Sub-1GHz Bands, Augmented Alarm and Alert systems, Bird Feeder Defender, or Home Decoration Projects? What projects do you want to work on next?

It's early but there looks like there is a lot of interest in a Sub-1GHz projects.   Is there any particular board or kit that any of you would be interested in using to build your projects?

I have been a big fan of the enocean products (315, 868 and 902MHz).  I do prefer the 902MHz products as I have considerable experience (commercial and home-base) with this line.  I even have a project in mind for some parts for a backyard solar and control system.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the BeaglePlay and BeagleConnect Freedom.  Maybe because they are already being roadtested?

Hi Ralph,

I have a BeagleConnect Freedom, and it's a brick for me currently, because Windows is not yet supported (sure I could use Linux, but I had other plans for it). Also, currently the "Quick Start" documentation online simply says "To do".

I was also thinking of the new BeaglePlay / BeagleConnect Freedom. I've got one on thr way to road test.

@shabaz I'm also (mostly) Windows so I hope the BeagleConnect Freedom will be usable. The standard TI tools (Code Composer Studio, etc.) are available for Windows, so I'd have thought things shoudl be OK.

The documentation is certainly sparse at the moment. I'm sure they;re busy getting the product off the ground, but I hope that it does get padded out and doesn't stay that way permanently.

The BB team should self-reflect. Out-of-date or non-existing documentation on their own project site has been *the* issue ever since the very first release.
A repeat, every time the hardware or software got updated. It may not be an issue for the in-crowd, but that's a small army.

It used to be my go-to device. I liked it more than the Pi. I'd write BB code, then port it to Pi if needed. But with each new OS or HW iteration, it became more difficult to find the right documentation. There was often documentation, but outdated or wrong. And promises to provide working examples that did not materialise (am I the only one who bought the PRU cape with the promise that they would publish examples for the hardware on that add-on?) .
As if the energy of the team synced up with the Texas Instruments yearly employee performance evaluation cycle. Loads of activity in October, with press conferences and new things. More new things. Then silence till the next autumn. No follow up on the pesky old things of last year.
It reflects what the company is doing in the last years. The TI forum has been a community, but reverted into a support site for customers, answered by TI staff. Community provided blogs have been deleted, favouring in-house publications. Community initiatives like the Launchpads and Energia seem to be abandoned.

Pi seems to be better at updating their own documentation. And their community keeps refreshing existing projects. That is (I think) not happening in the BB community. I claim that the growth of the Pi community and the decline of the BB one are a result of that. Even thought he BB designs are intrinsically better and more adventurous.

Totally concur... 

I found a similar problem with LimeSDR. Fantastic hardware, let down by awful documentation (and what in that case feels like deliberate information-hiding with the few blogs/tutorials which are missing all the "meat"). I even attended an in-person training session in London (well, half of it, I couldn't spend more time that day), and while aspects of it were very good, it still left the user at a bit of a loss.

TI ought to be better. They ought to realize they are not selling things that need no instructions. They are not selling kebabs! 

Hi Fred,

I think the Linux documentation (apart from the Quick Start) should (fingers crossed) be better, I did briefly see it but I didn't examine it because I wanted to use Windows. On Windows, the device cannot currently be brought up because it needs a device driver, or there's some other error. I raised it on the BeagleBone mailer, and was told that there is an issue with Windows currently, I didn't check further for now.

I had signed up for a Digikey webinar on the BeaglePlay/BCF integration with Home Assistant, but unfortunately wasn’t able to attend.  I haven’t gone through it yet, but they seemed to have Demo images on GitHub - so I’m a little surprised that their documentation is so sparse.  I had assumed that if I wanted to try it out that I would be using a Linux development base.  I’ve been interested in trying Home Assistant, so that’s the context of my engagement.  You guys are are way ahead of me in Beagle board experience…

To be honest I'm not surprised the Windows usage isn't ready today, it is likely not a priority scenario (I'm not following their expected scenarios such as Home Assistant, so I certainly don't blame them for that), but it's definitely not a good look that the Quick Start is not worked on (same with the instructions on how to build an image when I checked about a month ago, but that too is likely not a priority to document for them, but gets irritating quickly when multiple paths start getting blocked).

For their preferred deployment scenarios, it may well be documented, I have not checked. I suspect it will work very well with Home Assistant if they have already demo'd it.

To be honest I'm not surprised the Windows usage isn't ready today, it is likely not a priority scenario (I'm not following their expected scenarios such as Home Assistant, so I certainly don't blame them for that), but it's definitely not a good look that the Quick Start is not worked on (same with the instructions on how to build an image when I checked about a month ago, but that too is likely not a priority to document for them, but gets irritating quickly when multiple paths start getting blocked).

For their preferred deployment scenarios, it may well be documented, I have not checked. I suspect it will work very well with Home Assistant if they have already demo'd it.