Hey guys,
I’m currently designing an automation control system for my aeroponic greenhouse and would like to use the BeagleBone Black as the brain. I would like all wiring to the BBB to be done using terminal blocks. The Arduino Mega has a shield that breaks out all GPIO pins to terminal block connectors and I would love to find the same thing for the BBB. Do you know if this exists? Google hasn’t really turned anything up so I’m doubtful.
How would I make one myself? What alternatives are there? I created a wire harness that fits into the P8 and P9 headers but it’s not an elegant solution.
I’ve seen others use the Arduino Mega with the terminal block shield as the brain for various greenhouse automation projects but I want to utilize the BBB as it has a more appropriate amount of IO and processing power.
Thoughts?
Thank you.
Hey guys,
I'm currently designing an automation control system for my aeroponic
greenhouse and would like to use the BeagleBone Black as the brain. I
would like all wiring to the BBB to be done using terminal blocks. The
Arduino Mega has a shield that breaks out all GPIO pins to terminal block
connectors and I would love to find the same thing for the BBB. Do you
know if this exists? Google hasn't really turned anything up so I'm
doubtful.
How would I make one myself?
If you can't find one that's commercial, then you design your own if
you can do hardware. You need to consider which pins can do what, how
you want them buffered, whether or not they're inputs/outputs/or
inout. How much current you want them to drive and at what voltages.
You also need to consider the BBB's boot sequence to avoid using any
pins involved in that until the sequence is done. You also need the
configuration EEPROM and that needs to be set up properly.
All of these are steps.
A board the size of the BBB would be roughly 37 us dollars at Oshpark,
you'd have to be able to submit them an eagle layout or gerbers.
What alternatives are there? I created a
wire harness that fits into the P8 and P9 headers but it's not an elegant
solution.
Then all you need is a breakout if you've considered all these other
matters.
I'd be tempted to take a 46 pin ribbon connector and wire it to each
header, then patch that over to whatever breakout board you want,
which could be individual pins.
Harvey
If you can’t find one that’s commercial, then you design your own if
you can do hardware.
I can’t do hardware unfortunately… I reached out to the element14 design service team to see what they can do. Do you happen to know of anyone else who can do custom board design?
You need to consider which pins can do what, how
you want them buffered, whether or not they’re inputs/outputs/or
inout. How much current you want them to drive and at what voltages.
I’ll create a custom device tree overlay that sets up the configuration for each individual pin. I don’t have that part of the project completed and would like to decouple the pin setup from the actual board. I’m going to disable the eMMC and the HDMI to free up those pins while booting from and storing data to an onboard microSD card. Also, I’ll primarily be using relays to control anything else that gets plugged into the system. In essence, I’ll be turning the BBB into a PLC. The software will be written in Python and the program will be running as a deamon with a watchdog to make sure it’s always running.
Then all you need is a breakout if you’ve considered all these other
matters.
That’s definitely an idea to consider. I could make a breakout board with 46 terminal blocks in any configuration I want and have it connected with a wiring harness… hmm. That might also be cheaper to manufacture than a custom cape.
Thanks for the suggestion Harvey. I appreciate the swift and detailed response.
-Matt