BeagleBone boards discussion

I also have a couple of BeagleBone boards that I never used for anything. I always considered them more "industrial" than the Raspberry Pi (leaner distros, less multimedia/entertainment/educational packages by default, so a lot less bloat). So in my mind they are perfect for advanced robots and industrial applications. I even remember running a camera capture + OpenCV example on one of them).

But I never got to build a project that required a board like that. None of my "robots" ever required anything fancier than a Wemos (this could change soon, though).

A couple of RPI boards I had also had the same fate, they sit in a drawer; although one of them is working as a local FTP/Git/NodeRED server.

I still think BB boards is what I would use for a professional project since they boot from on-board memory instead of an SD card, and that already makes them faster and more reliable (the SD card of a Pi, for example, would be prone to failure due to vibration if mounted on a robot, or in any machine in a vibration-rich environment).

I've seen the heart of the BBB design built into a custom PCB for a particular product. In other words not using the BBB board but having it fully custom. But that was a very long time ago. It didn't help that the product was aborted (not a fault of the BBB). I still have one of the first production units if I find it I could take some internals photos. I've lost the login details to be actually able to use it in any way.

I've also seen the RPI built into a new form too (I.e. not using the compute module) again as part of a custom PCB, probably with assistance from Avnet but I don't know. 

Also was involved intimately with a startup that used the BBB as-is as part of ther MVP. But that was only because Intel messed them around and end-of-life'd Intel Edison, so they quickly switched to BBB.

I almost forgot about the eMMC storage, which should be much more reliable than a micro SD card in a slot.

I guess you have to be a skilled designer if you want to design a custom board and not even using the compute module.

By the way, I have heard or read claims, that BBB should be able to boot linux in 5 seconds, but in my experience it was always almost 2 minutes, thanks to systemd and other services. Might be achievable for a kernel hacker and good linux developer.

I was more curious if people are using the boards as they are, without significant customizations. Raspberry Pi is definitely used by amateurs a lot, but BB is seen a lot less.

I've used BeagleBones and Raspberry Pis both personally and professinally.

The last time I used a BeagleBone (Black) professionally was to allow the hole marshalls to switch video sources at the Ryder Cup (golf) in 2023. There were some GPIO buttons and LEDs and they connected over the network to some professional video gear (Panasonic Kairos). They also announced themselves over UDP to a central control application so they could be managed remotely. The main reasons I chose the BBB over a Pi were the barrel-jack power, lack of reliance on SD card, and availability - this was post-Covid when the Pi3 was hard to get.

I've also used the BBB for a .NET on Linux tutorial as everyone can just plug one in via USB and not worry about networking. However, for general stuff I'm probably likely to grab a Pi. I know it'll be easier for the rest of the team to get to grips with.

Personally, I feel that the BeagleBone range and the Pi range are both great, but they are targetted at a completely different audience.

If you are OK with Linux, can write a bit of code (probably Python) and want an easy and well-supported exerience, then the Pi is probably for you. The support from both the community and Raspberry Pi themselves is great.

If someone mentioning device trees doesn't scare you, and you're happy to build Linux from source then the BeagleBones are great. Maybe you were thinking of spinning up a board from the latest (probably TI) processor then the Beagle guys have provided you with a great working example. What an awesome time-saver! A lot of them work for TI, so the boards often feel like a nice engineering sample. They've done an awesome job and given you a huge amount for free, but are not really there to hold your hand. Also, everything is properly open source - with all the positives and negatives that come with that.

I'd love to think I was in the second category, but to be honest I'm nearer the first.

Very well written :) I think about the Pi and BB audience similarly. And I'm a member of the first category.

BBB is better for learning Linux flow, especially for deeper knowledge about kernels. I joined a seminar hosted by bootlin this year. They used BBB as one of two platforms for the training platforms. I did use TI ARM processors for the professional design. Following BBB training path did make my development phase more smoothly for TI ARM processor platforms.

I keep thinking about the beagleboard - Arduino collaboration that almost came to be, the Arduino Tre.

 Hands on with the Arduino Tre : Developer Edition 

IIRC the fast boot time was in the early days when they used Ångtrom linux as the OS.  That got replaced by Debian years ago.  I’ve only used Debian with my BBB and they don’t boot fast.  

If you’re running Xwindows on a BBB, yes, that takes minutes to boot up.  But Xwindows is so slow on the 1 core processor, it never was useable.

I've shied away from using BBB because of posts on this site. Support is lacking. The level of hand holding I need to feel comfortable using it, doesn't appear to be there. I've made RoadTest applications for BBB products in the hope I might gain first hand experience. Until I have more confidence in level of support I will stick with the RPi.