tips related to beagle board

those who wish to buy a beagle board, buy beagle board xm, not the c4 version which is widely available outside compared to xm version.

c4 version needs a powered usb hub to connect a key board and mouse. Also, for ethernet connection, a usb to ethernet adapter is needed.

For all these days, i am searching for a dvi monitor to see the beagle board booting process. But the better solution would be to use a remote desktop option using x11vnc or some vnc server application on the beagle board.

minimal things required:

1. xm version board
2. one straight cable db9 to db9 (male to female)
3. although 4gb card is available with the purchased version, it is better to start with 8gb.
minimal software: x11vnc server to see the booting process remotely.

that is all for now.

an update:

some other development boards: panda board (174$) , st-ericsson snow ball. these new ones include wifi, bluetooth also. great !!

ubuntu installation on beagle board

Today i just finished installing ubuntu 11.04 ompa3 version on my beagle board. it is quite simple and took couple of minutes. I am wondering if there is a way to partition the sd card on windows machine. Every time i need to partition the card on linux machine. Anyways, it is good to see the complete gui installation screens on the little serial monitor winodow.

I have used 4Gig sd card.

Download from : http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.04/release/

link: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.04/release/ubuntu-11.04-preinstalled-headless-armel+omap.img.gz

on a linux machine: execute this command after inserting the card.

1. gunzip -c ubuntu-11.04-preinstalled-headless-armel+.img.gz | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/ 2. sync

code generation scicoslab/scicos

c/c++ code generation from system blocks (Matlab/Simulink, Scilab/xcos, ScicosLab/Scicos) is really helpful for rapid-prototyping.

some documentation available here: http://www.scicos.org/CodeGen_doc.pdf


ScicosLab/Scicos provides (also Scilab/xcos) code-generation facility for generating a stand-alone “c” code. The generated file can be linked to various interface modules.


Create a block diagram in Scicos. Select the relevant blocks and make them as super block. And make it as super-block for code generation. Select “code generation” from the tool bar and generate the code for the super-block.



xxx_standalone.c
xxx_act_sens_events.c
libxxx.lib

where xxx is the name of the workspace.

Include these files in the visual-studio and create an executable.

Open loop response of 2nd order system:

I have given some constant input 1.0 in the “xxx_act_sens_events.c”
*((double *) y+(k+l*(*ny1))) =1.0;

Otherwise the program will be asking the input continuously for every iteration.


Ol1.txt is generated from the “generated code”
foo.txt is from the scicos generated output.

Beagle Board

After some struggle, I could able to boot the beagle board (version c4) with Angstrom OS.
Initially, I felt it is very difficult to test the board without the OS.

All we need: 3 wires and a USB mini cable/5v adapter : To test the board with out OS, we just need 3 wires if the correct cables are not available : ATI/everex IDC 10 cable + female to female DB9 null modem cable).
rs232 Pin out structure of beagle board:1. Connect the Rx pin of the beagle board (#2) to the Tx of the computer serial port (#3).
2. Connect the Tx pin of the beagle board (#3) to the Rx pin of the computer serial port (#2).
3. Connect the ground pin of the beagle board to the ground pin of the computer serial port (#5).

Beagle board c4 with IDC 10 cable:
The red color of the IDC 10 cable should be connected near to the pin #1. Also, the cable will have 9 holes (make a hole using a small pin).

Serial cable (Db9 female to female)

Open the hyper terminal, and configure the com#1 (usuall com#1) with 115200 baud rate and flow control: none
By using either the cables or self made configuration cables, connect the board to the serial port of the pc and power it on. Beagle board will boot with the boot loader existing in the NAND memory.

Beagle board with Angstrom OS:

The board I have is Beagle board rev c4. So, I need to make to some changes in the loader.
1. Follow the instructions mentioned in this link: http://beagleboard.org/challenge

2. Copy the necessary files (MLO, u-boot.in) and angstrom files to the SD card. I have used 1 GB SD card. Follow exactly the instructions mentioned here:
1. format instructions: http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/LinuxBootDiskFormat
2. section 2 of this : http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/HowToGetAngstromRunning

Beagle board with Angstrom OS:

Only thing left is connecting the Beagle board to the video display. I tried connecting to a monitor using HDMI male to DVI female + DVI female to VGA. But didn't work.

Update: Luckily I found dvi male to male converter and dvi monitor. Connected the board to the dvi monitor:

Here is the beagle board c4 with angstrom OS:
Booting phase:


Angstrom OS:
Still keyboard, mouse are not connected. May be USB port needs a powered USB hub. Will update it soon.

more on Kindle

I have been using for a while (finished reading one Novel).

1. it is good and nice to read a hard-copy. it is quite boring to read the whole world on a slate always. it is obvious that we will get a feel with a new book always.
2. reading news is really a boring thing on Kindle.
3. updated the kindle software, but still not getting the page numbers for kindle based content. (may be, not updated for the novels, i bought).
4. people around me are still thinking that i am holding a gadget. so my wife throws it whenever i am holding it all the time. she doesn't say anything if i hold newspapers, books all the time. (see the real difference).
5. i can not use it anywhere i want (what if it fells down from my hand). but you can read a hard-copy book wherever you want.

so, better buy an ipad kind of a device.