BeagleBone

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Might be of interest to some of you electronics hackers out there. 1GHz ARM core + ethernet + usb + linux + lots of IO for $89.
http://beagleboard.org/bone

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Might be of interest to some of you electronics hackers out there. 1GHz ARM core + ethernet + usb + linux + lots of IO for $89.
http://beagleboard.org/bone

I haven't been able to find an IO list that's the only thing stopping me from pulling the trigger.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I haven't been able to find an IO list that's the only thing stopping me from pulling the trigger.

If you want to do DSP or video stuff, it looks cool.

If you want to do digital or analog I/O, not so hot. I don't think it has any support.

If you want to do PWM, analog and digital I/O with linux, then Vex is coming out with an ARM9 linux robot controller. I don't think it is released yet. ( Hey John, when is this coming out ? )
http://www.vexforum.com/wiki/index.p...icrocontroller

If you want to do PWM, analog and digital I/O without an OS, then the Cerebot 32MX4 and Cerebot 32MX7 board is pretty nice.
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/...th=2,396&Cat=8

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by ebarker

If you want to do DSP or video stuff, it looks cool.

If you want to do digital or analog I/O, not so hot. I don't think it has any support.

If you want to do PWM, analog and digital I/O with linux, then Vex is coming out with an ARM9 linux robot controller. I don't think it is released yet. ( Hey John, when is this coming out ? )
http://www.vexforum.com/wiki/index.p...icrocontroller

If you want to do PWM, analog and digital I/O without an OS, then the Cerebot 32MX4 and Cerebot 32MX7 board is pretty nice.
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/...th=2,396&Cat=8

Little from A and a little from B... It talked about having 3.3V tolerant IO pins. I guess I'll wait on finding a full list of IO options on it.

[Chris is me]

I thought the page mentions PWM I / O support.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by ebarker

If you want to do PWM, analog and digital I/O with linux, then Vex is coming out with an ARM9 linux robot controller. I don't think it is released yet. ( Hey John, when is this coming out ? )
http://www.vexforum.com/wiki/index.p...icrocontroller

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Cost?

[theprgramerdude]

For only $89, this is one heck of an upgrade from an Arduino... I wonder what I can really make hobby robots do now.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Cost?

Easily in the $250 range... plus if I recall, that's been in development for over a year.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Cost?

Tom,

I don't know. I'm guessing 300+ if it is a penny. Last I talked to John he mentioned they got their 1st production batch and they are working to roll it out. I think they have been swamped with growth and it is keeping them super busy. Hopefully it will not be too much longer before it is out. I sure could use some of them.

Ed

[theprgramerdude]

Considering the price difference, though, it seems that the beagle bone is a real steal for the performance boost over the Vex controller, especially considering all of it's other add-on possibilities that the Vex lacks, like ethernet and a micro SD card slot.

[JesseK]

Can anyone figure out how much it weighs and what its power/voltage requirements are? Work's firewall blocks the page.

[rahilm]

Another similar, but much cheaper board, is also coming out soon. It's called Raspberry Pi, and you lose a bit of power (700mhz ARM11 but still has a graphics chip) but it has a much nicer price point of $25 (128mb RAM, 1 USB port) or $35 (256mb RAM, 2 USB ports, and Ethernet). The maximum power consumption is supposed to be ~3.5W.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by ebarker

If you want to do DSP or video stuff, it looks cool.

If you want to do digital or analog I/O, not so hot. I don't think it has any support.

What are you basing this on? There are 60 Digital I/O and the press release mentions other onboard peripherals which according to some blogs include ADC.

This is a very powerful board, the advantages a more expensive vex board would have would be due to being supported by a company rather than a open-source community. Nothing on this board is going to be gift wrapped for you the way VEX will provide source and support but as with Arduino the knowledge base available will grow rapidly.

As part of my day job I was able to play with the onboard microcontroller using one of TIs dev boards (which retails for $1200), this is a powerful chip and is as fast as you are seeing in industry today, the ability to release it in a barebones package at a sub $100 price point is awesome, cant wait to get one.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by rahilm

Another similar, but much cheaper board, is also coming out soon. It's called Raspberry Pi, and you lose a bit of power (700mhz ARM11 but still has a graphics chip) but it has a much nicer price point of $25 (128mb RAM, 1 USB port) or $35 (256mb RAM, 2 USB ports, and Ethernet). The maximum power consumption is supposed to be ~3.5W.

I agree that the Raspberry Pi is a cool little board but it really isn't on the same level as this. Besides the Cortex 8 being much more powerful than the ARM11 (there are plenty of good articles comparing the architectures) the Beagle bone is designed to be built around and you will see a lot more support in the open-source community for the beaglebone.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

What are you basing this on? There are 60 Digital I/O and the press release mentions other onboard peripherals which according to some blogs include ADC.

Source? I recall seeing it but I can't find it again.