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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> Finally: BeagleBone Black Review
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1477870099

Message started by Fernando on Oct 30^th, 2016, 7:28pm

Title: Finally: BeagleBone Black Review
Post by Fernando on Oct 30^th, 2016, 7:28pm

BeagleBone Black (BBB) Rev. B

Made by Texas Instruments, sold by Circuitco Inc.
1GHz ARM8 CPU, 512MB RAM, 2GB FlashRAM.
Angstrom Linux (Debian Branch) in its FlashRAM. Can use other versions of ARM based Linux and Android (4.4 Lolipop/Linux)

Boots in under 10 seconds but some things (like the webserver) takes a bit longer to setup.

Finally got the BeagleBone flashed. The first few times I tried it would not take as it would only boot to the FlashRAM, turns out that the SD Card did not correctly take the image the first time. Another day, another attempt – formatted the SD Card (TWICE!!!) and burned the Angstrom 2GB Image to it. Put it in the BeagleBone Black, hold down the uBoot Botton and it started to load up.

The directions says that it would take 45 minute to complete, and when done it would have all 4 status LEDs on. In less than 20 minutes, I found the BeagleBone turned off. Thinking something went wrong, I tried it again and the same thing happened, twice. So I decided to see if it would work, and it did! Removing the SD Card, the BeagleBone booted up from the FlashRAM and it is up and running!

I’m guessing that the 45 minutes is for the 4GB Angstrom OS version, as I am using the 2GB Angstrom OS version as the Rev. B BBB only has 2GB of FlashRAM Space. 20 Minutes is about right for it is 1/2 of 45 minutes and 2GB is 1/2 of 4GB. What puzzles me is why did it turn off, though I am speculating that remaining on with all 4 LEDs on is for the 4GB Angstrom version of the OS. Either way, it is up and running.

Though you can program in various languages, it prefers Java/Javascript. It has Cloud 9, a Java/Javascript development system on it (even on the 2GB OS Version) where you can write up your programs on a webpage from the BBB or a computer networked to it. Scratch is not on it, but you can use C/C++, Perl, PHP, Python and other languages built into the Linux system. If you must, you can install Scratch for it.

The scary part is this: Java/Javascript SHOULD not be able to write or manipulate I/O and Files. This version of Java/Javascript DOES! This “handicap” is supposed to keep Java/Javascript to be turned into a Virus Machine, allowing other programs/apps to do the file writing for them. But with Java/Javascript having the ability to write and manipulate flies, anything is possible.

Otherwise, I noticed that the BBB is faster than the Single CPU Core Raspberry Pi (Model A/A+/B/B+/R-Pi:0), even an overclocked one to 1GHz. A R-Pi overclocked at 1.2GHz ties the BBB in abilities it can do from the simple tests that I gave it. Of course, the R-Pi:2 and R-Pi:3 beat the BBB out of the water as they are Quad Core CPUs and the BBB is a Single Core system.

A drawback to the (Rev B) BBB is that you can only use the older Linux on it if you want to boot from the FlashRAM, because it is only 2GB in space. You can set up any Linux on any SD Card (4GB or bigger) and boot from it from the SD Card, and take it a step further and format the 2GB FlashRAM as free disk space. Only problem with this is that the SD Card is a lot slower than the FlashRAM space. But using the FlashRAM space, you are limited the older systems that would fit onto it, which is not bad.

The "current" BBB Rev. C has 4GB of FlashRAM, giving you more options in updated OSes you can put on it. There is a new BBB that is being called Rev. C 2.0 (or something along those lines) which has an accelerated GPU similar to the Mali-400 used on other Pi systems and on Android Tablets & Smartphones. This gives the BBB better output to their video processing and gives it Multimedia application possibilities when it barely had any before. For various packages like BitCoin Mining (which uses the GPU instead of the CPU for information processing) this makes the BBB more attractive. ut remember, that is for the newer BBBs; I'm using the older Rev. B system.

The BBB is an interesting Small Board Computer (SBC). It has 4 serial ports, and a shit load of GPIO Pins. For robotics, you can do a lot with it! Like the Arduino Mega256, it has over 60 programmable GPIO Pins. The Raspberry Pi and many others only have 8 or 9 programmable GPIO pins on their GPIO Bus, with 1 or 2 serial ports on it (The R-Pi has 1 that the user can access on the GPIO, the other is used for internal communications).

What kills the BBB is its price. Over $50 in most places, though I was able to buy a couple of older Rev B. beheaded units from ebay for $15 and then use one for a trade for a complete rev. B unit. I am interestingly pleased with it, though I have too many projects in the back burner needing attention too. But who knows; with as many GPIO the BBB has, this can lead to larger projects and a possible entry to the NASA Rover Build Challenge.

Title: Re: Finally: BeagleBone Black Review
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Oct 30^th, 2016, 11:26pm

Cool. Glad ya got it working