New Beaglebone Book by Derek Molloy

A new Beaglebone book, by Derek Molloy, focused on the Beaglebone Black started shipping last week.

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-BeagleBone-Techniques-Building-Embedded/dp/1118935128/

If you want to do anything more than make a few of the on-board LEDs turn on and off, this is the book that you want. About 500 pages of Beaglebone information, tools, programming, the Linux commands you need to run it, how to use Git, discussions of Device Trees, plus the fundamentals of interfacing to the BBB. Unlike a lot of the other simpler books, which were written when Beaglebone used the Angstrom distribution, this one is written for the Debian distribution.

I have been working with the Beaglebone Black for about nine months, but this book answered several things that were bothering me, just by searching the index for the topics.

If you are going to spend $55 on a Beaglebone Black, then spend the additional $30 for this book. This is the practical manual and"how to" book that should come with the BBB.

It is scoring five out of five stars in every Amazon review, so far. I agree with those ratings.

— Graham

I agree Graham, an excellent book with almost everything.I recently purchased the book after getting the BBB a few weeks prior and as mentioned it covers all most everything. I was a little disappointed in the lack of python programming and that the primary PC supporting the book was using Windows which I don’t have.
I am using Ubuntu 15.04 on my desktop and sometimes hesitate if I am nor sure if the command(s) listed in the various chapters are for the BBB or desktop.
Also, the book mentions what looks like a URL: tiny.cc/ebb101 . This doesn’t seem to connect to anything?

I checked that URL, and it takes me to a CircuitCo (The manufacturer of the BBB) video on youTube about how the BBB is manufactured.

Very modern surface mount manufacturing processes. Worth a look if you have never visited a SMT factory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FcqQvH41OR4

You are correct, not a lot of Python programming in that book.

For some good Python examples on the BBB, look at the tutorials section at Adafruit.

https://learn.adafruit.com/category/beaglebone

Adafruit has a good GPIO/SPI/I2C library for Python

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_GPIO

— Graham

I own a copy of DR Molloy’s book too. I’d have to say it is probably the best of all the ones I’ve read, or have seen. One caveat however. If you expect to figure out advanced software topics related to embedded hardware . . . well, let me just say that none of the books out there will suffice.

And, I’m not exactly sure it’s so much the advanced aspect so much as being very thorough and complete. For example, nothing out there really covers UIO, which is what the uio_pruss is based on. Passed that, nothing really covers the separate hardware modules all that well either. The books I’ve read at most skim the topic.

So, can one figure out all this low level detail on their own ? Sometimes, I wonder. I do think it would be very nice if there were a book that did cover such details however.

Thanks for the informative reply. I do see that the book is about the best on the BBB. As mentioned, I was hoping for a little more on Python
and more information directly associated with Linux. I am using Ubuntu (15.4) and I am certainly not a Linux/Unix guru.
I mentioned Python because that is what I have been using on my desktop. But, I did just order a book on C++ as that seems to be best supported
in the book.

Thanks William Hermans: I am thinking this would require digging into the TI documentation. At an age past 70, I might not be able to accomplish that soon. a few years back I was reasonably proficient at using Atmel AVR devices and C and assembly to accomplish what I wanted to do. In that environment it was based on Windows XP-PRO and the Atmel tool set and a commercial (low cost) C complier. I did not really want to learn C++. But, I can see that using C++ and QT might be an interesting thingto learn

Thanks William Hermans:
I am thinking this would require digging into the TI documentation. At an age past 70, I might not be able to accomplish that soon. :wink:

Yes, there is information in the TRM, and datasheet etc. However, there is a lot of information that is not immediately obvious just by reading that literature. Couple that with the usual TI way of documenting stuff . . . You wind up bouncing all around those 5k pages of TRM, just to figure out one thing . . .truth be told though, I could not say how it couple be better. Short of someone writing a book, and explaining things in a short and concise manner.