Hello everyone. This is the start of a new blog series to keep the community in the loop regarding the work done by BeagleBoard.org members and the community. Hopefully, I can stick to the schedule.

MicroPython

Initial BeagleConnect Freedom Support

While we have had MicroPython firmware for BeagleConnect Freedom in the past, the work was out of tree. This made maintenance and collaboration hard to do. There were a few reasons for having the support out of tree:

1. Zephyr support for BeagleConnect Freedom was primarily out of tree, with just basic support in mainline.
2. MicroPython only supported Zephyr v3.1.0

Due to my work, BeagleConnect Freedom supports almost everything in mainline Zephyr. Additionally, due to the fantastic work by Maureen Helm, MicroPython now supports Zephyr v3.7.0. So, it seemed like a good time to have support for BeagleConnect Freedom in mainline MicroPython. Here is the link to the merged PR. It does not contain more advanced features like ADC and PWM right now, but those are also on the way.

PWM support for Zephyr Port

While working on adding PWM support for BeagleConnect Freedom in MicroPython, I discovered that the Zephyr port of MicroPython did not support PWM. So, I ended up working on adding PWM support. Here is the PR.

MicroBlocks v2.0

MicroBlocks is a blocks programming language for physical computing inspired by Scratch. BeagleConnect Freedom has had good support for MicroBlocks, as outlined in a prior post.

Recently, MicroBlocks v2.0 was released in pilot and thankfully, BeagleConnect Freedom works with the newest firmware perfectly, without any real change in the Zephyr port.

Arduino Module for Zephyr

Due to the recent cleanup of the defaults in the device tree of BeagleConnect Freedom, ADC and PWM are supported without any overlays. So just a simple cleanup of Arduino module overlay. Here is the PR.

BeagleBoard Rust Imager

The v0.0.1 release of the BeagleBoard Rust imager took place last week. It has the following features:

1. Platforms:
   1. Linux
      1. GUI Appimage
      2. CLI binary
   2. Windows
      1. GUI Portable exe
      2. CLI binary
   3. macOS
      1. CLI binary
2. Boards
   1. Generic Linux (BeaglePlay, Beagle AI64, BeagleY-AI,  BeagleV-Fire, BeagleBone Black, etc)
   2. BeagleConnect Freedom
   3. BeagleConnect Freedom MSP430

It is basically at feature parity with the original BeagleBoard Imager based on Raspberry Pi and supports additional boards like BeagleConnect Freedom. Here is the release page.

Ending Thoughts

This was it for this week. Hopefully, this helps bring transparency regarding where the development efforts are concentrated, and how the community can help. Look forward to next update.