Meadow.Linux now supports BeagleBone Black platforms!

 Posted on August 15, 2024 by

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The BeagleBone Black has long been a favorite among developers due to its affordability, versatility, and ease of use. With an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, extensive I/O capabilities, and a full open-source stack including the bootloader, it has been the go-to choice for a wide range of projects, from simple automation tasks to complex robotics. By adding support for the BeagleBone Black, we aim to provide our users with more options and the ability to build even more sophisticated applications using Meadow.Linux.

Go to the metal with deep Meadow hardware API integrations.

With our full-featured Meadow.Linux GPIOD driver, you get full access “to the metal,” via the modern Meadow.Core hardware APIs enabling you to do things not available in the default .NET implementation. And because those APIs are fully cross-platform, you can use the same code you would on the STM32F7 MCU platform and Raspberry Pi implementations. For example, an app to toggle a digital output is as simple as this:

public class MeadowApp : App<BeagleBoneBlack>
{
    public override async Task Run()
    {
        var port = Device.Pins.GPIO_48.CreateDigitalOutputPort(state),
        while(true)
        {
        	port.State = !port.State;
        	await Task.Delay(1000);
        }
    }
}

Use all your favorite cross-platform Meadow.Foundation drivers!

Additionally, you can take advantage of the entire Meadow ecosystem, from hundreds of Meadow.Foundation peripheral drivers to telemetry collection and command-and-control through Meadow.Cloud. Once again, we’ve proven the power and portability of .NET so you can focus on innovation rather than the intricacies of low-level hardware programming. Consider the following driver code that rotates a servo:

var servo = new Ms24(Device.Pins.ECAPPWM0);
servo.RotateTo(new Angle(90, Angle.UnitType.Degrees));

And because Meadow runs completely cross-platform, that’s the same code to rotate a servo on the Meadow F7 MCU board, or a Raspberry Pi! 

Meadow.Linux is 100% Open-Source

The Meadow.Core implementation for BeagleBone is open source and available in our Github repository[1].  We also provide documentation of how to set up your hardware[2] along with a sample showing how to quickly and easily access all of the on-board I/O[3].

[1] Meadow.Linux Beaglebone GitHub repository

[2] Meadow Linux on BeagleBone Black

[3] Meadow.Linux Beaglebone Validation Sample

 Category: Connected Things, Linux, Meadow      Tags: , , ,