A New, Faster, and Cheaper Beaglebone is On its Way

Beaglebord.org community is currently teasing a new Beaglebone on their website. At this time information is not complete, but we already know it will be “significantly cheaper” than the existing Beaglebone, feature a processor with higher performance (Albeit the picture shows TI Sitara AM3359 which is about the same as AM3358 + Ethercat), and come with 512 MB DDR3L RAM (instead of 256 MB DDR2), 2GB eMMC Flash, and onboard HDMI output. The new Beaglebone will keep supporting Angstrom, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. Hardware expansion boards (cape) designed for the old model will still be fully compatible with the new Beaglebone. You’ll need to wait April to get hold of the new Beaglebone. Until then, you can register your interest on Element14/Farnell to be informed when the board becomes available. Another way to find out more is to attend the Embedded Linux Conference 2013 which is taking place right […]

Phytec India Unveils “Open Board-AM335x” Development Kit

PHYTEC has launched the Open Board-AM335x development kit in order to support Linux and Android development on Texas Instruments AM335x Sitara ARM Processors in India. The Open Board-AM335x is comprised of a baseboard and phyCORE-AM335x SoM, and comes with 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM, 512 MB NAND Flash, and optionally, 8 MB SPI Flash. The baseboard is open source hardware as schematics and Gerber/BOM are freely available. Here are the key features of Phytec Open Board-AM335x: SoM – PhyCore-AM335x with ARM Cortex-A8 processors @ 720 MHz (AM3352, AM3354, AM3356, AM3357, AM3358 and AM3359) System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 512 MB NAND + SD Card slot + 8 MB SPI NOR Flash (Optional) + 32 KB EEPROM (Optional) Serial – 1x UART (RS232) + 4x UART (TTL) USB – 1x USB Host + 1x USB OTG Connectivity – 1x 10/100/1G Ethernet Audio –  WM8974 Codec Display Interfaces – 24 bpp TTL […]

SILICA Pengwyn Low Cost Open Industrial Development Platform Powered by Sitara AM3354 Processor

At the end of January, SILICA, an Avnet subsidiary, announced the Pengwyn, a single board computer based on Texas Instruments Sitara AM3354 Cortex A8 processor. The board targets industrial customers, and the company promotes it as “an open platform to develop applications under Linux or Windows Embedded operating systems”. Here are the specifications of the Pengwyn board: Texas Instruments Sitara AM 3354 ARM Cortex-A8 MCU @ 720 MHz System Memory – 256 MB DDR3 Storage – 1 GB Nand Flash, 32 MB SPI Flash Memory, and microSD slot (if not used with Wi-Fi/Bt modules) Connectivity and expandability USB Host and Device Ports RJ-45 Ethernet Port Connector for optional 1 GB Ethernet Port 2x connectors for generic expansions modules SDIO/MMC Port (can be used for optional WI-FI/bluetooth modules) DVI Display Port Silica will provide Linux (Arago Project, an OpenEmbedded based Distribution) and Windows Embedded Compact 7 BSP and images, as well as […]

Headless Connected Oscilloscope based on Cubieboard or Beaglebone

Warsaw ELHEP (Electronics for High Eenergy Physics Experiments) Group is currently working on MMS (Mobile Measurement System) Project. This project features what I would call a “headless connected oscilloscope”, which can be detected on the network via SSDP, send the data via Websocket, and display it on iOS, Android, or Windows Phone devices. This oscilloscope does not feature any screen, and receives/transmits data via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. The original hardware is based on three main boards: CTI-VMAX – ARM9 with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet connectivity. ARM SCOPE v1.0.1 with  8 channel ADC. ARM SCOPE v1.0.2 with 4 high speed ADC (100MSPS). The ELHEP researchers have been looking at replacing CTI-VMAX with low cost boards, and after considering several options, they chose to design two versions of their oscilloscope: one based on Cubieboard, and the other on the Beaglebone. So they designed expansions boards for the Cubieboard and Beaglebone in […]

Replicate CAPE Adds 3D Printring Capability to the Beaglebone

Beagleboard.org launched the Beaglebone Cape Design Contest back in November, several designs were submitted, and yesterday, they announced the 3 winning CAPEs who will be manufactured and sold by Circuitco Electronics: Replicape by Elias Bakken – 3D printer cape Interacto by Chris Clark – Cape with a triple axis accelerometer,a gyroscope, a magnetometer and a 640×480 30fps camera. Geiger cape by Matt Ranostay – Geiger counter cape Since today I’ve started to write about 3D printing, let’s carry on and have a closer look at the Replicape. The Replicape 3D printer cape includes: 5 stepper motors (X, Y, Z, Ext1, Ext2) 3 high power MOSFETs (PWM controlled) for 2 extruders and 1 HPB 3 medium power MOSFETs (PWM controlled) for up to 3 fans 3 analog input ports for thermistors 3 inputs for end stops (X, Y, Z) Programmable current limits on steppers motor drivers (SMD). No need to manually adjust […]

Supporting 200 Different Expansions Boards: The Broken Promise of Device Tree – ELCE 2012

Koen Kooi, software engineering manager at Circuitco Electronics and lead developer of the Angstrom distribution, explains that device tree does help with the ARM Linux kernel, but brings all the complexity to the bootloader(s), taking the variety of Beaglebone capes as example, at the Embedded Linux Conference in Barcelona, Spain, on November 6, 2012. Abstract: Devicetree is marketed as the one ring to rule them all when it comes to non-discoverable hardware for Linux on ARM. The problem with devicetree is that the complexity gets removed from the kernel and put into the bootloader. Koen first gives an overview of device tree, and provides an example (am33xx.dtsi) to show device tree data structure. Then time for some Beaglebone and capes promotion overview,  before moving to the core of the problem: Pinctrl Resource tracking EVM/bone split uboot/uimage/dtb lockstep pdata only Keycodes and other non-hardware bits You can also download the presentation […]

Beaglebone: The Perfect Telemetry Platform? – ELCE 2012

Matt Ranostay, technical staff at Ranostay Industries, gives a presentation about a telemetry system based on Beaglebone at the Embedded Linux Conference Europe on November 5, 2012. Abstract: The author will discuss his ongoing and other team members efforts to develop hardware and software that reports sensor data to the community. This talk will be split into several parts a) types of useful sensors b) hardware design of Beaglebone capes c) and telemetry reports to Pachube/Cosm. Demonstrating that in the new world of cheap prototyping boards with I2C, GPIO, and SPI that anyone can setup a decent monitoring system for home security, automation, and weather reporting. There will be a live demo of prototype geiger counter + weather station. The audience targeted is the professional hobbyist who likes to hack on microcontrollers in their spare time. It will take little to medium knowledge of electrical engineering to follow this talk. […]

Wireless Networking with IEEE 802.15.4 and 6LoWPAN – ELCE 2012

Alan Ott, founder of Signal 11 Software, gives a presentation dealing with wireless networking for the internet of things in Linux, especially with 802.15.4 and 6LoWPAN standards at the Embedded Linux Conference in Barcelona, Spain on November 5, 2012. Abstract: With the rise of the internet of things, low-power wireless devices will become increasingly prevalent. IEEE 802.15.4 is a wireless networking protocol designed for low-power and low-data-rate devices, such as those used in wireless sensor networks. While some higher layer protocols based on 802.15.4 are proprietary, an open standard called 6LoWPAN enables IPv6 traffic over 802.15.4. This presentation will give overviews of 802.15.4, its status in the Linux kernel, hardware support, comparison with other wireless protocols, and a demonstration of a simple 802.15.4/6loWPAN network. This presentation is targeted toward developers who wish to create low-power, low-data-rate wireless networks for sensors or other applications. Attendees can expect to gain a basic […]

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