Blog Archives

Turning an ATX PSU in to a bench supply

While packing up my things to move house I came across an old ATX PSU that I forgot I owned. Rather than putting it in a box and getting on with packing, I figured I'd re-purpose it as a bench

Posted in Uncategorized

Wireless Servo Control - Part 3.1: Failsafe servo control

Since my previous post in this series I have been using the servo control code fairly extensively and have come across a recurring problem. If the application hangs/crashes or is terminated (without termination handling included and working), the output channels

Posted in BeagleBone Black

Understanding BBB PRU shared memory access

I have previously posted about using the Programmable Realtime Units (PRUs) on the BBB for servo control, and in the PRU code for this I noted that I'd stolen the set up code from the examples provided here. This stolen

Posted in BeagleBone Black

Wireless Servo Control - Part 3: PWM servo control with the BBB PRU

The previous post in this series detailed the use of the RFM22B wireless transceivers with the BeagleBone Black (BBB). This achieves the "Wireless" part of the title, now to look at the "Servo Control" part.  This post looks at using

Posted in BeagleBone Black

BeagleBone Black Pin Mux Spreadsheet

I'm sure this exists on the web somewhere, but after 30s of Googling I couldn't find it, so I've put together a comprehensive spreadsheet for BBB pinmuxing. Firstly, I have updated Tables 10 and 11 from the BBB SRM to include:

Posted in BeagleBone Black

Wireless Servo Control - Part 2: RFM22B set up

In my previous post I introduced the problem of wireless servo control using a pair of BeagleBone Blacks (BBBs) and RFM22B transceivers. In this post I'll talk about getting the RFM22B working with the BBB and how to set up a

Posted in BeagleBone Black

Wireless Servo Control - Part 1: Introduction

Anyone who has played around with Remote Control (RC) toys is familiar with the concept of wireless servo control. A hand held transmitter broadcasts the positions of a couple of thumb joysticks and some switches to a receiver which tells

Posted in BeagleBone Black

Introduction and New Logo

Welcome to Embedded Things, the place for all sorts of information about putting embedded systems in things (which usually don't need them). Hardware hacks, software tricks and all sorts of projects will be appearing over the coming weeks, months and

Posted in Uncategorized

Patching the Device Tree Compiler for Ubuntu

This is an error familiar to anyone trying to compile device tree overlays for the BeagleBone Black (BBB) on the latest Ubuntu image (2013-07-22). These overlays are required to enable the various devices on board, such as the CANBus in

Posted in BeagleBone Black

Enable CANBus on the BeagleBone Black

A few months back I got hold of my first BeagleBone Black (BBB) with the intention of installing it in my car as a trackday data logger. First step in this endeavor was to get the CANBus working. I wrote

Posted in BeagleBone Black, Car Hacking