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  • BeagleBone By Example
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BeagleBone By Example

BeagleBone By Example

By : Prabakar
5 (1)
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BeagleBone By Example

BeagleBone By Example

5 (1)
By: Prabakar

Overview of this book

BeagleBone is a low cost, community-supported development platform to develop a variety of electronic projects. This book will introduce you to BeagleBone and get you building fun, cool, and innovative projects with it. Start with the specifications of BeagleBone Black and its operating systems, then get to grips with the GPIOs available in BeagleBone Black. Work through four types of exciting projects: building real-time physical computing systems, home automation, image processing for a security system, and building your own tele-controlled robot and learn the fundamentals of a variety of projects in a single book. By the end of this book, you will be able to write code for BeagleBone in order to operate hardware and impart decision-making capabilities with the help of efficient coding in Python.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
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Preface
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
1. Getting Started with BeagleBone
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1. Getting Started with BeagleBone
Prerequisites
BeagleBone Black – a single board computer
Getting to know your board – BeagleBone Black
Hardware specification of BeagleBone Black
Setting up your BeagleBone board
Installing operating systems
Booting your BeagleBone board from a SD card
Logging into the board via SSH over Ethernet
Working on Linux Shell
Writing your own Python program on BeagleBone board
Summary
2
2. Circuit Fundamentals and GPIO
2. Circuit Fundamentals and GPIO
Prerequisites
Usage of breadboards
Switches and LEDs
GPIOs
Adding libraries to Python
Using Python to access GPIOs
Project – blinking an LED using Python script
Summary
3
3. Introduction to Physical Computing Systems
3. Introduction to Physical Computing Systems
Prerequisites
Introducing physical computing systems
Basic elements of physical computing systems
Project – toggle LED using a push button
Summary
4
4. Real-time Physical Computing Systems Using BeagleBone
4. Real-time Physical Computing Systems Using BeagleBone
Prerequisites
Temperature sensor
Temperature sensing using a LM35 sensor
Summary
5
5. Connecting Physical Computing Systems to the Internet
5. Connecting Physical Computing Systems to the Internet
Prerequisites
Giving Internet access to your BeagleBone board
Adding Wi-Fi to the BeagleBone board
Intermediate level project: An e-mail alert fire alarm
Advanced level project: Uploading sensor data to a web cloud
Summary
6
6. Home Automation Using BeagleBone
6. Home Automation Using BeagleBone
Prerequisites
The structure of home automation systems
Introduction to web servers
Python-Flask on BeagleBone Black
Transistors, relays, power switches
Advanced project: An Internet controlled power switch – controlling an AC bulb from the Internet
Summary
7
7. Working with Images Using Computer Vision
7. Working with Images Using Computer Vision
Prerequisites
Adding a USB camera to a BeagleBone board
OpenCV – introduction and setting up on the BeagleBone board
Project: Image capture from a camera using Python and OpenCV
Summary
8
8. Home Security Systems Using BeagleBone Black
8. Home Security Systems Using BeagleBone Black
Prerequisites
PIR sensors
Motion detection using PIR sensors
Sending e-mail with an attachment from BeagleBone Black
Advanced project – Motion-based home security alert system
Summary
9
9. Exploring Robotics
9. Exploring Robotics
Introduction to robotics
Elements, structure and operation of robotic systems
Application areas
Differential-drive robots
Summary
10
10. Building Your Own Robot
10. Building Your Own Robot
Prerequisites
DC motors
L293D motor driver IC
Live video streaming on the BeagleBone board
Advanced project – a telecontrolled robot with live video streaming
Summary
11
Index
Index

Installing operating systems

We can make the BeagleBone Black boot up and run using different operating systems just like any computer can do. Mostly Linux is used on these boards which is free and open source, but it is to be noted that specific distributions of Linux, Android, and Windows CE have been made available for these boards as well which you can try out.

The stable versions of these operating systems are made available at http://beagleboard.org/latest-images.

By default, the BeagleBone Black comes preloaded with a Debian distribution of Linux on the eMMC of the board. However, if you want, you can flash this eMMC just like you do to your Hard Drive on your computer and install different operating systems on it.

Note

As mentioned in the note at the beginning of this chapter, considering all the tutorials in this book should be useful to people who own BeagleBone as well as the BeagleBone Black. We will choose the recommended Debian package by www.BeagleBoard.org Foundation and we will boot the board every time using the operating system on microSD card.

Perform the following steps to prepare the microSD card and boot BeagleBone using that:

  1. Goto: http://beagleboard.org/latest-images.
  2. Download the latest Debian Image.

    The following screenshot highlights the latest Debian Image available for flashing on microSD card:

    Installing operating systems
  3. Extract the image file inside the RAR file that was downloaded:
    Installing operating systems

    Tip

    You might have to install WinRAR or any .rar file extracting software if it is not available in your computer already.

  4. Install Win32 Disk Imager software.

    To write the image file to a microSD card, we need this software. You can go to Google or any other search engine and type win32 disk imager as keyword and search to get the web link to download this software as shown in the following screenshot:

    Installing operating systems

    The web link, where you can find this software is http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/. But this keeps changing often that's why I suggest you can search it via any search engine with the keyword.

  5. Once you download the software and install it. You should be able to see the window as shown in the following screenshot when you open the Win32 Disk Imager:
    Installing operating systems

    Now that you are all set with the software, using which you can flash the operating system image that we downloaded. Let's move to the next step where you can use Win32 Disk Imager software to flash the microSD card.

  6. Flashing the microSD card.

    Insert the microSD into a microSD card reader and plug it onto your computer. It might take some time for the card reader to show up your microSD card. Once it shows up, you should be able to select the USB drive as shown in the following screenshot on the Win32 Disk Imager software.

    Installing operating systems
  7. Now, click on the icon highlighted in the following screenshot to open the file explorer and select the image file that we extracted in step 3:
    Installing operating systems
  8. Go to the folder where you extracted the latest Debian image file and select it.
    Installing operating systems
  9. Now you can write the image file to microSD card by clicking on the Write button on the Win32 Disk Imager. If you get a prompt as shown in the following screenshot, click on Yes and continue:
    Installing operating systems
  10. Once you click on Yes, the flashing process will start and the image file will be written on to the microSD card. The following screenshot shows the flashing process progressing:
    Installing operating systems

    Once the flashing is completed, you will get a message as shown in the following screenshot:

    Installing operating systems
  11. Now you can click on OK, exit the Win32 Disk Imager software and safely remove the microSD card from your computer.

Now you have successfully prepared your microSD card with the latest Debian operating system available for BeagleBone Black. This process is same for all other operating systems that are available for BeagleBone boards. You can try out different operating systems such as the Angstrom Linux, Android, or Windows CE others, once you get familiar with your BeagleBone board by end of this book.

For Mac users, you can refer to either https://learn.adafruit.com/ssh-to-beaglebone-black-over-usb/installing-drivers-mac or https://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone-black-installing-operating-systems/mac-os-x.

End of Section 7
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