Testing Servo Capes with the BeagleBone Black

Hey You,

Ha...

I think the BBB is a nice board with a lot of features. With this build, we will build a Quadruped (almost). The almost part is b/c of my 3D Printer being below par on size...WIP. Wait for the updates to the build environment for my 3D Printer in another build process.

...

Servo Cape + BBB + 12 Servos == _________________

Add what you desire for the blank line! So, I got some help from a fellow on #beagle from IRC and a fellow named Ben. Ben has been nice enough to allow me to share his effort along with my works to produce this quadruped.

Anyway, it goes like this...

1. Add the Servo Cape to the BBB.

2. The blue screw terminals on the Servo Cape go to the portion of the BBB with the USB and SD Card cage on the end.

3. Attach the servos, all 12 if you dare, and try to organize some source for the PCA9685!

4. Additional source will be listed below!

5. Get an image from https://forum.beagleboard.org/t/debian-11-x-bullseye-monthly-snapshots/31280

6. Use Balena Etcher to install your image on the BBB.

a. First, download Etcher. Secondly, put a SD Card in your SD Card slot on your computer. Thirdly, after the download finishes, install the image from the above link and make sure you pick the SD Card and not one of your interior hard drives.

b. Now, click the button on your Linux Distro within Etcher to start your build of the beagleboard.org image to the SD Card. Some handy tools might already be installed on your Linux Distro on your development desktop like lsblk and lsusb.

c. Type lsblk

See the output and figure out what is what before installing the image!

7. Once the image successfully installs to the SD Card via Etcher, unmount the SD Card from your computer.

8. sudo umount /dev/mmcblk0

9. Take the SD Card out and place the SD Card into the BBB while the BBB is UNPOWERED. Do not apply power to the BBB unless your circuit is finished, i.e. this includes circuitry like LEDs, motors, and other modules that can be used to create functioning electronics. Basically, do not plug something in to the BBB while it is powered! Wait until you shut down gracefully and then apply your circuitry and boot after the circuitry has been met.

10. Now, that we are using our Mini USB Cable for the BBB and USB 2.0 end connection for the host computer, we can use this to power the board...

a. But first, please attach the Ethernet cable for networking to the Internet.

b. If you are not planning on using the BBB with Internet accessibility, do not worry about the Ethernet cable.

11. There are some rules to build a few commands to handle USB Networking with Sharing Internet: Beyond the Basics — BeagleBoard Documentation

12. Now, that we have Internet access via the BBB to the outside world, we can use some ideas to build things:

13. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

14. Source the files to the BBB for use with the 12 Servos and the Relay Cape...

https://github.com/silver2row/ServoCape # With help from Ben and #beagle on IRC!

There are basically three files for using and a README at that link listed.

15. I want to see what you can build too! Do not hesitate to handle the PCA9685 on the Servo Cape in any manner in which you see fit. If you build off my source I allocated in time, do not hesitate to reach out and let me know your build process...

16. git clone https://github.com/silver2row/ServoCape

17. cd ServoCape

18. chmod +x pwmsOne.py

19../pwmsOne.py

20. Watch the Fireworks!

21. Well, in this case, 12 servos or less moving, i.e. depending on how you manage to change the source. Oh! And...the Servo Cape can handle 16 servos and not just 12 like I only would guess to utilize.

22. If you want to one-up me w/ the PCA9685, do it and do it for the glory!

23. If you need to stop your file, just use Ctrl-C from within your Linux terminal on the BBB.

24. All jokes aside, enjoy!

Sorry for the odd sense of humor! Enjoy...

Seth

P.S. A bug!