BeagleBone Cookbook

Chapter 1. Basics

1.0 Introduction

When you buy BeagleBone Black, pretty much everything you need to get going comes with it. You can just plug it into the USB of a host computer, and it works. The goal of this chapter is to show what you can do with your Bone, right out of the box. It has enough information to carry through the next three chapters on sensors (Chapter 2), displays (Chapter 3), and motors (Chapter 4).

1.1 Picking Your Beagle

Problem

There are five different BeagleBoards. How do you pick which one to use?

Solution

For someone new to the BeagleBoard.org boards, the BeagleBone Black is the obvious choice. It’s the newest and cheapest (~$55 USD) of the inexpensive Bones, and there are nearly a quarter-million units out there. Many of the recipes in this book will work on the other Beagles, too, but the Black is where to begin. If you already have BeagleBone Black, you can move on to the next recipe. If you have another Beagle, your mileage may vary.

Discussion

If you already have a BeagleBoard and it isn’t a Black, read on to see what it can do.

Note

There is a high-end line and a low-end line for BeagleBoard.org boards. The BeagleBoards are the higher-end boards, with strongest appeal to advanced Linux hackers looking for affordable solutions with digital signal processors (DSPs) and features that can improve display performance. The BeagleBones are the lower-end boards, with strongest appeal to everyday “makers” of things, including lots of low-level I/O, ...