Beagle introduces something like a Raspberry Pi, with long-range wireless

Update: March 9, 2023

Beagle introduces something like a Raspberry Pi, with long-range wirelessBeaglePlay “has built-in wired and wireless connectivity, including innovative single-pair Ethernet and sub-GHz wireless options, enabling it to connect to a vast selection of sensor and prototyping systems with thousands of options,” according to distributor Farnell, which is stocking the boards. “It is an excellent choice for early adopters who want a simplified Linux experience they can expand without needing to learn to read schematics.”

Measuring 80 x 80mm, it has four 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 cores, a 400MHz Cortex-M4F, two of Texas Instruments PRU sub-system at 333MHz and an Imagination PowerVR Rogue GPU – all courtesy of a TI AM625 SoC, and backed by 2Gbyte of ram and 16Gbyte of eMMC flash.

Interfaces include Gbit Ethernet, single-pair Ethernet (with power-over-data-line), HDMI (full-size, full-HD/1080P, 24bit RGB), USB type-C (power and data) and USB type-A (host) are there for wired communication, then 5GHz, 2.4GHz and sub-1GHz (IEEE 802.15.4) radios are provided for wireless – the latter offering 1km range with BeagleConnect, said BeagleBoard.

Customisable connectivity is supplied through mikroBUS, Grove and QWIIC add-on module ports.

Camera and touchscreen display ribbon-cable connectors also included.

Debian GNU/Linux comes pre-loaded.

BeagleConnect Freedom is built around TI’s CC1352P7 microcontroller, which supports both short-range 2.4GHz and long-range sub-GHz wireless protocols.

That MCU has a 48MHz Cortex-M4F , 704kbyte flash, 256kbyte ROM 9with over-the-air upgrade capability), 8kbyte cache ram and 144kbyte of low-leakage SRAM. The Zephyr real-time operating system is supported, and there is an SPI flash on the board.

It too has a mikroBUS port through which to add sensors, actuators, indicators and everything else covered by the >1,000 mikroBUS boards available.

Also on there is a USB-to-Uart bridge (MSP430F5503), temperature, humidity and light sensing, battery charging, a buzzer, LEDs and JTAG.

Users can integrate a large number of devices without writing any code, according to Farnell. “With BeaglePlay-hosted, kernel drivers and collaborative support code,” it said, “there’s no need to cut and paste sensor interface examples. The Linux kernel has the necessary intelligence to interact with various external devices, so users don’t need to rely on microcontroller code libraries.”

BeaglePlay

BeagleConnect Freedom