BeagleBone: Expert Guides and Resources

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.

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.

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.

Two of the most popular open-source hardware boards are the BeagleBone Black and the Raspberry Pi. Both boards are known for being easy to set up and inexpensive, as well as great to use for getting started in electronics and programming. The Raspberry Pi dives deeper into the world of computation, whereas the BeagleBone Black features the best of the worlds of computation and electronics, with added emphasis on electronics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.