Exploring BeagleBone: Tools and Techniques for Building with Embedded Linux

In-depth instruction and practical techniques for building with the BeagleBone embedded Linux platform

Exploring BeagleBone is a hands-on guide to bringing gadgets, gizmos, and robots to life using the popular BeagleBone embedded Linux platform. Comprehensive content and deep detail provide more than just a BeagleBone instruction manual–you’ll also learn the underlying engineering techniques that will allow you to create your own projects. The book begins with a foundational primer on essential skills, and then gradually moves into communication, control, and advanced applications using C/C++, allowing you to learn at your own pace. In addition, the book’s companion website features instructional videos, source code, discussion forums, and more, to ensure that you have everything you need.

The BeagleBone’s small size, high performance, low cost, and extreme adaptability have made it a favorite development platform, and the Linux software base allows for complex yet flexible functionality. The BeagleBone has applications in smart buildings, robot control, environmental sensing, to name a few; and, expansion boards and peripherals dramatically increase the possibilities. Exploring BeagleBone provides a reader-friendly guide to the device, including a crash course in computer engineering. While following step by step, you can:

• Get up to speed on embedded Linux, electronics, and programming
• Master interfacing electronic circuits, buses and modules, with practical examples
• Explore the Internet-connected BeagleBone and the BeagleBone with a display
• Apply the BeagleBone to sensing applications, including video and sound
• Explore the BeagleBone’s Programmable Real-Time Controllers

Hands-on learning helps ensure that your new skills stay with you, allowing you to design with electronics, modules, or peripherals even beyond the BeagleBone. Insightful guidance and online peer support help you transition from beginner to expert as you master the techniques presented in Exploring BeagleBone, the practical handbook for the popular computing platform.

Table of Contents

Part I BeagleBone Basics
Chapter 1 The BeagleBone Hardware
Chapter 2 The BeagleBone Black Software
Chapter 3 Exploring Embedded Linux Systems
Chapter 4 Interfacing Electronics
Chapter 5 Practical BeagleBone Programming

Part II Interfacing, Controlling, and Communicating
Chapter 6 Interfacing to the BeagleBone Input/Outputs
Chapter 7 Cross-Compilation and the Eclipse IDE
Chapter 8 Interfacing to the BeagleBone Buses
Chapter 9 Interacting with the Physical Environment

Part III Advanced BeagleBone Systems
Chapter 10 The Internet of Things
Chapter 11 BeagleBone with a Rich User Interface
Chapter 12 Images, Video, and Audio
Chapter 13 Real-Time BeagleBone Interfacing