# Hands-on with Raspberry Pi's CM5 Programming Jig

> Source: <https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/cm5-programming-jig/>
> Published: 2026-08-19 07:13:00+00:00

In the before-times, when Raspberry Pi CM5s were (relatively) affordable, I built a number of Pi clusters ([example](https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/i-regret-building-3000-pi-ai-cluster/)), and one of the most annoying parts of the build was flashing Raspberry Pi OS to all the Pis.

One, two, or even three Pis isn't a big deal, but once you hit 4+, the process of plugging the Compute Module into a carrier board, plugging that into a computer, managing Raspberry Pi Imager, and trying to match up details like a hostname, MAC address, and the physical Pi itself, gets annoying.