[Hardware] BeagleBone Black + 7" Touch Screen LCD

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[Hardware] BeagleBone Black + 7" Touch Screen LCD

Postby xenoxaos » Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:06 pm

I recently reached out to CircuitCo about the new BeagleBone Black. I originally got one of the pre-release alpha boards to work on device support before they launched it. One bad thing about alpha devices is that there's usually bugs to be worked out. In my case, the bug was the wrong CPU on the device, rendering (or not rendering <=pun) the video unusable.

But, now that I have a replacement, I also have their 7" Touch Screen LCD!

First thoughts:

It's built really well! It came with some stand offs installed onto the corners so it can easily be set on a table/work area. It's got a nice thick PCB. Only a couple of negatives, which aren't really that bad. The orientation for the BBB isn't entirely clear when you go to mount it. You have to look at the pin numbering to make sure which way it goes. Not a huge deal, but if you're impatient, you could possibly fry your BBB. Maybe the could put some of the primary components on the silkscreen on the board (ethernet jack would probably be enough). Secondly, the top mounting holes are obstructed by the LCD. If I were to want to mount this from the front side, I'd have to rig up supports to go around the back. Once again, this isn't a huge deal.
Overall, I'd give it an A. :D

Using it:

I think the hardest part of using this was setting up the SD card with ALARM...really easy. Followed our instructions, booted it, and BLAM, I had an Arch Linux login prompt greet me on the LCD. I pulled the Logitech receiver out of my desktop machine and put it into the BBB. root <enter> root <enter> then I did a little dance cuz it was just that easy.

Then I followed it up with two commands:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'pacman -Sy xf86-video-fbdev lxde
lxdm')
At that point, I had a desktop environment up and running, touchscreen and all! Then I installed Chromium and browsed to our site.

I had a little grin on my face and was happy.

So, I highly recommend the BBB and if you want an easy to use display that doubles as pseudo enclosure for it as well, I say get the 7" LCD, It could really help with almost any project you may be working on.

Links:
http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black
http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBone_LCD7
Arch Linux ARM exists and continues to grow through community support, please donate today!
xenoxaos
Developer
 
Posts: 323
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Re: [Hardware] BeagleBone Black + 7" Touch Screen LCD

Postby xenoxaos » Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:23 pm

Figured I'd share a blurrycam photo too.
Attachments
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IMG_20130720_131704.JPG (1009.84 KiB) Viewed 13120 times
Arch Linux ARM exists and continues to grow through community support, please donate today!
xenoxaos
Developer
 
Posts: 323
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:45 am


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