BeagleLogic Standalone featuring the Octavo SiP

Guest article written by  Kumar Abhishek on the Octavo Systems website:

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BeagleLogic Standalone – Featuring the OSD3358-SM

Three years ago, as a student under the Google Summer of Code program for BeagleBoard.org, I developed BeagleLogic – that turned the BeagleBone Black and its variants into a Logic Analyzer using the Programmable Real-Time Units (PRUs) on the AM335x SoC to capture up to 14 inputs up to 100 MSamples/sec. It is possible to fill up to 300MB of the 512MB DDR RAM in the BeagleBone with logic samples – that’s 3 seconds of data at 8 channels (1.5 secs at 16 channels). I also designed a cape for the system – called the BeagleLogic cape that would allow buffering the external logic signals up to 5V TTL so that they do not damage the BeagleBone.

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The launch of Octavo Systems and its OSD3358 SiP got me excited, and the idea of a turnkey version of BeagleLogic was rekindled as the design would be greatly simplified due to the SiP integrating the core components, leaving me to focus on the features I want to add to the system.

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From concept to completion, this project took 4 months working on it part-time. I relocated in August so work happened at an even slower pace during that month

The schematics were originally based on the OSD3358, however Jason encouraged me to design based on the newly announced OSD3358-SM as it was smaller and had a more optimized ballmap. The schematics were then migrated to the OSD3358-SM in late July. At the beginning of the routing exercise, I was really apprehensive if the design could be routed in 4 layers but thanks to the optimized ball map of the OSD3358-SM, the routing was easily completed so.

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BeagleLogic Standalone featuring the Octavo SiP

High Speed Data Acquisition Chat

Kumar Abhishek, creator of the BeagleLogic Standalone, will be hosting a Hackaday HackChat on Friday, November 17th:

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High Speed Data Acquisition Chat

This Hack Chat is at 9:30a PST, Friday, November 17th.

This chat is about data acquisition. Data acquisition (DAQ) is a process by which a signal such as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, or sound is measured with a processing system. A processing system can be an entire computer or a standalone chip. The goal of a good DAQ system is to provide accuracy as quickly and be as cost effective as possible.

Kumar [Abhishek] is an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India, whose journey into the world of hardware began when he picked up the soldering iron at the age of 7. As a student under the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program under BeagleBoard.org, [Abhishek] worked with BeagleBoard.org to realize a logic analyzer using the Programmable Real-Time units on the BeagleBone, called BeagleLogic. He has also served as a Summer of Code mentor for BeagleBoard.org.

In this chat, we’ll be discussing:

  • The PRUs on the BeagleBone series of hardware, and their capabilities
  • How BeagleLogic uses the PRUs to perform data acquisition
  • Ways to program the PRUs
  • (Ways of) processing the data acquired from the PRUs
High Speed Data Acquisition Chat

Friday Hack Chat: Jason Kridner of BeagleBoard.org

This Friday: Jason Kridner of the BeagleBoard.org Foundation will joining Hackaday’s weekly Hack Chat to talk BeagleBone, PocketBeagle, the BeagleBoard.org community and more!

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Friday Hack Chat: The Incredible BeagleBoard

Topics for this Hack Chat will include the direction BeagleBoard is going, the communities involved with BeagleBoard, and how to get the most out of those precious programmable real-time units. As always, we’re taking questions from the community, submit them here.

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As an extra special bonus, this week we’re giving away some hardware. Digi-Key has offered up a few PocketBeagle boards. If you have an idea for a project, put it on the discussion sheet and we’ll pick the coolest project and send someone a PocketBeagle.

Friday Hack Chat: Jason Kridner of BeagleBoard.org

Raspberry Pi CAN-bus HAT for the Omzlo IoT platform

From Omzlo Electronics:

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A Raspberry Pi CAN-bus HAT for the Omzlo IoT platform

In a previous blog post, we described “SKWARE” our revised Arduino-compatible IoT modules. These nodes are designed to be connected together in a daisy-chain fashion with a single cable that brings both DC power and CAN-bus networking. The voltage transported in the cables is not 5V (or 3.3V) but rather 12V or 24V to work more comfortably over long distances, potentially reaching 300 meters (1000 feet). You can think of it as a poor-man’s PoE.

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This network of connected nodes is designed to be monitored and controlled by a “master node”, which injects the necessary 12V/24V DC, provides node management services and a web interface for network administration. While the IoT nodes are based on an Arduino-style microcontroller, the “master node” requires a bit more power. In this context, the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi with its GPIO header seems like an ideal candidate for that role and we decided to see if we could build a “master node” by augmenting a Raspberry Pi with an appropriate add-on board. These add-on boards are called “HATs” (for “Hardware Attached on Top”) and we called our first prototype the “Pi Master HAT”.

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The drawing below illustrates the general structure of our network. A Raspberry Pi equipped with our “Pi Master HAT” controls a network of 2 (or more) daisy-chained nodes, like the SKWARE.

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Raspberry Pi CAN-bus HAT for the Omzlo IoT platform

BeagleBone FPGA cape and Google Summer of Code

From the BeagleBoard.org Foundation blog:

Google Summer of Code project videos

Watch the introduction videos from our Google Summer of Code 2017 students including BeagleWire software support by Patryk Mężydło

Checkout hackaday.io more information on the cape:

BeagleWire

The BeagleWire is an FPGA(Lattice iCE40HX4k) development platform that has been designed for use with BeagleBone boards.

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mwelling has shared the board on OSH Park:

BeagleWire

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Order from OSH Park

BeagleBone FPGA cape and Google Summer of Code

Embedded Linux talks at SCaLE 15x

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Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) had a track yesterday on Embedded Linux and video of the talks are on YouTube:

Room 104 Friday Mar. 03 – SCaLE 15x

The video is a recording of the entire day of Room 104 so refer to the Friday schedule for information on the individual talks:

Embedded Linux talks at SCaLE 15x

Hackaday and Tindie at SCALE 15x

Do you like Open Source? Join Hackaday and Tindie at the largest community-run Open Source conference in North America. We’ll be at the Southern California Linux Expo next week, and we want to see you there. What’s happening at SCALE this year? Amateur radio license exams, a PGP signing party, Bad Voltage Live and The Spazmatics, and…

via Join Hackaday And Tindie At The Southern California Linux Expo — Hackaday

Hackaday and Tindie at SCALE 15x

Onion Omega2 Breakout

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Onion Omega2 Breakout

My Omega2 Onion shield, using a AMS1117 for 3.3V and CH340G for USB to serial. Kind of ugly soldering here as I didn’t have a tip for the syringe to dispense solder paste, so I just smeared it all over and hoped it reflowed well. It kind of did, but I had a solder blob short on pin 14 +15 on the CH340G, so I just lifted those two legs off the board. I was so eager to get this board tested that I forgot to check that I had these 2mm pin headers. I had just enough to get this thing tested. Time to order more 🙂

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Jensa has shared the board on OSH Park:

Onion Omega2 Breakout

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Order from OSH Park

Simple breakout board using the dirt cheap IC’s CH340G ($0.30/each on ebay) for Serial and a AMS1117-3.3 ($0.025/each) for power. Breaks out all pins from 2mm to 2.54mm headers. Plugs nicely into two small breadboards for prototyping.

Onion Omega2 Breakout

Building an ARM based microcomputer at home

Having my reflow solder oven finished, I couldn’t wait to see how far can I challenge it with complex circuit boards and tiny components. I decided to build a system with components that are tricky to solder, such as BGA and QFN packages. Not interested in designing the whole circuit on my own, I […]

via Building an ARM based microcomputer at home — HELENTRONICA

Building an ARM based microcomputer at home