‘Throwing a bone’ to designers, makers and hobbyists looking to easily and affordably develop creative, Linux-based electronics, BeagleBoard.org announced the availability of more than 20 new plug-in boards for the widely adopted BeagleBone Linux computer platform.
Creatively calling the plug-in boards ‘capes’ in reference to the cape worn by a beloved cartoon beagle superhero, the active open-source BeagleBoard.org community designed the plug-in boards to foster an even wider range of innovations such as robot motor drivers and sensors that measure location and pressure.
Adding capes to the popular and expandable BeagleBone computer that is used as a development kit allows hobbyists and developers to quickly and easily augment BeagleBone’s capabilities with LCD screens, motor control and battery power, as well as the ability to create their own circuits. The boards are made available through www.beaglebone-capes.com.
Today, thousands of designers, makers, hobbyists and engineers have adopted BeagleBone for its functionality as a credit-card-sized Linux computer that connects with the Internet and runs software such as Android 4.0 and Ubuntu.
With plenty of I/O and processing power for real-time analysis provided by the Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processor from Texas Instruments, the capes can be plugged into BeagleBone’s two 46-pin dual-row expansion headers, providing similar headers so that up to four capes can be stacked at a time.
The BeagleBone LCD7 Cape, one of the most popular, delivers touch screen capability, featuring a 7-inch TFT LCD screen with 4-wire resistive touch and five user buttons.
It includes the option of choosing default standoffs or buying a set of piano-black aluminium ones.
The BeagleBone Camera Cape, the newest cape plug-in board, eliminates the need for cameras to consume sometimes scarce USB ports and reduces total system power consumption. The QuickLogic CSSP camera interface (CAM I/F) solution expands the application space for BeagleBone in the automatic identification and data capture, portable consumer, industrial tablet and industrial smartphone markets.
Other currently available BeagleBone cape plug-in boards include but are not limited to:
* LCD touch screen capes (7 inch and 3,5 inch) provide LCD solutions with touch screen capability.
* Weather Cape provides data including temperature, barometric pressure, humidity and ambient light.
* DVI-D Cape provides a DVI-D interface for connecting an external monitor.
* Breakout Cape provides access to the various BeagleBone components during troubleshooting.
* Breadboard provides a powerful prototyping tool without the need of soldering.
* CANBus Cape makes use of the DCAN1 interface of TI’s AM335x processor, enabling interfacing to automotive components and motor controllers, such as TI’s Stellaris ARM Cortex-M-based Jaguar module used in the popular US FIRST Robotics League.
* RS232 Cape provides an RS232 interface.
* Battery Cape provides a portable power solution.
For more information visit www.beagleboard.org/capes
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