Bart writes: “The BeagleBone is awesome little controller. It is a lot like the Raspberry Pi, but it has one special feature that makes it viable for CNC. It is the PRU. This is Programmable Realtime Unit. This a part of the CPU that runs separately from the OS and gives it the critical timing required for smooth stepper motor control. People have tapped into this and LinuxCNC to make a real embedded version of LinuxCNC. Add in all the other capabilities like HDMI, keyboard, mouse networking, etc and things get amazing really fast.”
If you liked the BeagleBone, you will love the next gen BeagleBone Black! With a blistering 1GHz processor, 512MB onboard DDR3 RAM, built in 2GB storage with pre-installed Linux operating system (no microSD card required!), and best of all, the addition of a MicroHDMI connector for audio/video output. This is a ultra-powered embedded computer that can fit in a mint tin. Note: As of June 4, 2013, 1pm ET Adafruit is shipping Rev A5B.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
