Regarding GSOC Projrct - Documentation for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black

Google Summer of Code
1

Hi,
I am an undergraduate student of University of Moratuwa and I am studying Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering Degree.I have been working with beaglebone quite some time and also working in C language since starting point of the course. Therefore I think I can contribute to this project.
Actually there is very little detailed documents about how to use capabilities of beaglebone and beaglebone black. Searching " google group posts" is the only way. I had the same experience while configuring 3G Dongle to be used with Beaglebone. It was time consuming task to search how to configure USB port and all the stuff . Therefore this is very important project as I think.

I suggest for the minimum documentation following aspects should be included.

  1. Configuring Beaglebone/Beagleboard according to the requirement( e.g Angstrom or Ubuntu ?).
  2. Complete description about file System, I/O System and relevant other Subsystems.
  3. Complete description about how UARTs, I2C, SPI, PWM, ADC, USB Host/Gadget etc… work.
  4. Sample Codes that can be implemented straightforward on the board.

Awaiting positive feedback.

Thank you.

2

Hello,

1. Configuring Beaglebone/Beagleboard according to the requirement( e.g
Angstrom or Ubuntu ?).

Have you seen the eLinux wiki? I think it relates to this item. What
sections do you think are missing or could be improved?
Link: http://elinux.org/

The Ubuntu section contains nearly 20 printed pages.
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu

2. Complete description about file System, I/O System and relevant other
Subsystems.

Running Linux on the BeagleBone isn't all that different than running
Linux on any other computer. What BeagleBone specific things do you
think need documentation?

3. Complete description about how UARTs, I2C, SPI, PWM, ADC, USB Host/Gadget
etc.. work.

Have you seen the 100+ page System Reference Manual (SRM) for the
BealgeBone Black and 4700+ page Technical Reference Manual (TRM) for
the AM335X? I think they mostly cover this item. Is there anything you
wish was documented but isn't?

SRM: https://github.com/CircuitCo/BeagleBone-Black/blob/master/BBB_SRM.pdf?raw=true
TRM: http://www.ti.com/lit/pdf/spruh73

4. Sample Codes that can be implemented straightforward on the board.

There is a fair amount of documentation for bonescript
(javascript/node.js interface to the BeagleBone hardware). What types
of sample code would you develop (more bonescript examples, some C/C++
examples, etc)? For C, there is also TI's StarterWare which includes
code samples for most of the peripherals.

http://beagleboard.org/static/bonescript/bone101/index.html

Awaiting positive feedback.

There is a lot of documentation that needs to be written, but it is
important to survey what already exists and perhaps ask the community
what documentation they find lacking. Searching the google group and
TI forums might provide additional ideas for what to document. For
example, you'll find posts about the TDA19988 documentation. The
TDA19988 is the HDMI chip on the BeagleBone Black. It's one of the
only chips that doesn't have complete documentation (i.e. a datasheet
with register descriptions). Another example of missing documentation
is documentation for the crypto module on the AM3359 (the main CPU on
the BeagleBone Black).

Thomas

3

Srimal,

This is an interesting idea but I agree with Thomas, you should be well aware of the material available to make a valuable contribution. The concepts you suggest are already covered here and there. I don’t see the point on redoing it.

I can share my 2 cents with you:

  • One of the most annoying things is that there’s tons of information but it’s distributed so i’s suggest to focus your proposal on something like a BeagleBone (Black) Information Hub that concentrates all this material (datasheets, tutorials, set-ups, links, … ).
  • I find quite useful wiki-kind documents. For this purpose a github repo will be perfect. This hub should be indexed and ilustrated with code examples and you can use github for all this.
    Hope it’s “positive” feedback ;).
4

As much as I agree that this is much in need, we can’t have this in GSoC.
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2014/help_page#12._Are_proposals_for_documentation_work

Documentation projects don’t get through here.

5

Hello,

Thank you every one for your feedback. It is true that Gsoc doesn’t allow documentation alone. So they are expecting CODE examples for this project. And I want to concentrate on this part mainly.

Thank you.