BeagleBone

(FIXME: a few words here about the BeagleBone ...)

The BeagleBoard and the BeagleBone are open-hardware boards that run Linux based on Texas Instruments system-on-a-chip.

The BeagleBone is based on the Texas Instruments AM3358/9 system-on-a-chip which includes a ARM Cortex-A8 CPU.

The BeagleBoard is based on a Texas Instruments OMAP3530 system-on-a-chip, which in addition to the ARM Cortex-A8 CPU also includes a TMS320C64x+ DSP.

They are supported by the Texas Instruments company.

(FIXME: link to the BeagleBone Black System Reference Manual (SRM).)

tips for designing a new BeagleBone cape

(If you've designed a cape, please add to this page a few tips that you wish you had known earlier)

A few OpenCircuits members have designed BeagleBone capes.

You may want to throw together a quick proto board before spinning a custom PCB.

When designing a cape, you may want to look at the capes that have already been designed -- see "lists of existing capes" below. Perhaps some pre-existing cape (or a stack of capes) is close enough that you can buy one, cut out stuff you don't want and hack in a couple more things, then confirm that the new circuit will work, with less effort than making a prototype completely from scratch.

When designing a cape, consider perhaps making the outline small enough that the stack fits in some off-the-shelf Enclosures#BeagleBone enclosure.

Alas, many designers assume *their* cape is going to be on top, which makes such capes useless to people that need to have some *other* cape on top. Therefore, try to design your cape so it works when plugged into the middle of a stack.

stacking connectors

(FIXME: isn't there some other OpenCircuits page that discusses stacking connectors? Link to it here.)

BeagleBone capes need to have 23x2 position gold plated 0.1" pitch stacking connectors.

http://blog.machinekit.io/2013/06/using-bebopr-with-beaglebone-black.html lists one source of stacking connectors for BeagleBone.

Perhaps using several of these connectors side-by-side and end-to-end would be adequate?: https://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=stacking+connector

Is this connector adequate?: "Samtec SSQ-123-03-G-D" available from DigiKey

Major League SSHQ-123-D-06-G-LF Major League SSHQ-123-D-08-G-LF Major League SSHQ-123-D-10-G-LF or etc. according to p. 101 of the BeagleBone Black System Reference Manual (SRM). and the BOM at http://boardzoo.com/index.php/beaglebone-black/extended-proto-cape.html Available from: stacking connector at Future Electronics.

lists of existing capes

• http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Capes
• http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Capes
• http://www.mouser.com/new/beagleboardorg/beaglebonecapes/
• ...

$10 BeagleBone Proto Cape with EEPROM http://www.logicsupply.com/components/beaglebone/capes/cbb-eeproto/

Benjamin Ball. [http: // java . dzone . com/articles/7-powerful-beaglebone-addons "7 Powerful BeagleBone Addons to Be Excited About". ] (FIXME: fix above link?)

Erle-brain

Erle-brain is an open hardware Linux autopilot.

"The hardware designs are open to anyone that wishes to improve them." ( "Erle-brain, an open hardware Linux autopilot". )

The Erle-brain hardware includes:

• the the PixHawk Fire Cape
• a BeagleBone Black

The Erle-brain software includes:

• Linux
• ROS, the robot operating system
• mavros
• APM, the ardupilot mega software ported to run natively in Linux

What is the connection between the BeaglePilot project ( "BeaglePilot: APM on Beaglebone Black/Linux". "BeaglePilot". ) and the APM project ( "APM dev wiki: ArduPilot on Beagle Bone Black". ) and the Erle-brain project ?

( DIY drones: BeagleBone discussions. ) ( DIY drones: BeagleBone blog posts. )

Other open-source stuff related to BeagleBone

"LinuxCNC running on the BeagleBone to control a 3D printer" http://blog.machinekit.io/

"The 'BeBoPr Bridge' ... PCBs ... design is 'Open Source Hardware' and the design information and Gerbers are available for download ... handle all the signal re-routing needed to make the BeBoPr fully compatible with the BeagleBone Black." -- https://github.com/modmaker/BeBoPr/wiki/BeBoPr-Bridge

"Library for interfacing with the SensorCape for BeagleBone Black. Also includes Open Source Hardware files for the cape design." -- http://themakercorner.com/projects/SensorCape/ and https://github.com/LeonardMH/SensorCape (old location: http://solderpad.com/michael0310/beaglebone-black-sensorcape/ )

Further reading

• Wikipedia: Beagle Board
• http://beagleboard.org/