I was thinking I might move on from arduino a bit. A new project, and a new thing to learn. I was thinking something with a bit more power, maybe that could handle a webcam input and process the input onboard. therefore my researchings led me to the beagleboneblack. I know nothing, so this would be a big learning project. Am I looking in the right direction do we think? How does a beagle bone program compare to an arduino sketch in complexity or difficulty?
Wow. Interesting. I assumed
Wow. Interesting. I assumed the BBB would have loads of community support due to the huge number of pin outs! Haunting you say? Doesn’t bode well! I ran Ubuntu on my pc, but know little to nothing about programing. Learning python is my next plan I think. Would you need an arduino interface to use the pi for physical interactions? (motors and servos etc)
The BBB is an awesome little
The BBB is an awesome little board - but the complexity of embedded linux is up there. I’ve used OpenEmbedded to build images for the Beagle Board, BBB, Atmel AT91SAM and Freescale Vybrid uP’s and it is not an easy process for the average hobbist. If you are willing to learn how to compile and customize your own Linux kernel and write your own drivers, you will find you can do almost anything with these powerful ARM cores. It will take a lot of time, but will be very rewarding in the end.
Consider Android
You could use an Arduino for IO and an Android phone for image processing (check http://opencv.org/platforms/android.html). Your bot could as well exploit some of the other features a phone can offer: camera, touch screen, audio capabilities, wifi, accelerometer, gyro, storage space, etc. You can get a decent phone for almost the same price of a Beagle Bone Black + Web Cam.
Furthermore you can consider the time spending tinkering with Android development a future investment. Google is going seriously into robotics and Android is probably going to be relevant to this strategy.
I have a BBB in my quad
I have a BBB in my quad walker. Its running Ubuntu 13.04, and although I love the power it has, linux on an embedded board is very frustrating sometimes.
Roz, my BBB-based quad walker: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/39801
I’m using Bioloid AX-12 servos, and it talks to the servo bus over USB.
I do have a “spare” android
I do have a “spare” android handset actually. Its only a 600mhz HTC wildfire (first version) but it would do to play with! i will have a read through that page.
It would also bring bluetooth, wifi and GPRS conneciton with it pressumably. GPRS functionality Could be perfect for a unit designed to work off a hard wired network…
I did try and root it though, i dont remember if i bricked it or not!
All the capability is there but accessing it can be tough
The BBB is a great board. All the hardware capability is there, but learning how to use it can be tricky. @6677 is right, there’s less support for it than the Raspberry Pi, but if you still prefer the BBB hardware - this guy is a great resource with a bunch of tutorials: http://derekmolloy.ie/beaglebone/
He also has tutorials for the Pi, too.