The BeagleBone Black Primer

The BeagleBone Black Primer

Released October 2015
Publisher(s): Que
ISBN: 9780133993295

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Book description

The BeagleBone Black Primer


Master BeagleBone Black:

Today’s most powerful low-cost embedded development platform!

You can do amazing things with BeagleBone Black. Get started in just five minutes: all you need is a USB cable and this easy, hands-on primer!

Brian McLaughlin teaches you enough to be seriously dangerous. Start with the simplest embedded programming concepts. Explore BeagleBone Black’s capabilities, and learn all the essentials, from controlling I/O to establishing network connections.

Then, step by step, master increasingly advanced techniques with the Cloud9 IDE and BoneScript…Integrate external hardware…Install Linux or Android…Use Cape expansion boards to do even more.

Don’t just learn it: do it. This guide is packed with projects, from weather stations, to car computers, to a “capstone” project using Software Defined Radio to capture signals from local airspace and orbiting satellites!

You won’t just put BeagleBone Black to work: you’ll start imagining great projects of your own. And then you’ll build them.

Discover how BeagleBone Black works, and what it can do

  • Get your BeagleBone Black—and get it working, fast

  • Link your BeagleBone Black to the world, and link yourself to the global BeagleBone community

  • Learn to read schematics and use them to connect hardware

  • Prototype your projects with breadboards

  • Extend BeagleBone Black with Capes

  • Add sensors to capture and use data from the environment

  • Use actuators to make things happen in the real world

  • Make your BeagleBone Black recognize your face

  • Learn from mistakes, and go beyond what you’ve already learned

    • Brian McLaughlin is an engineer by profession and by hobby. Building on a solid foundation in software, he was first exposed to advanced hardware topics while working on the Hubble Space Telescope. After working for Lockheed Martin, he joined NASA, where he’s supported many of NASA’s most exciting missions. He holds a B.S. in computer science (North Carolina State University) and an M.S. in systems engineering (University of Maryland). He’s also written for GeekDad and is a member of the growing Maker community.

    Table of contents

    1. About This eBook
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Contents at a Glance
    5. Table of Contents
    6. About the Author
    7. Dedication
    8. Acknowledgments
    9. We Want to Hear from You!
    10. Reader Services
    11. Introduction
      1. Who This Book Is For
      2. How This Book Is Organized
      3. Conventions Used in This Book
      4. Let Me Know What You Think
    12. 1. Embedded Computers and Electronics
      1. What Are Embedded Electronics?
      2. Arduino
      3. What Should Readers Get Out of This Book?
    13. 2. Introduction to the Hardware
      1. A Short Lineage of the BeagleBone Black
      2. BeagleBone Black Hardware Specification
        1. Processor
        2. RAM
        3. Onboard Flash and MicroSD External Storage
        4. Ethernet
        5. General-Purpose Input/Output
    14. 3. Getting Started
      1. Setting Up and Saying “Hello, World!”
      2. Connecting to Ethernet
    15. 4. Hardware Basics
      1. Electronics Basics: Voltage, Current, Power, and Resistance
      2. The Short Circuit
        1. The Resistor
        2. Diodes and LEDs
        3. Build an LED Circuit
    16. 5. A Little Deeper into Development
      1. Interpreted Code
        1. Python—A Step Above Interpreted Language
        2. Implementing Blinking Lights In Python
      2. Compiled Code
    17. 6. Trying Other Operating Systems
      1. History of the Linux World: Part I
      2. Picking an Operating System
      3. Loading the microSD Card
    18. 7. Expanding the Hardware Horizon
      1. Binary Basics
        1. Hardware Representation
      2. Serial Communications
        1. Inspecting UART
    19. 8. Low-Level Hardware and Capes
      1. Linux Hardware Through The File System
      2. Hardware in the File System
      3. One Pin, Multiple Functions
      4. Hardware Configuration
    20. 9. Interacting with Your World, Part 1: Sensors
      1. Sensor Basics
        1. Analog Versus Digital
        2. Sample Rates
    21. 10. Remote Monitoring and Data Collection
      1. Project Outline
      2. Wiring Up The Project
      3. Seeing the Light
      4. Publishing the Sensor Data
      5. Start Collecting Data
    22. 11. Interacting with Your World, Part 2: Feedback and Actuators
      1. Controlling Current
      2. Blinking to Fading
      3. Vibration Motors
      4. Servo Motors
      5. Stepper Motors
    23. 12. Computer Vision
      1. Connecting a Camera
      2. Utilizing OpenCV Libraries
      3. A Better Photo Booth
      4. Cascade Classifiers
      5. Tracking a Face
    24. 13. Sniffing Out Car Trouble
      1. Car Computers
      2. Interfacing to the Car
      3. Reading the Car’s Status
      4. Interpreting the Data
    25. 14. Ground Control to Major Beagle
      1. Radio Data
      2. WiFi
      3. Software Defined Radio
      4. Grabbing Libraries with Git
      5. Radio Testing
      6. Calibrating the Radio
      7. Listening to Aviation Data
      8. BeagleBone Black Air Traffic Control Station
    26. 15. Moving Forward
      1. Project Ideas
        1. Portable Gaming Solutions
        2. Weather Station
        3. In-Car Computer
        4. More Advanced Aircraft “RADAR”
        5. Satellite Ground Station
      2. Tools
      3. Resources
    27. Index
    28. Code Snippets

    Product information

    • Title: The BeagleBone Black Primer
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: October 2015
    • Publisher(s): Que
    • ISBN: 9780133993295