Doctor Geek/Nerd

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Control a lamp with the BeagleBone Black

Project Type: BeagleBone, Electronics
Software: None. Done through terminal ssh
OS: Debian
Kits/Part Source: Getting Started with the BeagleBone Black Kit, PowerSwitch Tail II
Project Source: Getting Started with BeagleBone by Matt Richardson

This project covers the GPIO pins of the BeagleBone Black. It is a project found in the book Getting Started with BeagleBone by Matt Richardson

1-10 Ratings

IKEA Rating - 10
The instructions were well written and easy to follow. The pictures are accurate and the terminal commands are are explained with each step.

Tony Stark Rating - 1
The reader will need to know a little bit about how to wire electronic components to a breadboard.

Mr. Wizard Rating - 10
The first little exercise covers how use GPIO pin 44 as an output by controlling and LED.

Writing the Values to power on the LED

Using the GPIO pin 45 to control an LED

The next exercise covers how to use GPIO pin 45 as an input by reading a momentary push button.

A momentary push button wired to GPIO pin 45

Reading the values of the momentary push button

The book then goes on to cover how to control a lamp by wiring the BeagleBone Black to a PowerSwitch Tail II.

BeagleBone Black wired to a PowerSwitch Tail II and Lamp

It works by controlling the PowerSwitch Tail II with Shell Scripts

Writing a Shell Script with the Nano Text Editor

Controlling the PowerSwitch Tail II with Shell Scripts

Controlling a Lamp with the BeagleBone Black

Then the book explains how the Shell Scripts can be scheduled by using Cron.

Scheduling the Shell Scripts with Cron

There are some minor differences but it is almost exactly like the projects I did with the Raspberry Pi.