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Articles & Books From BeagleBone
Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-14-2022
BeagleBone is an exciting tiny board that brings your electronics and software projects to life. Its affordability and ease of use make it popular among hardware enthusiasts and programmers. The following articles help you get started using this powerful board.Preparing your BeagleBoneWhen your BeagleBone arrives, it comes in a box with everything you need.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
Capes are plug-in boards that you can plug on top of the BeagleBone computer to add extended capabilities to it in a simple manner. Capes give you quick access to some easy-to-use systems such as LCD screens, GPS modules, and motor controllers. Some of these are introduced here; if you’re interested in checking out the enormous list of capes, visit BeagleBoard: BeagleBone Capes.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
The BeagleBone is an outstanding tool for so many programs because . . . well, it has pretty much everything. It operates at a very high frequency; it features all the most popular communications ports; it can be set to consume very little energy; it can be programmed in a wide array of programming languages. It isn’t an overstatement to say that the BeagleBone offers boundless possibilities in many areas, from fast-reacting systems and processing-heavy programs to low-consumption vehicles.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The serial port is a way to send data between the BeagleBone Black and another device. Establishing a serial communication between your computer and your BeagleBone Black requires a USB-to-TTL Serial cable. For most applications, connecting the BeagleBone Black via SSH over USB is the way to go. This connection technique allows you to send data to and from many devices other than PCs, which may be useful if you’re experiencing booting problems or networking issues.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
If your BeagleBone is running the OS through the microSD card, insert it before powering up your BeagleBone. Then follow these steps to set up your BeagleBone: Using the Mini USB cable that came with your board, connect your BeagleBone to your computer. After a few seconds, a drive called BeagleBone Getting Started should appear in your computer’s file system.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Having an Ethernet cable connected to your BeagleBone ensures that you have access to the Internet. This access is really handy, as you may need to install or update an application or work on Internet-related projects. Establishing this type of communication also enables you to access your BeagleBone from any other devices as long as you remain connected to the same network.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
When you have your BeagleBone Black set up like a desktop computer, you can do all the regular things that you do on a computer — such as creating files and folders or running applications — without using the terminal. If you have the knack of the terminal, however, and know how much faster things can be done that way, you can easily access it.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Currently, the hostname of your BeagleBone is, rather boringly, beaglebone. You may want to change it to something more personal. Doing so is also useful when you start to use more than one BeagleBone on the same network, because the hostname is the name that’s displayed to all the other users on that network.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
SSH (secure shell) is a method of establishing communication between your BeagleBone and another computer securely. All data sent via SSH is encrypted. SSH is based on a Unix shell, so it allows you to access your BeagleBone files from a remote machine by using terminal commands. It has grown to be one of the most popular methods for communication between different devices.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Following is a handy reference that you can use to control and access your BeagleBone’s general purpose input/output (GPIOs) with the file system, BoneScript, and Python. Controlling the GPIO with the file system You can use the following commands to control the GPIO with the file system. Exporting a pin: echo 40 > /sys/class/gpio/export Setting a pin OUTPUT: echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio40/direction Writing a pin HIGH: echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio40/value Writing a pin LOW: echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio40/value Setting a pin INPUT: echo in > /sys/class/gpio/gpio40/direction Reading the value from an INPUT pin (returns 1 for HIGH and 0 for LOW): cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio40/value Controlling the GPIO with BoneScript You can use the following BoneScript commands to control the GPIO.
