Book Image

BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints

By : Rodolfo Giometti
Book Image

BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints

By: Rodolfo Giometti

Overview of this book

BeagleBone is a microboard PC that runs Linux. It can connect to the Internet and can run OSes such as Android and Ubuntu. BeagleBone is used for a variety of different purposes and projects, from simple projects such as building a thermostat to more advanced ones such as home security systems. Packed with real-world examples, this book will provide you with examples of how to connect several sensors and an actuator to the BeagleBone Black. You’ll learn how to give access to them, in order to realize simple-to-complex monitoring and controlling systems that will help you take control of the house. You will also find software examples of implementing web interfaces using the classical PHP/HTML pair with JavaScript, using complex APIs to interact with a Google Docs account, WhatsApp, or Facebook. This guide is an invaluable tutorial if you are planning to use a BeagleBone Black in a home automation project.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Setting up the hardware


This time, the connections are very simple since they are just done using several USB cables.

In the previous chapters, we have seen how to set up a webcam (see Chapter 3, Aquarium Monitor, for instance); but this time, we have a different configuration due to the fact that we're using two webcams at the same time.

As the reader might know, the BeagleBone Black board has only one USB host port, so to connect two webcams, we need a USB hub. These devices (used to connect more than one device to a USB host port) are very common, and the reader can find them anywhere on the Internet.

Tip

In theory, the more ports the hub has, the more webcams we can use in our system! But, of course, there is a maximum limit of usable webcams due to the fact that each webcam adds a CPU load to the system.

A little schematic of the system using a USB HUB with three ports is shown in the following diagram:

Setting up the webcams

For my prototype, I used two generic webcams supported by the Video4Linux...