BeagleBone Green Wireless was launched in 2016 as an alternative to the official BeagleBone Green with WiFi & Bluetooth connectivity, and some extra USB ports meaning the Ethernet port had to go.
The Linux SBC was based on Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 processor and a 512 MB RAM chip. Seeed Studio has been working on an update of the board named BeagleBone Green Gateway that combines the processor, the RAM chip, and more components into one thanks to Octavo Systems OSD3358 SiP. The new board also adds Ethernet, a DC jack for power instead of just relying on micro USB, and an I2C RTC chip and battery.
BeagleBone Green Gateway specifications with changes highlighted in bold:
- SiP – Octavo Systems OSD3358 with Texas Instruments AM3358 Arm Cortex-A8 processor @ 1.0 GHz, 2×32-bit 200-MHz programmable real-time units (PRUs), 3D graphics accelerator, 512MB DDR3 SDRAM, 4KB EEPROM, and integrated power management
- Storage – 4GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage (Kington) + microSD socket
- Connectivity
- 10/100Mbps Ethernet (RJ45)
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz
- Bluetooth 4.1 with BLE
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB client for power and programming
- Expansion
- 2x 46 pin BeagleBone Black headers
- 2x Grove connectors (I2C and UART)
- Misc – I2C RTC, and 3V battery connector, debug UART header, 3x buttons
- Power Supply – 12V via DC jack or 5V via micro USB port
- Dimensions – 86.3 x 53.4 cm (BeagleBone Black form factor)
- Operating Temperature – 0 ~ 70°C
The new SBC should run Debian with Cloud9 IDE just like BeagleBone Green Wireless did when I reviewed it.
The board is not quite ready just yet, and I received the information above in a Word file as Seeed Studio is currently looking for feedback on their new addition to the Beagleboard Green family. So there’s no information about availability nor price, but for reference, BeagleBone Green Wireless is currently sold for $52.90, so I’d expect the BeagleBone Green Gateway board to cost a little bit more, maybe around $60.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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I really liked my BB Black. It was a nice balance of performance and low power, it had plenty of connectivity with very fast I/O. I used it as a native JTAG probe by running OpenOCD on it, it was much faster than parallel port alternatives. I don’t use it anymore, and I’m wondering if this family of boards is still that much used nowadays. Probably if some vendors continue to create new models.
Wonder why they didn’t use the OSD3358-512M-BCB which includes the 4GB eMMC and appears to have the same footprint.
Maybe it’s more expensive than the separate parts. Or it requires a huge minimum order quantity.
It isn’t the same footprint. That one is 27x27mm and the OSD3358-SM is 21x21mm.
It’s easy to come up with reasons to not use the OSD335x C-SIP:
1. It’s physically quite large (27x27mm, versus 21x21mm for the OSD335x-SM) and there’s just not enough space for it. Lack of space on the topside is no doubt also why they put the eMMC on the bottom side.
2. It doesn’t ball out the pins used by the eMMC, which are necessary for full beaglebone-compatibility: some users choose to boot from SD card and disable the eMMC to free up these additional pins for alternate use.
3. It is quite new. Maybe it wasn’t available yet during the design phase (and you can’t swap it out later since it’s physically much larger than the -SM and its ballout is not remotely similar to the OSD335x-SM nor to the original OSD335x).
4. Digikey lists $48.60 (@ 100 units) for the OSD3358-512M-BCB versus $36.84 (@ 100u) for the OSD3358-512M-BSM. That’s $11.76 extra for that 4GB of eMMC, which seems a bit excessive.
Question:
Can you power the BB Green with something like this? robotdigg.com/product/1288/12V-1A-or-2A-Power-Supply-Adapter-100-240V-AC-Input
I noticed the battery in the image says 3.0V, but I want to know if this won’t fry the board. Thanks.
Also, less important, can the board output the 12V in any way?
Pretty much any 12V power adapter with 1A+ should do.
The 3V battery is for RTC.