ARM Community: Winning BeagleBone cape plug-in board designs announced - ARM Community

BeagleBoard.org announced the winners of the BeagleBone Cape Plug-in Board Design Contest, which invited developers, students, makers and hobbyists worldwide on November 1^st to create innovative new capes. These expansion boards, creatively called “capes,” allow hobbyists and makers to quickly and easily enhance BeagleBone’s capabilities with cameras, LCD touch screens, motor controls, battery power and more.

After receiving an overwhelming response, the judging panel selected the three winners: Chris Clark, inventor of Interacto, a cape that provides a foundation for building robots and flying drones; Elias Bakken, creator of Replicape, a cape that functions as a 3D printer for BeagleBone and Matt Ranostay, designer of the Geiger Cape that registers radiation counts from background sources. In addition to receiving a $1,000 cash prize and BeagleBone tools, these winners will see their original cape plug-in board designs manufactured and sold through Circuitco.

Clark created Interacto, a cape that gets BeagleBone interactive with a triple axis accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer plus a 640x480 30fps camera. All sensors are digital and communicate via I2C to the BeagleBone. The camera frames are captured using the PRU-ICSS. The sensors on this cape give hobbyists and students a starting point to easily build robots and flying drones.


Bakken’s Replicape helps drive 3D printing for BeagleBone and features five stepper motors, three high power MOSFETs for two extruders and one HPB. Using 3D printers, hobbyists can print plastic for their specific use while engineers and mechanical designers can create prototypes for concept development and product design to accelerate the design process and reduce time to market.


The Geiger Cape, created by Ranostay, is a design that measures radiation counts from background and test sources by utilizing multiple Geiger tubes. The cape can be used to detect low-level radiation, which is needed in certain industries such as security and medical.


With the help of these creative makers, BeagleBone, a one-of-a-kind credit-card-sized Linux computer based on the Sitara^™ AM335x ARM® Cortex^™-A8 processor that connects with the Internet and runs software such as Android 4.1.2 and Ubuntu, will now be styling with these new capes. For more on these winning capes, visit beagleboard.org/CapeContest/winners.


Guest Blogger:

Jason Kridner is the Software Architecture Manager for Texas Instruments (TI) Sitara™ ARM® processors and an active leader in TI’s open source initiative. Kridner has become a champion of open-source and helped create Beagleboard.org, a robust resource where makers receive feedback, download software and gain access to all layers of optimized system-on-chip semiconductor solutions. Kridner’s responsibilities include definition of the software components, development platforms, and support processes used to engage customers and leading new software technology. During his 20-year tenure with TI, he has lead software development of low-power media software, audio processing, file systems, USB drivers, digital rights management, and video codecs as well helped broaden the market Applications Processors with focus on the role of embedded software architecture and support. Kridner graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering.

ARM welcomes its wealth of Partners in the ARM Connected Community (CC) to submit guest blogs to be published on our multiple community blogs. If interested in participating please submit email inquiries to Tell.Us@arm.com.

The ARM Connected Community (CC) is an extensive ecosystem covering all aspects of ARM processor-based design, from chip implementation through to system and device design. The CC provides a platform for collaborative innovation, with multiple types of forums for members to work with one another, and with customers, to solve industry challenges, all with the purpose of enabling designers to focus on differentiating features and an accelerated time-to-market for ARM powered solutions.