BeagleBone Black

Rev C (2014) has 4GB flash on board so it comes with Debian pre-installed. My older board has 2GB but I can use a MicroSD card for additional space.

Rev C BBB's are available for $55 from various and sundry including Sparkfun and Adafruit and Mouser.

The official site is http://beagleboard.org/

TI Sitara processor http://www.ti.com/tool/linuxezsdk-sitara

Reason to use BBB instead of RPI? Android used to be my answer. I don't have a good one right now, just using it because I have it.

Capes

Device Tree Overlays: https://learn.adafruit.com/introduction-to-the-beaglebone-black-device-tree

Code: https://github.com/ArcadiaLabs/chipsee-bbb-exp

I really want to be able to use this cape, because I paid money for it and it has so much functionality.

http://Chipsee.com/ 7" LCD touch screen includes

   7" Capacitive Touchscreen; 1024 x 600 resolution
   5-point capacitive touch, with Armorplate Glass
   3-axis digital accelerometer
   1 audio out
   1 mic- or line-in (configurable via Jumper)
   2 RS232 ports
   2 RS485 ports
   1 CAN bus
   Buzzer
   5 User Keys
   Power button, Reset button and LED's
   5V DC input (5.5/2.1mm coaxial style)

I probably bought mine at Logic Supply, but they are gone now too. They had downloads for it.

Looks like the page was archived, https://web.archive.org/web/20161004020108/https://www.logicsupply.com/bbb-exp-c

The file I am looking for is Chipsee-BBB-Linux-Source-20130902.tar.gz searching, I found a copy here

https://archive.org/download/chipsee-lcd-capacitive-screen/SoftWare/For%20BeagleBone%20Black/Linux-EZSDK/source/

See lots of files at https://archive.org/download/chipsee-lcd-capacitive-screen/

Debug cable

I just ordered this serial debug cable for $10: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12977 Works for Raspberry Pi, too.

I need to look at the generic adapter I bought a couple years ago to see if it does 3.3v.

Options for operating systems

Android

Someone released Android 10 for the BBB.

"Build your own tablet" tutorial slides http://www.slideshare.net/SGAndroidDevs/build-your-own-android-tablet

Android -- KitKat (4.4) is at http://bbbandroid.sourceforge.net/

KitKat tutorial http://www.2net.co.uk/tutorial/android-4.4-beaglebone

TI's Android page is outdated (2.3 Gingerbread) http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/BeagleBone-Android-DevKit_Guide

Wireless Android BBB http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2013/07/building-wireless-android-device.html

Linux

2022-12-18 I was able to load the old 3.20 (2013) version from ChipSee for the LCD cape today and test the graphics and sound. I found the image online, but it's exactly the same one I had already on the CD that came with the cape. I think it's Debian or Angstrom based.

Debian 11 is available. I downloaded an image of Debian 10.3 and tried it, but of course, it does not have any drivers for the cape.

There are also Ubuntu images available, I have 20.04-5. (No graphics, just the server version) See https://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu

Angstrom -

Ubuntu see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/beagleboard/Y-rcKPITy0Q/discussion

Notes on building a kernel, see https://github.com/RobertCNelson/ti-linux-kernel-dev

Books and resources

https://www.packtpub.com/hardware-and-creative/android-beaglebone-black

There are several other BBB books from Packt too.

TI forum https://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/arm-based-microcontrollers-group/arm-based-microcontrollers/f/arm-based-microcontrollers-forum