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jwettroth

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Joined: 02/08/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 85

Posted: 02:02pm 02 May 2026

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Amazon sells these little RP2040 boards for about $2 ($20 for ten). USB C connector, boot and reset buttons and about an inch square. I bought a few to play and use them with Arduino IDE but plan to use the real SDK. Has anyone experimented with MMBasic on them? I have a lot of little tasks in my lab where one of these running basic could be awesome. It would be really cool if I could just plug in, use the USB console with editor etc and then set them to autorun. A replacement for the old Picaxe!

Is there any reason that MMBasic won't run on one, I'm going to give it a shot but wanted to share, know others experience and any gotchas.

Thanks.

John Wettroth

JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4309

Posted: 02:09pm 02 May 2026

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Like this?

John

jwettroth

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Joined: 02/08/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 85

Posted: 02:18pm 02 May 2026

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Very cool, I tried it and it just works! Quite cool, amazing.

I have a little example app that run a WS2812 that takes console input for RGB levels.

I ran into one oddity. After it runs, the terminal screen goes black (using Teraterm). This might just be terminal settings? When I run editor, it fixes it and I get color highlighted source code.

Are there any oddities you've noted?

I don't know why I never thought to do this before.

John Wettroth

Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5864

Posted: 02:47pm 02 May 2026

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Mmbasic runs fine on RP2040 zero.
I have several in measuremen instrumenta, and Mick uses one as fish tank controller.

Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8796

Posted: 03:57pm 02 May 2026

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One of my favourite little modules. :)
Just remember that you have to treat it as a standard Pico though. You get the added bonus of GP29. Unfortunately the castellated connections are wasted unless you cut a hole or notch in the PCB.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

lizby
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Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3746

Posted: 04:21pm 02 May 2026

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Mixtel90 said One of my favourite little modules. :)

Ditto, but I'd go for the Aliexpress RP2350 version, though:
RP2350-Zero
(Maybe it's also an option on your site.)

At $3.16USD, costs a bit more, but well worth it in my opinion.

I have made a PCB for it: Rp2350-Zero PCB

~
Edited 2026-05-03 02:22 by lizby

PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on FOTS

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
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Posted: 05:10pm 02 May 2026

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I would now, but I didn't have that choice at the time. :)
Exactly the same problem with the castellated connections though. Still, you can't have everything. :) I did a design using the RP2040-Zero for a game controller some time ago, cutting a notch out of the board and having the USB-C connector accessible at the back.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

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