BeagleBone Black Primer, The

Description

The BeagleBone Black Primer

Master BeagleBone Black:

Today’s most powerful low-cost embedded development platform!

You can do amazing things with BeagleBone Black. Get started in just five minutes: all you need is a USB cable and this easy, hands-on primer!

Brian McLaughlin teaches you enough to be seriously dangerous. Start with the simplest embedded programming concepts. Explore BeagleBone Black’s capabilities, and learn all the essentials, from controlling I/O to establishing network connections.

Then, step by step, master increasingly advanced techniques with the Cloud9 IDE and BoneScript…Integrate external hardware…Install Linux or Android…Use Cape expansion boards to do even more.

Don’t just learn it: do it. This guide is packed with projects, from weather stations, to car computers, to a “capstone” project using Software Defined Radio to capture signals from local airspace and orbiting satellites!

You won’t just put BeagleBone Black to work: you’ll start imagining great projects of your own. And then you’ll build them.

Discover how BeagleBone Black works, and what it can do

• Get your BeagleBone Black—and get it working, fast
• Link your BeagleBone Black to the world, and link yourself to the global BeagleBone community
• Learn to read schematics and use them to connect hardware
• Prototype your projects with breadboards
• Extend BeagleBone Black with Capes
• Add sensors to capture and use data from the environment
• Use actuators to make things happen in the real world
• Make your BeagleBone Black recognize your face
• Learn from mistakes, and go beyond what you’ve already learned

Brian McLaughlin is an engineer by profession and by hobby. Building on a solid foundation in software, he was first exposed to advanced hardware topics while working on the Hubble Space Telescope. After working for Lockheed Martin, he joined NASA, where he’s supported many of NASA’s most exciting missions. He holds a B.S. in computer science (North Carolina State University) and an M.S. in systems engineering (University of Maryland). He’s also written for GeekDad and is a member of the growing Maker community.

Sample Content

Table of Contents

&>

Introduction

Who This Book Is For ....................................................................1
How This Book Is Organized .........................................................2
Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................3
Let Me Know What You Think .......................................................3

Chapter 1 Embedded Computers and Electronics ......................... 5
What Are Embedded Electronics? ..................................................5
Arduino .........................................................................................9
What Should Readers Get Out of This Book? ...............................12

Chapter 2 Introduction to the Hardware ................................... 15
A Short Lineage of the BeagleBone Black .....................................15
    BeagleBone Black Hardware Specification ....................................19
    Processor .................................................................................20
    RAM ........................................................................................21
    Onboard Flash and MicroSD External Storage ...........................22
    Ethernet ...................................................................................22
    General-Purpose Input/Output .................................................22

Chapter 3 Getting Started ....................................................... 25
Setting Up and Saying “Hello, World!” ........................................26
Connecting to Ethernet ................................................................32

Chapter 4 Hardware Basics ..................................................... 39
Electronics Basics: Voltage, Current, Power, and Resistance .........39
The Short Circuit .........................................................................43
    The Resistor .............................................................................45
    Diodes and LEDs ......................................................................48
    Build an LED Circuit .................................................................50

Chapter 5 A Little Deeper into Development .............................. 57
Interpreted Code .........................................................................57
    Python—A Step Above Interpreted Language ..............................59
    Implementing Blinking Lights In Python .....................................62
Compiled Code ...........................................................................65

Chapter 6 Trying Other Operating Systems ............................... 71
History of the Linux World: Part I ................................................71
Picking an Operating System .......................................................73
Loading the microSD Card ..........................................................73

Chapter 7 Expanding the Hardware Horizon .............................. 81
Binary Basics ...............................................................................81
    Hardware Representation .........................................................83
Serial Communications ................................................................91
    Inspecting UART ......................................................................93

Chapter 8 Low-Level Hardware and Capes ................................. 97
Linux Hardware Through The File System .....................................97
Hardware in the File System .......................................................100
One Pin, Multiple Functions ......................................................103
Hardware Configuration ............................................................108

Chapter 9 Interacting with Your World, Part 1: Sensors .......... 113
Sensor Basics ............................................................................113
    Analog Versus Digital .............................................................120
    Sample Rates .........................................................................124

Chapter 10 Remote Monitoring and Data Collection ................... 127
Project Outline ..........................................................................127
Wiring Up The Project ...............................................................130
Seeing the Light .........................................................................134
Publishing the Sensor Data ........................................................137
Start Collecting Data .................................................................142

Chapter 11 Interacting with Your World, Part 2: Feedback and Actuators 149
Controlling Current ...................................................................149
Blinking to Fading .....................................................................156
Vibration Motors .......................................................................159
Servo Motors ............................................................................161
Stepper Motors .........................................................................165

Chapter 12 Computer Vision ................................................... 171
Connecting a Camera ................................................................171
Utilizing OpenCV Libraries .........................................................177
A Better Photo Booth ................................................................178
Cascade Classifiers ....................................................................180
Tracking a Face .........................................................................182

Chapter 13 Sniffing Out Car Trouble ......................................... 189
Car Computers ..........................................................................189
Interfacing to the Car ................................................................191
Reading the Car’s Status ............................................................198
Interpreting the Data .................................................................199

Chapter 14 Ground Control to Major Beagle ............................. 205
Radio Data ...............................................................................205
WiFi ..........................................................................................210
Software Defined Radio .............................................................212
Grabbing Libraries with Git ........................................................215
Radio Testing ............................................................................216
Calibrating the Radio ................................................................219
Listening to Aviation Data .........................................................221
BeagleBone Black Air Traffic Control Station..............................223

Chapter 15 Moving Forward .................................................... 225
Project Ideas .............................................................................226
    Portable Gaming Solutions .....................................................226
    Weather Station .....................................................................227
    In-Car Computer ....................................................................227
    More Advanced Aircraft “RADAR” ..........................................228
    Satellite Ground Station .........................................................228
Tools ........................................................................................230
Resources ..................................................................................230

Index ................................................................... 233

Updates

Submit Errata