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BeagleBone boards discussion

koudelad — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 06:45:05 GMT

Hello,

do you use BeagleBone boards personally or professionally?

I have a few boards in my electronics box, but haven't used them for a few years (or ever).

Looking at the beagleboard.org website, it somehow got more confusing than it used to be. It is hard to find software images and later I realized why - the OS is not compatible with all boards they way Raspberry Pi OS is.

BeagleBone Blue (ready to be used with various motors), Green, White, XM disappeared. BeagleBone Black has more than a year old OS images (Debian Buster), only newer boards have Debian Bookworm.

It is great that the boards are open-source, but with uncertain SW support, I wouldn't used them professionally. I do use Raspberry Pi professionally, because the compatibility and OS support is excellent.

What do you think?

David

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

cstanton — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:36:40 GMT

[quote userid="16637" url="~/products/devtools/single-board-computers/next-genbeaglebone/f/forum/55222/beaglebone-boards-discussion/224849"] but they aren't as tough as some would suggest.[/quote]

I killed my first beaglebone black by plugging in the LCD cape, it didn't have the correct pinmux/device tree and so fired the wrong volts over the data pins.

It never powered on again.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

kmikemoo — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:32:57 GMT

dougw I could not remember why I didn't pursue the BBB until you mentioned...

[quote userid="16637" url="~/products/devtools/single-board-computers/next-genbeaglebone/f/forum/55222/beaglebone-boards-discussion/224849"]they aren't as tough as some would suggest[/quote]

I was always conscious of this and it just made experimenting a bit less fun. Now it sits in a box - waiting for a purpose.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

Jan Cumps — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 12:31:33 GMT

[quote userid="16637" url="~/products/devtools/single-board-computers/next-genbeaglebone/f/forum/55222/beaglebone-boards-discussion/224849"]I don't know how others feel, but whenever I flash an OS for a Raspberry Pi, I worry about whether the Pi is actually going to boot.[/quote]

When I flash an image that I'm not confident about, I use a different SD card. Once I'm confident, the previous SD card becomes a spare one.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

dougw — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 00:44:09 GMT

I haven't used Beagleboards much, but they aren't as tough as some would suggest.

They come with a bootable OS already on the card - you don't even have to flash an SD card. They boot up right out of the box, which is actually much simpler than a Raspberry Pi. You don't even have to worry whether your SD card is "compatible". They also seem to be more forgiving about which 5V supply you use.

I don't know how others feel, but whenever I flash an OS for a Raspberry Pi, I worry about whether the Pi is actually going to boot.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

dang74 — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 23:57:56 GMT

Just read the blog. Almost like a proto-RoadTest.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

DAB — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 18:29:49 GMT

I have not gotten into the BBB line.

The learning curve is just too much for me at this time and the RPi line is easier for me to use.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

colporteur — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 12:53:13 GMT

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.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

mp2100 — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 18:41:47 GMT

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.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

cstanton — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 15:09:05 GMT

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

Hands on with the Arduino Tre : Developer Edition

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

flyingbean — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:18:35 GMT

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.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

koudelad — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 13:54:32 GMT

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

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

Fred27 — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 10:57:36 GMT

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.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

koudelad — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:35:32 GMT

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.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

koudelad — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:30:24 GMT

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

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

shabaz — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 07:28:33 GMT

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.

RE: BeagleBone boards discussion

battlecoder — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 07:09:02 GMT

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).

Can a BBB run Debian 11.7 GUI?

landolfi — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 21:40:36 GMT

I inherited an Element14 Beaglebone Black from my grandson and tried to install the latest Debian 11.7 GUI software image on it from https://www.beagleboard.org/distros/am335x-11-7-2023-09-02-4gb-emmc-xfce-flasher.

The GUI loads the first time I boot after flashing, but subsequent boots go to a command prompt, and when I try to install anything it says "no space left on device", leading me to think the only way to run a GUI is off SD even though I got the image directly from the BBB software images. Any other ideas?

I don't have a specific application for this, just wanted to use the UI to play around with it. I've also noticed from previous times I had a UI running, my 802.11n Edimax USB wifi module and browser are incredibly resource intensive and slow even with the router only 20 feet away. Would an older, non-GUI OS solve the slow wifi performance?

Thanks,
Bob

RE: Can a BBB run Debian 11.7 GUI?

mp2100 — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 01:19:41 GMT

Yes. I love the bbb, but Even 5 years ago the bbb was slow with xwindows gui. You could try and flash really old angstrom images onto it but that would be not very secure by today’s standards.

RE: Can a BBB run Debian 11.7 GUI?

cstanton — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:46:57 GMT

[quote userid="123345" url="~/products/devtools/single-board-computers/next-genbeaglebone/f/forum/55199/can-a-bbb-run-debian-11-7-gui/224668"](those will require a micro SD card)[/quote]

Or USB, or even with the Pi 5 an nvme with the appropriate hat!

And perhaps even network boot. I cannot remember if the BBB supported pxe booting.

RE: Can a BBB run Debian 11.7 GUI?

landolfi — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:25:38 GMT

Thanks to all! This all began because the factory eMMC image wouldn't drive the wireless module. I had previously tried LXQT 9.1 on SD with no significant performance improvement. I'll try going back to the oldest GUI on SD and if that doesn't work I'll settle for a non-GUI.

RE: Can a BBB run Debian 11.7 GUI?

bidrohini — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:07:03 GMT

Flash the Debian 11.7 XFCE image to an SD card instead of using the eMMC, or switch to a lighter distribution. Consider a non-GUI OS to free up resources and improve Wi-Fi performance.

RE: Can a BBB run Debian 11.7 GUI?

shabaz — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 02:34:12 GMT

Hi Bob,

You're correct, the BBB needs a micro SD card for any reasonable image with GUI, i.e. desktop. The build-in storage (eMMC) is quite small. The BBB is a very underpowered platform nowadays, so desktop performance won't be very good. It may be better to use it without launching a desktop, and just SSH'ing into a text-based shell prompt.

Something like Pi 4 or Pi 5 would have much better desktop experience (those will require a micro SD card).

Free e-book today: Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone

misaz — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:41:01 GMT

Book "Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone" by Bill Pretty is freely avalaible today at publisher site: https://www.packtpub.com/free-learning. You need to claim it today and you get access to it forever. I have not read it, but written reviews on Amazon are quite positive. There are few negative ratings, but reviewers did not write textual review, so it is not clear what's wrong with book (if any). It is about 11 years old, but still may be interesting because electronics does not date so quickly (in comparison with computer science, for example). In comparison with other paid books, it is not that long (120 pgs).

RE: Free e-book today: Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone

BigG — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:34:02 GMT

Of course, why be misdirected by free books showing you how to build a simple security system on a somewhat complicated SBC, when you can do more using a simpler Xiao ESP32-S3 microcontroller. Much cheaper too. Here's an example of a 4-zone board with tamper switch. The smarts behind my board (besides MCU) is the use of a quad differential comparator (LM2901PWR).

With these little Xiao boards, I now have a choice of using a range of wireless options or even wired (using USB). I use a combo of BLE and WiFi.