BeagleBone is a barebone computer that can be configured and customized for different applications and is almost half the price of a standard computer. Using BeagleBone, you can connect external hardware such as temperature sensors, accelerometers, motors, and much more. Communicating with these external devices can be made easy through user-friendly Python libraries. The current version of BeagleBone, BeagleBone Black, ships with a Debian GNU/Linux distribution and has a number of built-in peripheral interface subsystems, enabling it to accept and generate many different forms of input and output.
We’ll begin by plugging in your BeagleBone Black for the first time, installing the software and connecting to the Internet, and then you’ll learn how to write your first program using Python to control some LEDs. This book will cover the basics of how BeagleBone Black’s hardware interface subsystems work, and can be controlled using two popular Python libraries for BeagleBone Black. You will be introduced to BeagleBone Black’s GPIO, PWM, ADC, UART, SPI, I2C, and eQEP subsystems. Each subsystem is presented along with clear examples, complete with component lists, circuit diagrams, and Python code.
We will then deep dive into more complex built-in peripherals, demonstrating different ways to receive input from a user including buttons, potentiometers, rotary encoders with the eQEP module. We will also learn about interfacing with external devices; this will be demonstrated using the serial modules to interface with external devices such as temperature sensors and accelerometers. Towards the end of the book, we will present a couple of real-world problems and demonstrate how to solve them with the skills you’ve acquired.