BeagleBone

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

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

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...132910373.html

The official press release.

Don't have any detailed specs yet but that mentions the I/O.

[theprgramerdude]

How easy do you guys think it'd be to hook two of these up into a Master-Slave configuration for more I/O goodies?

Plus, looking at this from a perspective for possible use in the FRC, it looks like it could end up being a very useful breakout board for more sensors and possible processing a second camera that a team might need if they want to get fancy. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

[AllenGregoryIV]

Here's the schematics for the beaglebone I haven't counted the I/O pins though if someone's interested they can. They show what's broken out to the headers.

http://beagleboard.org/static/beagle...E_SCHEM_A3.pdf

[ebarker]

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.

Well then I stand corrected. The information isn't easy to find or I'm inept and I have no problem admitting to inept. Seems like the info was too hard to find.

However I saw the schematics posted earlier and indeed it does have pins available for I/O.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

How easy do you guys think it'd be to hook two of these up into a Master-Slave configuration for more I/O goodies?

Plus, looking at this from a perspective for possible use in the FRC, it looks like it could end up being a very useful breakout board for more sensors and possible processing a second camera that a team might need if they want to get fancy. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

You could certainly hook them up in a master slvae configutation, it would be a simple as coming up with a communication proticol (through your choice of ethernet, usb, RS-232, etc).

As far as FRC applications I am still of the opinion that 99% of teams dont need any more processing ability than what the cRIO offers. Teams looking to make a modular posistioning system like what wildstang had at one point could certainly use this (it would be over kill but the price point is right). This board is definitely capable of running a second camera and doing onboard image processing, if a team saw a need to do this then this board is certainly a legitimate choice, however I don't think that the current setup and difficulty of autonomous mode would warrant making such a complicated system.

I honestly don't see this as a big deal for FRC applications, a lot of the things that teams would want a second processor to do can already be done with other boards at this price point. This board is very powerful and very cool, however I don't think that there are many applications that require a board this powerful that offer a great benefit to FRC teams and could be completed during the build season. However I have been wrong before and would be happy to admit I was wrong if it means that a team came up with a cool application for this board.

From a hobby perspective I am excited. I already have one ordered through Adafruit, while I have no plans to do anything with this that would require the hardware it has I plan to use it to replace my Arduinos for quick prototypes and testing.

Originally Posted by ebarker

Well then I stand corrected. The information isn't easy to find or I'm inept and I have no problem admitting to inept. Seems like the info was too hard to find.

However I saw the schematics posted earlier and indeed it does have pins available for I/O.

Information was surprisingly hard to find, I don't understand why they wouldn't have it posted on their home page but some digging turned up the info I found, and apparently a little more turned up the schematics I couldn't find.

Per the schematics there appear to be 8 Analog inputs and 60 digital I/O (though many of these are taken up by the UARTS and other peripherals, it looks like about 30 are available through the expansion headers).

[ebarker]

It's here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.vexrobotics.com/products/.../217-2180.html

yes !!

[Foster]

So there is a big differences between a $30 Arduino, $90 Beagle board and the $370 VEX ARM9.

But the underlying question is do you need external co-processors? Lots off cool things you can do. I've built systems with external boards that run the motors, external boards that do senors and a central board that makes decision.

Slightly harder to do, but it's easy to have a co-board waste cycles doing video prep over things that will never be acted on.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by ebarker

It's here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.vexrobotics.com/products/.../217-2180.html

yes !!

While this is an interesting board I really don't see it as being comparable to the Beagle Bone. At 4 times the price and significantly worse specs I think that very few people who would look seriously at the BeagleBone are going to be looking at the vex controller.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

I really don't see it as being comparable to the Beagle Bone.

You are correct in saying it isn't comparable to a BeagleBone. These products are as different as a screwdriver and a combination wrench.

It depends on what problem you are trying to solve. As it turns out we have a problem to solve and the VEX ARM9 is nearly ideal. The beagle bone isn't on our radar.

[theprgramerdude]

Originally Posted by ebarker

You are correct in saying it isn't comparable to a BeagleBone. These products are as different as a screwdriver and a combination wrench.

It depends on what problem you are trying to solve. As it turns out we have a problem to solve and the VEX ARM9 is nearly ideal. The beagle bone isn't on our radar.

What specific advantages does the Vex have over an Arduino that can't be solved with breakout boards/shields for the Arduino (aside from, I assume, easy access to a hand-held controller)?

[ebarker]

An aside - I work for a company that does a lot of embedded work and there is a surprising amount of work and COST that goes into packaging a product so that it is usable in the field without a lot of fuss and mess. It is stunning how much cost goes into connectors.

For our application:

Connecting straight into the box without a lot of adapters, daughter boards, etc is an advantage. Imagine using a cRio without breakout boards and sidecars.

Our robot isn't easily accessible. We can jump over a long haul radio IP network into a linux box, maintain the code that is running the robot, plus put in other software processes that do other things for us. We need a real operating system.

The way we do it right now is we have an embedded linux box connected to a digilent controller that manages robot signals. Now we can collapse those two assemblies into a single integrated assembly.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Bumping this thread with a document detailing the device.

http://beagleboard.org/static/BONESRM_latest.pdf