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BeagleBone® Blue

BeagleBone® Blue is based on the extremely successful open-source hardware design of BeagleBone® Black, a high-expansion, maker-focused, community-supported open hardware computer, created by the BeagleBoard.Org Foundation.

BeagleBone® Blue combines the high-performance flexible WiFi/Bluetooth WiLink™ interface of the BeagleBone® Black Wireless and the robotics capabilities of the Robotics Cape from Strawson Design. BeagleBone® Blue has onboard 2 cell (2S) LiPo battery management with charger and battery level LEDs, 8 servo motor outputs, 4 DC motor drivers, 4 quadrature encoder inputs, a wide array of GPIO and serial protocol connectors including CAN, a 9 axis IMU and barometer, 4 ADC inputs, a PC USB interface, an USB 2.0 host port, a reset button, a power button, two user configurable buttons and six indicating LEDs. Built on Octavo Systems’ System-In-Package that integrates a high-performance TI ARM processor and 512MB of DDR3, BeagleBone® Blue boots Linux in around 10 seconds and gets you started developing through your web browser in less than 5 minutes with just a single USB cable.

Features


  • Processor: Octavo Systems OSD3358 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8

    • 512MB DDR3 RAM
    • Integrated power management
    • 2×32-bit 200-MHz programmable real-time units (PRUs)
    • ARM Cortex-M3
    • On-board 4GB 8-bit eMMC flash storage programmed with Debian Linux
  • Connectivity and sensors

    • Battery: 2-cell LiPo support with balancing, 9-18V charger input
    • Wireless: 802.11bgn, Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE
    • Motor control: 8 6V servo out, 4 DC motor out, 4 quadrature encoder in
    • Sensors: 9 axis IMU, barometer
    • Connectivity: HighSpeed USB 2.0 client and host
    • User interface: 11 user programmable LEDs, 2 user programmable buttons
    • Easy connect interfaces for adding additional sensors such as:
      • GPS, DSM2 radio, UARTs, SPI, I2C, 1.8V analog, 3.3V GPIOs
  • Software Compatibility

Specification


ItemDescription
Processor
(Integrated in
the OSD3358)
● AM335x 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8
● SGX530 graphics accelerator
● NEON floating-point accelerator
● 2x PRU 32-bit 200MHz microcontrollers
Memory● 512MB DDR3800MHZ RAM (Integrated in the OSD3358)
● 4GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage
● SD/MMC Connector for microSD













Connectivity
High speed USB 2.0 Client portAccess to USB0,Client mode via microUSB
High speed USB 2.0 Host portAccess to USB1,Type A Socket, 500mA LS/FS/HS


WiLink1835
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz.
Supportsthe following modes:
2x2 MIMO
AP
SmartConfig
STA
Wi-Fi Direct
Mesh over Wi-Fi based on 802.11s

Serial port
UART0, UART1, UART5 available via 4 pin JST connectors
UART2 available via 6 pin JST connector (EM-506 GPS style connector)
UART4 RX available via 3 pin DSM2 connector
WiLink 1835 Bluetooth 4.1 with BLE
I2C1 available via 4 pin JST connector
SPI1 CS0 (S1.1) and SPI1 CS1 (S1.2) available via 6 pin JST connectors
CAN available via 4 pin JST connector (includes TCAN1051 CAN transceiver)
8 GPIOs (GP0 and GPI1) available via 6 pin JST connectors
ADC inputs 0 to 3 available via 6 pin JST connector
3.3VDC and 5VDC power output via 4 pin JST connector


Power management
TPS65217C PMIC is used along with a separate LDO to provide power to the system (Integrated in the OSD3358)
2 cell (2S) LiPo battery charger (powered by 9 – 18VDC DC Jack):
i., 4 battery level LEDs;
ii.,1 charger LED
6VDC 4A regulator to drive servo motor outputs
Debug SupportJTAG test points
Power Sourcei., microUSB USB,
ii., 2 cell (2S) LiPo battery connector,
iii.,9 - 18VDC DC Jack
User Input / Outputi.,Power Button; ii.,Reset Button; iii.,Boot Button; iv.,2 user configurable buttons;
v.,6 user configurable LEDs;vi Power LED
Motor Control (requires power from either DC Jack or 2S battery)i., 4 DC motor drivers,
ii., 4 Quadrature encoder inputs,
iii.,8 Servo motor outputs
Sensors
i., 9 axis IMU,
ii.,Barometer

Application Ideas

  • Internet of Things

  • Smart House

  • Industrial

  • Automation & Process Control

  • Human Machine Interface

  • motor control

  • UAV control

  • Robot

Hardware Overview

Getting Started


Preparation

STEP1. Update the latest image

When you receive a BeagleBone®Blue from seeed, the image is already burned into the on-board eMMC. Which means you can skip this step. However we highly recommend you update the latest image.

i. Click and download the latest image from beagleboard.org.

note

The "IoT" images provide more free disk space if you don't need to use a graphical user interface (GUI).Due to sizing necessities, this download may take 30 minutes or more.

The Debian distribution is provied for the boards. The file you download will have an .img.xz extension. This is a compressed sector-by-sector image of the SD card.

ii. Plug the SD card into your PC or MAC with an SD card reader.You need an SD card with a capacity of more than 4G.

iii. Download and install Etcher

Click to download Etcher here, and burn the *.img.xz file directly to your SD card with Etcher. Or unzip the *.img.xz file to a *.img file, then burn it to SD card with other image writing tools.

Click the Plus icon to add the image you just download, the software will automatically select the SD card you plug. Then click Flash! to start burning. It will takes about 20 minutes to flash.

Then reject the SD card and Insert it into your BeagleBone® Blue.

STEP2. Power and boot

Connect the BeagleBone® Blue to your computer with the Micro-USB Cable.

caution

Please plug the USB cable gently, otherwise you may damage the interface.Please use the USB cable with 4 wires inside, the 2 wires cable can't transfer data. If you are not sure about the wire you have, you can click

to buy. If you want to use the Motor Control modules of BeagleBone® Blue, the power supply via USB Port is not sufficiant, you need to use DC-DC Port or 2S battery.

You'll see the power (PWR or ON) LED lit steadily. Within a minute or so, you should see the other LEDs blinking in their default configurations.

  • USR0 is typically configured at boot to blink in a heartbeat pattern
  • USR1 is typically configured at boot to light during SD (microSD) card accesses
  • USR2 is typically configured at boot to light during CPU activity
  • USR3 is typically configured at boot to light during eMMC accesses
  • WIFI LED is typically configured at boot to light with WiFi network association (BeagleBone® Blue only)

With the latest images, it should no longer be necessary to install drivers for your operating system to give you network-over-USB access to your Beagle. In case you are running an older image, an older operating system or need additional drivers for serial access to older boards, links to the old drivers are below.

Operating SystemUSB DriversComments
Windows
(64-bit)
64-bit installer
If in doubt, try the 64-bit installer first.

● Windows Driver Certification warning may pop up two or three times. Click "Ignore", "Install" or "Run"
● To check if you're running 32 or 64-bit Windows see this Link.
● On systems without the latest service release, you may get an error (0xc000007b). In that case, please click this Link to install and retry.
● You may need to reboot Windows.
● These drivers have been tested to work up to Windows 10.
Windows
(32-bit)
32-bit installer
Mac OS X
Network SerialInstall both Network and Serial driver.
Linuxmkudevrule.shDriver installation isn't required, but you might find a few udev rules helpful.

STEP3. Browse to your Beagle

Using either Chrome or Firefox (Internet Explorer will NOT work), browse to the web server running on your board. It will load a presentation showing you the capabilities of the board. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate the presentation.

When the boot is done, a network adapter should show up on your computer. You can click to enter the Cloud 9 IDE.

STEP4. Connect to wifi

Open a new terminal,then tap the command below

root@beaglebone:/var/lib/cloud9# connmanctl
connmanctl> enable wifi
Enabled wifi
connmanctl> tether wifi disable
Error disabling wifi tethering: Already disabled
connmanctl> scan wifi
Scan completed for wifi
connmanctl> services
*AO seeed wifi_f45eabf743ad_7365656564_managed_psk
CHAIHUOMAKERS wifi_f45eabf743ad_4348414948554f4d414b455253_managed_psk
DIRECT-99-HP DeskJet 4670 series wifi_f45eabf743ad_4449524543542d39392d4850204465736b4a6574203436373020736572696573_managed_psk
mostfun-5bf7 wifi_f45eabf743ad_6d6f737466756e2d35626637_managed_psk
DIRECT-TNDESKTOP-71PTKLKmsXO wifi_f45eabf743ad_4449524543542d544e4445534b544f502d373150544b4c4b6d73584f_managed_psk
HPKJ wifi_f45eabf743ad_48504b4a_managed_psk
ChinaNet-yTGy wifi_f45eabf743ad_4368696e614e65742d79544779_managed_psk
GPKJ1 wifi_f45eabf743ad_47504b4a31_managed_psk
GUMO wifi_f45eabf743ad_47554d4f_managed_psk
jdsfkf wifi_f45eabf743ad_6a6473666b66_managed_psk
connmanctl> agent on
Agent registered
connmanctl> connect wifi_f45eabf743ad_7365656564_managed_psk
Error /net/connman/service/wifi_f45eabf743ad_7365656564_managed_psk: Already connected
connmanctl> quit
root@beaglebone:/var/lib/cloud9# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f4:5e:ab:f7:43:ad
inet addr:192.168.199.145 Bcast:192.168.199.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::f65e:abff:fef7:43ad/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST DYNAMIC MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:8920 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3531 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1166820 (1.1 MiB) TX bytes:3352208 (3.1 MiB)

root@beaglebone:/var/lib/cloud9#

When you tap ifconfig wlan0 and the internet address is something like 192.168.199.145, congratulations, you have connected to wifi successfully.

When the BeagleBone® Blue connect to the Internet, we highly recommend you use the command below to update your BeagleBone® Blue.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

It may take a long time to update, but it is worthwhile.

This is a Javascript demo.

Ckick the File->New File-> button at the top light corner of Cloud9 IDE.

note

after create file, just donot forget save the file meanwhile add the file type.

copy the code below and click Run

var b = require('bonescript');

var state = b.LOW;

b.pinMode("USR0", b.OUTPUT);
b.pinMode("USR1", b.OUTPUT);
b.pinMode("USR2", b.OUTPUT);
b.pinMode("USR3", b.OUTPUT);
setInterval(toggle, 1000);

function toggle() {
if(state == b.LOW) state = b.HIGH;
else state = b.LOW;
b.digitalWrite("USR2", state);
}

Then you will see the USER2 LED blink.

Demo.2 USE GPIO With Grove-LED

Step 1. Please prepare staff as the Partlist below.

BeagleBone® BlueGrove - LED Socket KitGrove Adapter cable(6pin)
Get ONE NowGet ONE NowGet ONE Now

Step 2. Connect the LED Socket Kit to the 6 pin GPIO interface of BeagleBone® Blue.

Step 3. Open a new terminal in the Cloud9 IDE, tap the code below into this terminal.

cd /sys/class/gpio
echo 49 >export
cd gpio49
echo out >direction
while sleep 1;
do echo 0 >value;
sleep 1;
echo 1 >value;
done

Now you will see your LED light up in the heartbeat mode.

Demo.3 USE UART With Grove-GPS

Step 1. Please prepare staff as the Partlist below.

BeagleBone® BlueGrove - LED Socket KitGrove Adapter cable(4pin)
Get ONE NowGet ONE NowGet ONE Now

Step 2. Connect the Grove-GPS sensor to the 4 pin UART1 interface of BeagleBone® Blue.

Step 3. Open a new terminal in the Cloud9 IDE, tap the code below into this terminal.

apt install tio
tio /dev/ttyO1 -b 9600

Then you will see the GPS information on the terminal as the picture shown below.

Demo.4 USE I2C With Grove-Digital Light Sensor

Step 1. Please prepare staff as the Partlist below.

BeagleBone® BlueGrove - LED Socket KitGrove Adapter cable(4pin)
Get ONE NowGet ONE NowGet ONE Now

Step 2. Connect the Grove-Digital Light Sensor to the 4 pin I2C interface of BeagleBone® Blue.

Step 3. Open a new terminal in the Cloud9 IDE, tap the code below into this terminal.

cd /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-1;
echo tsl2561 0x29 >new_device;
watch -n0 cat 1-0029/iio\:device0/in_illuminance0_input

Then you will get the light value as the picture below.

Grove Compatibility List

Grove is a modular, standardized connecter prototyping system. Grove takes a building block approach to assembling electronics. Compared to the jumper or solder based system, it is easier to connect, experiment and build and simplifies the learning system, but not to the point where it becomes dumbed down. Some of the other prototype systems out there takes the level down to building blocks. Good stuff to be learned that way, but the Grove system allows you to build real systems. It requires some learning and expertise to hook things up.

The list belew is the Grove modules that work well with BeagleBone® Blue.

SKUItemI/O typeWorking Voltage
101020017Grove - Rotary Angle SensorAnalogCan work on 1.8V
101020048Grove - Rotary Angle Sensor(P)AnalogCan work on 1.8V
101020036Grove - Slide PotentiometerAnalogCan work on 1.8V
101020031Grove - Piezo Vibration SensorAnalogCan work on 1.8V
101020003Grove - ButtonDigital3.3V
111020000Grove - Button(P)Digital3.3V
111020001Grove - EncoderDigital3.3V
101020004Grove - Switch(P)Digital3.3V
101020025Grove - Tilt SwitchDigital3.3V
101020018Grove - Water SensorDigital3.3V
101020005Grove - Collision SensorDigital3.3V
103020030Grove - Mouse EncoderDigital3.3V
104030007Grove - Green LEDDigital3.3V
104030005Grove - Red LEDDigital3.3V
101020172Grove - Line Finder v1.1Digital3.3V
101020018Grove - Water SensorDigital3.3V
101020019Grove - Temperature&Humidity Sensor ProDigital3.3V
101020020Grove - PIR Motion SensorDigital3.3V
101020052Grove - GSR sensorDigital3.3V
101020175Grove - IR Distance Interrupter v1.2Digital3.3V
101020033Grove - Ear-clip Heart Rate SensorDigital3.3V
101020037Grove - Touch SensorDigital3.3V
101020030Grove - Digital Light SensorDigital3.3V
101020232Grove - Speech Recognizer v1.0Digital3.3V
101020005Grove - Collision SensorDigital3.3V
105020005Grove - EL DriverDigital3.3V
104030009Grove - White LEDDigital3.3V
104030010Grove - Blue LEDDigital3.3V
104030005Grove - Red LEDDigital3.3V
104030007Grove - Green LEDDigital3.3V
104030014Grove - Multi Color Flash LED (5mm)Digital3.3V
104020001Grove - Variable Color LEDDigital3.3V
104020005Grove - LED String LightDigital3.3V
104020048Grove - Chainable RGB LED v2.0Digital3.3V
101020004Grove - Switch(P)Digital3.3V
111020000Grove - Button(P)Digital3.3V
101020003Grove - ButtonDigital3.3V
101020038Grove - Magnetic SwitchDigital3.3V
101020025Grove - Tilt SwitchDigital3.3V
103020005Grove - RelayDigital3.3V
107020000Grove - BuzzerDigital3.3V
103020014Grove - Dry-Reed RelayDigital3.3V
105020003Grove - Vibration MotorDigital3.3V
108020021Grove - Mini Fan v1.1Digital3.3V
103020004Grove - Solid State RelayDigital3.3V
103020007Grove - Screw TerminalDigital3.3V
103020008Grove - MOSFETDigital3.3V
101020212Grove - Temp&Humi Sensor(SHT31)I2C3.3V
101020192Grove - Barometer Sensor (BMP280)I2C3.3V
101020080Grove - IMU 9DOF v2.0I2C3.3V
101020054Grove - 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer(±16g)I2C3.3V
101020252Grove - IMU 10DOF v2.0I2C3.3V
101020193Grove - Barometer Sensor(BME280)I2C3.3V
101020082Grove - Finger-clip Heart Rate Sensor with shellI2C3.3V
101020050Grove - 3-Axis Digital GyroI2C3.3V
103020024Grove - Finger-clip Heart Rate SensorI2C3.3V
101020081Grove - 6-Axis Accelerometer&Compass v2.0I2C3.3V
101020071Grove - 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer(±400g)I2C3.3V
104030008Grove - OLED Display 0.96''I2C3.3V
104030011Grove - OLED Display 1.12''I2C3.3V
103020006Grove - I2C HubI2C3.3V
103020013Grove - I2C ADCI2C3.3V
113020003Grove - GPSUART3.3V

FAQs

Please click here to see all BeagleBone® Blue FAQs.

Schematic Online Viewer

Resources


Tech Support & Product Discussion

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