuff about it on here now as it's so cheap and easy to use. The CMM2 is definitely still around, and is back in production - and cheaper. It's a much more powerful machine than the PicoMite.

Have fun. :)

Also, in the same family as the CMM2 is the STM32F4 (or just F4).  Cheap and loads of I/O.

John

Welcome (back)!

I'm a huge fan of the CMM2 as well. It was pretty straightforward to get them manufactured in small quantities. It was quite expensive to get one made, but if you order 5 or more, then the price becomes very reasonable. Which is then a bonus - as you have a lot them to experiment with!

I recounted my experience with ordering them here:
https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?TID=17235&PID=226312#226312

The current form factor might just squeeze into a mechanical keyboard (If you 3D printed a slightly bigger case). Though it would probably be useful to move the SD card, reset button and audio jack to the side edge.



I've also been experimenting with mounting the CMM2 into 3D printed cases. I outlined an early one here:

https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?TID=17823&P=1

All in all, it's an incredibly exciting and rewarding hobby. You'll find the people here very helpful and full of wonderful advice and ideas. And in turn we'll be very interested in seeing wat you come up with!
Edited 2026-01-17 04:26 by PeteCotton

Welcome.