DIY digital decorations

Abstract

The BeagleBoard.org Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to developing open-source embedded hardware and software. The foundation's latest creation is the PocketBeagle, a single-board computer that runs Linux. The PocketBeagle debuted at the World Maker Faire this past September in New York City, and we were lucky enough to be there and win one of the first boards. BeagleBoard.org makes a number of boards designed for different applications, such as robotics. These typically sell in the US $60 to $125 range. At $25, the PocketBeagle is designed to be a low-cost variant. But it's not just a stripped-down version of the other boards, as the PocketBeagle offers some interesting features of its own. So we immediately started thinking of projects that we could try out with the board, settling on a light controller for a festive village diorama for the coming holiday season. The PocketBeagle runs Debian Linux, and hence it is possible to develop applications in different programming languages, including Python, Ruby, or BoneScript. The latter is a library built on top of Node.js that was developed for the Beagle family: It allows you to program and control devices using Web pages and JavaScript. What's really interesting about the PocketBeagle is that in addition to a primary CPU that runs the Linux operating system (an ARM Cortex-A8 running at 1 gigahertz), the processor at the heart of the PocketBeagle also has two programmable real-time units (PRUs).