The Beaglebone platform is a great platform for learning Windows Embedded Compact. The platform is based on the Texas Instruments AM335X A8 ARM processor and has fantastic expansion capabilities. In addition to the standard I2C, SPI and serial ports it also has the ability to host “cape’s” expansion boards. Capes are custom peripheral boards that “piggy back” on the Beaglebone or Beaglebone Black base board. Capes come in all sorts’ flavors containing peripherals such as cell modems, LCD displays, accelerometers, FPGA’s, WIFI, RF ID readers and cameras. Here is a listing of more capes.
The latest release of the community BSP now contains support for the LCD4 480x272 LCD display. This cape also has a resistive touch screen and 5 UI control buttons also supported in the BSP.
One unique feature of a properly designed cape is that it must contain a “personality” EEPROM. This EEPROM is programmed at the factory and contains information such as, a serial number, a model number, how many and what GPIO expansion pins it consumes, how much power it draws from the supply and more.
So why is this information valuable? What it does is it allows the boot loader to search for expansion boards early in the boot up process and report this information to the OS. As the OS comes up it can now “dynamically” configure drivers, adding or removing them based on available hardware. Now you have one OS build that will work across several permutations of hardware. Having an OS that is “run time” configurable instead of the traditional “build time” configurable has its advantages in some development circles. Sort of the “one image fits all” approach.
In the next few blogs I will show you how to attach I2C or SPI peripherals and control them from managed (C#) code.
Does the LCD support include the 7" display from 4D?
Re: Windows Embedded Compact 2013 on Beaglebone gets IoT sample
Please contact me regarding a full installation of this BSP for WINCE2013, and what is necessary for...
-- Aaron Peterson
Re: BeagleBone BSP code clean up
Hi David, Interest in the fully version of the image. Please let me know the commercials. I need clarification...
-- CB
Re: BeagleBone BSP gets several improvements
Hi David, How can I get a full version (without reboot) of your image available for demonstration?
-- Marco Aurélio Braun
Re: Low power operation on the community IoT Beaglebone BSP (Part 1)
Hello , dvescovi . Because of Job , I use your Beaglebone black BSP which is helpful for me . I want...
-- KevinHsu
Re: Yet Another Gotcha: Compact 7 Update
Hi David, Would you please contact me regarding the wince7 BSP for the BBB? I have a few LCD Capes...
-- trialsrideraz
Seems MS may have posed a new updated ISO on MSDN. For those without a subscription, you are still out...
-- dvescovi
Re: Power management on the Beaglebone part 2–Battery
Hi David, First of all thanks for this, blog it's been very useful. Before I go ahead and solder anything...
-- Juanes1220
Re: More improvements for Beaglebone BSP
Thank you for the fixes. The latest version builds under WEC7! Yay! Next .. have to try deploying it...
-- OzFlipper
Of course, I meant the WEC2013 SDK ... see what happens when you work with too many bits at the same...
Hi David. First, thank you for what must have been a huge amount of work. I have been trying to install...