EE192 Getting Started with the Beaglebone Blue

Version: January 22, 2019

GSI: Justin Yim

1. Flashing the Operating System 2

2. Connecting to the Beaglebone Blue 3
3. Connecting to Wi-Fi 5
4. Setting up the Robot Control Library 6
5. Building and Running a Project 8

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1. Flashing the Operating System
Required materials:
• Beaglebone Blue and power (micro USB or 9-18V barrel connector)
• Windows, Mac, or Linux Computer with an SD card slot and microSD adapter
• microSD card at least 4 GB in size

The board is already flashed. Follow this procedure if you need to re-flash your board.
For more information, see http://strawsondesign.com/docs/librobotcontrol/flashing.html
The Beaglebone Blue can boot from either its onboard eMMC flash memory or from a
microSD card. In Debian, the Programmable Real-time Units (PRUs) will work only if
the OS is flashed to the onboard memory (we never got them to work in Ubuntu).

Process:
If you already have a microSD card with the desired image, skip to step 3. Otherwise,
follow steps 1 and 2 to prepare your microSD card.
1. Download the OS image to your computer (we pre-installed Ubuntu 18.04):

Ubuntu 18.04: https://rcn-ee.net/rootfs/2018-12-10/flasher/BBB-eMMC-flasher-

ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-12-10-2gb.img.xz

Debian 9.5: http://strawsondesign.com/docs/images/BBBL-blank-debian-9.5-iot-

armhf-2018-10-07-4gb.img.xz

2. Write the image to the microSD card:

a. Download and install Etcher on your computer:
https://www.balena.io/etcher/
b. Insert the microSD card and then start Etcher.
c. In Etcher, select the image. The microSD card should be automatically
selected. Flash it. This can take about 15 minutes.
3. Flash the Beaglebone Blue eMMC:
a. Insert the microSD card into the Beaglebone Blue while it is powered off.
b. Hold down the Beaglebone Blue “SD” button (in the corner) while
applying power. You can release the button when the LEDs flash.
c. After a minute, the blue LEDs will flash in a pattern bouncing back and
forth. After about five minutes the LEDs will turn off and you can remove
power from the Beaglebone Blue. Remove the microSD card so that it
does not flash the Beaglebone Blue again.
4. Connect to the Beaglebone Blue and test that it is working.

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2. Connecting to the Beaglebone Blue
Required materials:
• Beaglebone Blue
• MicroUSB cable
• Windows, Mac, or Linux Computer with a USB connection

The Cory 204 lab computers’ Windows operating systems can connect to the Beaglebone
Blue through either an Ubuntu virtual machine or the SSH client PuTTY. If you’d like to
use your personal computer, follow the setup steps below for your operating system. For
more information, see: http://beagleboard.org/getting-started/
and http://strawsondesign.com/docs/librobotcontrol/networking_usb.html

Mac
• Download the two drivers:
Network:
https://beagleboard.org/static/Drivers/MacOSX/RNDIS/HoRNDIS.pkg
Serial:
https://beagleboard.org/static/Drivers/MacOSX/FTDI/EnergiaFTDIDrivers2.2.18.pkg
and install them. The Serial driver may ask you to reboot your computer.

Windows
• Download the driver:
For 64 bit: https://beagleboard.org/static/Drivers/Windows/BONE_D64.exe
For 32 bit: https://beagleboard.org/static/Drivers/Windows/BONE_DRV.exe
and install it. You may need to reboot your computer after installation.
• Download and install an SSH client like putty: https://www.putty.org/

Linux
• No additional steps; you should be ready to go. :)

Connecting with USB:

1. Plug the micro USB B into the Beaglebone Blue and attach the USB A to your
computer. Wait for the Beaglebone Blue to power on and boot.
2. Lab computers (using Ubuntu):
a. Start the VirtualBox Ubuntu image, wait for it to boot, and open a terminal
b. Pass the Beaglebone Blue USB device into the Ubuntu virtual machine
Alternatively, open PuTTY and follow step 3:
3. The Beaglebone Blue creates a network connection and emulates an Ethernet
adapter. Your computer will receive IP addresses 192.168.7.1 and 192.168.6.1.
The Beaglebone Blue has IP addresses 192.168.7.2 and 192.168.6.2. SSH into

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 the Beaglebone Blue at 192.168.7.2 or 192.168.6.2 with username ubuntu (or
debian) and passphrase temppwd. In Linux or Mac:

ssh [email protected]

If you receive a “REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED” error,

you have probably previously connected to a different computer on 192.168.7.2
(like another BBBL). Remove the old ECDSA key with something like:

ssh-keygen -R 192.168.7.2

Connecting with the Beaglebone Blue’s Wi-Fi:

The Beaglebone Blue has a wireless access point called Beaglebone-XXXX where
XXXX depends on your individual board. Its passphrase is BeagleBone (case
sensitive). The Beaglebone Blue can remain connected to another network while this
access point is active. For more information see: http://beagleboard.org/getting-started

1. Connect to the Beaglebone Blue Wi-Fi network from your laptop (the lab
computers may not have Wi-Fi cards). Your computer should receive an IP
address in the 192.168.8.x range. The Beaglebone Blue will have IP address
192.168.8.1
2. SSH into the Beaglebone Blue at 192.168.8.1 in the same manner as for the USB
connection:

ssh [email protected]

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3. Connecting to Wi-Fi:
Once the Beaglebone Blue connects to a Wi-Fi network like CalVisitor it will remember
it and automatically connect the next time it boots (it should already do this). For more
information, see http://strawsondesign.com/docs/librobotcontrol/networking_wifi.html

Connecting to CalVisitor:
1. On the Beaglebone Blue run:

connmanctl

and then in connmanctl enter services. This should print the names of
available Wi-Fi networks. You should see CalVisitor among them.
2. In connmanctl connect to the CalVisitor network with:

connect wifi_8030dc034755_43616c56697369746f72_managed_none

don’t worry, you can tab complete. The green light in the center of the board
should turn on. You can test the connection by pinging something like
google.com.

Connecting to a Password Secured Network:

1. To connect to a network NAME with passphrase PASSPHRASE, create a file
NAME.config in /var/lib/connman/ containing the following text:

[service_NAME]
Type = wifi
Name = NAME
Passphrase = PASSPHRASE

This can be accomplished with a text editor like vim, emacs, or nano run as root.
2. The Beaglebone Blue may automatically connect to the network once this file is
created. If not, run connmanctl and enter:

tether wifi off

enable wifi
scan wifi
services
agent on
connect wifi_f45eab…_managed_psk
PASSPHRASE
quit

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4. Setting up the Robot Control Library
We have already installed the Robotics Control Library librobotcontrol. If you need to
reinstall it, follow this procedure. For more information see:
http://strawsondesign.com/docs/librobotcontrol/installation.html (specifically method 2)
Later in the course we will provide skeleton code for ROS in Ubuntu 18.04 with updated
instructions.

Robot Control Library in Ubuntu 18.04 or Debian 9.5:

1. Connect to CalVisitor to make sure you have an internet connection.
2. Download the librobotcontrol Debian package (the following is one line):

wget
https://github.com/StrawsonDesign/librobotcontrol/rele
ases/download/V1.0.4/librobotcontrol_1.0.4_armhf.deb
3. Install the package with:

sudo dpkg -i librobotcontrol_1.0.4_armhf.deb

You may be prompted to select a program to run on boot. You can pick rc_blink
if you’d like the green and red LEDs to blink on boot, or leave it on none.
4. Clone the librobotcontrol repository for the source code (one line):

git clone
https://github.com/StrawsonDesign/librobotcontrol.git
5. To make sure the installation worked, run:

rc_test_drivers

and you should see the following output if everything is working (Ubuntu 18.04):

Kernel: 4.14.79-ti-r84
rcn-ee.net console Ubuntu Image 2018-12-10
Debian: buster/sid

PASSED: gpio 0
PASSED: gpio 1
PASSED: gpio 2
PASSED: gpio 3
PASSED: pwm0
PASSED: pwm1
PASSED: pwm2
PASSED: eqep0

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 PASSED: eqep1
PASSED: eqep2
ERROR: pru-rproc driver not loaded
PASSED: uart1
PASSED: uart2
PASSED: uart4
PASSED: uart5
PASSED: i2c1
PASSED: i2c2
PASSED: spi
PASSED: LED
PASSED: ADC iio

Currently running on a:
MODEL_BB_BLUE
Robot Control library Version:
1.0.4
The PRU should return PASSED if you are using Debian 9.5.

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5. Building and Running a Project
Later in the course we will provide skeleton code for ROS in Ubuntu 18.04 with updated
instructions.

Robot Control Library:

For more information, see http://strawsondesign.com/docs/librobotcontrol/manual.html
or take a look at the examples in the library source code ~/librobotcontrol/examples/
1. Create a new project:
a. Decide on a project name (not new_project_name) and copy the project
template (the following is one line):

cp -r /usr/share/robotcontrol/rc_project_template
~/new_project_name
b. Rename the C source code file:

mv rc_project_template.c new_project_name.c
c. Edit the Makefile line starting with TARGET to:

TARGET = new_project_name
2. Build the project by calling

make

from the project folder

3. Run the project with

./new_project_name

from the project folder. By default it will toggle the green and red LEDs when
you push the “PAU” (pause) button.