Book Image

BeagleBone Black Cookbook

Book Image

BeagleBone Black Cookbook

Overview of this book

There are many single-board controllers and computers such as Arduino, Udoo, or Raspberry Pi, which can be used to create electronic prototypes on circuit boards. However, when it comes to creating more advanced projects, BeagleBone Black provides a sophisticated alternative. Mastering the BeagleBone Black enables you to combine it with sensors and LEDs, add buttons, and marry it to a variety of add-on boards. You can transform this tiny device into the brain for an embedded application or an endless variety of electronic inventions and prototypes. With dozens of how-tos, this book kicks off with the basic steps for setting up and running the BeagleBone Black for the first time, from connecting the necessary hardware and using the command line with Linux commands to installing new software and controlling your system remotely. Following these recipes, more advanced examples take you through scripting, debugging, and working with software source files, eventually working with the Linux kernel. Subsequently, you will learn how to exploit the board's real-time functions. We will then discover exciting methods for using sound and video with the system before marching forward into an exploration of recipes for building Internet of Things projects. Finally, the book finishes with a dramatic arc upward into outer space, when you explore ways to build projects for tracking and monitoring satellites.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
BeagleBone Black Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Power requirements – basic guidelines


Giving your BBB the proper amount of love and power is crucial to having a happy board. Following these basic guidelines will ensure that your BBB operates reliably and predictably.

The board's user manual recommends that you supply current to at least 1.2A (or 6W). However, if you connect up anything over the USB, at least 2A (or 10W) is recommended. Here are some additional rules of thumb:

  • You can power the BBB via the USB tether. However, if you attach additional USB devices, such as webcams, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth dongles, keyboards and mice, and then power them through the USB tether, it may lead to unreliable connections and power fluctuations. We were successful in powering some USB dongles directly via the BBB's USB port, whereas some devices, such as USB webcams, were not reliably powered.

  • If you connect USB devices, it is best to power them from a powered USB hub and then supply power to the BBB via a 5 VDC power supply of at least 1A.

  • 5V DC power—most users of the board will invariably recommend that you always power your board using a 5V DC supply.

  • You can also use a 5V wall charger power adapter with a USB port on it as long as it can deliver 1A.

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files from your account at http://www.packtpub.com for all the Packt Publishing books you have purchased. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

In many cases, you will also be downloading code from the author's github site at https://github.com/HudsonWerks.