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BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

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Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#71

Post by Florin_Andrei »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #4

I got three of these. I need controllers like I need a hole in my head but hey, they are really really cute. A bit of trouble with the release that was on them but downloaded and burned in the latest and they were fine. Sadly no, I have not yet put them on a meter but will when they are near such a setup. Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O, and two the Cloud9 I…

> Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O

How so?

I thought RasPi has plenty of I/O, but I'm not familiar with BB.

Minor quibble: The lack of analog sound output. It shows that their mindset was not entirely focused on the robotics / DIY genre, but more on the miniature computer thing. You don't do sound output on a robot or controller from HDMI.

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#72

Post by scott_karana »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #71
ChuckMcM wrote: post #4

I got three of these. I need controllers like I need a hole in my head but hey, they are really really cute. A bit of trouble with the release that was on them but downloaded and burned in the latest and they were fine. Sadly no, I have not yet put them on a meter but will when they are near such a setup. Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O, and two the Cloud9 I…

> Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O How so? I thought RasPi has plenty of I/O, but I'm not familiar with BB. Minor quibble: The lack of analog sound output. It shows that their mindset was not entirely focused on the robotics / DIY genre, but more on the miniature computer thing. You don't do sound output on a robot or controller from HDMI.

I think the HDMI is more a concession than anything, since there's no real "GPU" to speak of. This is more akin to the Arduino, but with a little more creature comfort.

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#73

Post by stephengillie »

scott_karana wrote: post #72
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O How so? I thought RasPi has plenty of I/O, but I'm not familiar with BB. Minor quibble: The lack of analog sound output. It shows that their mindset was not entirely focused on the robotics / DIY genre, but more on the miniature computer thing. You don't do sound output on a robot or controller from HDMI.

I think the HDMI is more a concession than anything, since there's no real "GPU" to speak of. This is more akin to the Arduino, but with a little more creature comfort.

Except that this Cortex is running 1ghz, while the most Arduino (or TI Launchpad) microcontrollers operate at sub-100mhz speeds.

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#74

Post by yajoe »

DigitalSea wrote: post #16

The impulse buying tech nerd within me sees a $45 computer with potential for being able to make anything and I am stuck for ideas as to what I could use this for. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I feel the exact way. I have been inspired to study electrical engineering ever since I read this story from 10 years ago: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/03/01/15/1829244

And the nerd/hacker/enthusiast in me would gladly put down the cash to make it happen.

However, I also run into a wall when thinking of what to do with such a device. I'm not inspired by webcam+embedded linux. I don't want home automation. I already have devices hooked up to a TV. I work on the Kindles, which use Android (Fire) and embedded Linux (eink), so I can't argue buying a BeagleBoard for educational reasons.

Every time a product like this comes up, I get excited and start searching the TI website or BeagleBoard.org or Raspberry Pi or Arduino for lists of related components I could purchase to put together. Make my own weather station? I live in Seattle, the weather never changes :). What about a toiler paper roll sensor so I know if I need to buy more next time I'm at costco? (with a gf, this is hard problem!). I don't want this electronic staying in the bathroom around the moisture. What about getting a blue light star tracker and calculating celestial position like the old stealth fighters did? Cool, but kind of niche.

The closest idea I came up with is making an RC car. It would get me into the shop to make a frame, perhaps use a 3D printer for mold coverings, and be a fun demo with friends. When I start looking for motors, I get stuck finding a place to buy a motor. Take this page, for example:

http://www.ti.com/tool/dk-lm4f-drv8312

It's unclear to me if this page is a 'kit' for a large shop who want to try out this motor for a specific application. Or do I really need the huge controller board to operate this brushless motor?

Also, is it even possible to buy 4 or 8 of the motors? Or do I really need to put in an order of 1k or 10k units?!?!

Forgive the naive question, but where do other people go shopping for related components like a motor to wire together with these kits? What am I doing wrong?

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#75

Post by lhl »

scott_karana wrote: post #72
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O How so? I thought RasPi has plenty of I/O, but I'm not familiar with BB. Minor quibble: The lack of analog sound output. It shows that their mindset was not entirely focused on the robotics / DIY genre, but more on the miniature computer thing. You don't do sound output on a robot or controller from HDMI.

I think the HDMI is more a concession than anything, since there's no real "GPU" to speak of. This is more akin to the Arduino, but with a little more creature comfort.

Err, what the heck are you talking about? The GPU is a SGX530. http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#76

Post by peddamat »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #4

I got three of these. I need controllers like I need a hole in my head but hey, they are really really cute. A bit of trouble with the release that was on them but downloaded and burned in the latest and they were fine. Sadly no, I have not yet put them on a meter but will when they are near such a setup. Something that sets these apart from the Raspberry Pi are that they full of easy access I/O, and two the Cloud9 I…

I just bought two on an impulse buy. There's really no better time to be a hardware tinkerer.

There are so many awesome kits coming down the pipeline:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1106670630/mojo-digital-...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-su...

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#77

Post by jonstjohn »

wiredfool wrote: post #65
jonstjohn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was interested in getting an arduino for a while but wasn't sure what to do with it and was busy with other software projects. Recently, I got a pi at PyCon for free, then shortly after we bought some chicks for raising chickens for eggs. I put the two together and am building out a monitoring system for them, that includes a web cam, temperature sensor and remotely controlled brooder light. I like to call it a chi…

I missed pycon, but got a Pi anyway. Mine is currently a part time camera host for the (hot, young) chick cam, and rapidly getting the electronics and control programming to run the door on the coop. My long term plan is to have a few webcams in the coop and do some computer vision for chicken detection. Pulling in the Shenzhen thread -- I wish I had the lab I had in HS 20 years back to do this: a bench full of scope…

Cool! I wanted to add a control for the door, as well, and experiment with computer vision.

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#78

Post by joezydeco »

tmuir wrote: post #53
Intermernet wrote: post #44

"Carlos Betancourt, a marketing engineer for TI's Sitara processors, described BeagleBone Black as "truly" open source. He noted that open source software is not always as open as it claims to be. "When it comes to hardware, open source means you can buy all these chips and use them for your own design," Betancourt said. " I'm sorry, but that is NOT open source "when it comes to hardware". It's very cool, it's open s…

The schematics, bill of materials, and PCB layout files are freely available here: http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack... What more do you want?

I think he wants masks for every chip, microcode, design files, free licensing from ARM, and access to the TI fab so he can make his own chips.

I don't think people realize how much stuff is in these chips and how much work and NRE it takes to make something like a $10 SoC happen. It's nice to see the advantages of scale being useful and -yay- we all get cheap XBMC players, but don't take it for granted.

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#79

Post by chopsueyar »

ww520 wrote: post #67
chopsueyar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please provide a link? I have been playing w/ an MK802 stick and it has a few issues.

Various sellers from $40 and up. The free shipping ones from reputable sellers are close to $48. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00ALSZNLW/ref=dp_olp... PicUntu http://ubuntu.g8.net/ seems to got Ubuntu booted and running on the device.

Have you personally been able to get XBMC working and decoding 1080p?

Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45

#80

Post by wiredfool »

jonstjohn wrote: post #77
wiredfool wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I missed pycon, but got a Pi anyway. Mine is currently a part time camera host for the (hot, young) chick cam, and rapidly getting the electronics and control programming to run the door on the coop. My long term plan is to have a few webcams in the coop and do some computer vision for chicken detection. Pulling in the Shenzhen thread -- I wish I had the lab I had in HS 20 years back to do this: a bench full of scope…

Cool! I wanted to add a control for the door, as well, and experiment with computer vision.

The current code is on github: https://github.com/wiredfool/coop-door . I'm going to be adding schematics and other non code bits there soon.

I've finally got the last few parts to move it from breadboard to soldered pc board, so I'm hoping to get that done this weekend.

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