BBONE-BLACK-4G - ELEMENT14

element14 BeagleBone Black

System Reference Manual

April, 2014

For more information on the BeagleBoard compliant program, please visit

http://beagleboard.org/logo

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 2

Acknowledgements

The element14 BeagleBone Black is a “BeagleBoard compliant” product. It is

identical in technical design and functionality as the specified BeagleBoard.org

product (BeagleBone Black) and runs on the version of the software provided by

BeagleBoard.org to element14. General support for this board is available from the

BeagleBoard.org community.

This reference manual as such has been largely adapted from the BeagleBone Black

Systems Reference Manual which is provided care of CircuitCo with acknowledements to

Gerald Coley of BeagleBoard.org. This reference manual includes detailed documentation

for the element14 BeagleBone Black board, its use and its design. It serves as the primary

resource for reference and technical support.

element14 would like to extend a sincere thank you to Gerald Coley and

Jason Kridner for enabling element14to be a licensee of the BeagleBoard

compliant program and for their continued support.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 3

BEAGLEBONE DESIGN

These design materials referred to in this document are *NOT SUPPORTED* and DO NOT

constitute a reference design. Only “community” support is allowed via resources at

BeagleBoard.org/discuss.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE DESIGN MATERIALS, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY

APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE

COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE DESIGN MATERIALS “AS

IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,

BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS

FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND

PERFORMANCE OF THE DESIGN MATERIALS IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE DESIGN

MATERIALS PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY

SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

This board was designed as an evaluation and development tool. It was not designed with any

other application in mind. As such, these design materials may or may not be suitable for any

other purposes. If used, the design material becomes your responsibility as to whether or not it

meets your specific needs or your specific applications and may require changes to meet your

requirements.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 4

BEAGLEBONE BLACK ADDITIONAL TERMS

element14 and BeagleBoard.org (Supplier) provide the enclosed BeagleBone under the following conditions:

The user assumes all responsibility and liability for proper and safe handling of the goods. Further, the user

indemnifies Supplier from all claims arising from the handling or use of the goods.

Should the element14 BeagleBone Black not meet the specifications indicated in the System Reference Manual, the

element14 BeagleBone Black may be returned to the distributor of purchase for a full refund according to the terms and

conditions offered by them.

THE FOREGOING LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE EXCLUSIVE WARRANTY MADE BY SELLER TO BUYER AND IS IN

LIEU OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF

MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT OF THE

INDEMNITY SET FORTH ABOVE, NEITHER PARTY SHALL BE LIABLE TO THE OTHER FOR ANY INDIRECT,

SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.

Please read the System Reference Manual and, specifically, the Warnings and Restrictions notice in the Systems

Reference Manual prior to handling the product. This notice contains important safety information about temperatures and

voltages.

No license is granted under any patent right or other intellectual property right of Supplier covering or relating to any

machine, process, or combination in which such Supplier products or services might be or are used. The Supplier

currently deals with a variety of customers for products, and therefore our arrangement with the user is not exclusive. The

Supplier assumes no liability for applications assistance, customer product design, software performance, or infringement

of patents or services described herein.

UNITED STATES FCC AND CANADA IC REGULATORY COMPLIANCE INFORMATION

The element14 BeagleBone Black is annotated to comply with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to

the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any

interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. Changes or modifications not

expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.

This Class A or B digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003. Changes or modifications not expressly approved

by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.

Cet appareil numérique de la classe A ou B est conforme à la norme NMB-003 du Canada. Les changements ou les

modifications pas expressément approuvés par la partie responsible de la conformité ont pu vider l’autorité de l'utilisateur

pour actionner l'équipement.

BEAGLEBONE WARNINGS, RESTRICTIONS AND DISCLAIMERS

For Feasibility Evaluation Only, in Laboratory/Development Environments. The element14 BeagleBone Black

is not a complete product. It is intended solely for use for preliminary feasibility evaluation in laboratory/development

environments by technically qualified electronics experts who are familiar with the dangers and application risks

associated with handling electrical mechanical components, systems and subsystems. It should not be used as all or

part of a finished end product.

Your Sole Responsibility and Risk you acknowledge, represent, and agree that:

1. You have unique knowledge concerning Federal, State and local regulatory requirements (including but not

limited to Food and Drug Administration regulations, if applicable) which relate to your products and which relate to your

use (and/or that of your employees, affiliates, contractors or designees) of the BeagleBone for evaluation, testing and

other purposes.

2. You have full and exclusive responsibility to assure the safety and compliance of your products with all such laws and

other applicable regulatory requirements, and also to assure the safety of any activities to be conducted by you and/or

your employees, affiliates, contractors or designees, using the BeagleBone. Further, you are responsible to

assure that any interfaces (electronic and/or mechanical) between the BeagleBone and any human body are designed

with suitable isolation and means to safely limit accessible leakage currents to minimize the risk of electrical shock

hazard.

3. Since the BeagleBone is not a completed product, it may not meet all applicable regulatory and safety compliance

standards which may normally be associated with similar items. You assume full responsibility to determine and/or

assure compliance with any such standards and related certifications as may be applicable. You will employ reasonable

safeguards to ensure that your use of the BeagleBone will not result in any property damage, injury or death, even if

the BeagleBone should fail to perform as described or expected.

Certain Instructions. It is important to operate the BeagleBone Black within Supplier’s recommended

specifications and environmental considerations per the user guidelines. Exceeding the specified BeagleBone

ratings (including but not limited to input and output voltage, current, power, and environmental ranges) may cause

property damage, personal injury or death. If there are questions concerning these ratings please contact the Supplier

representative prior to connecting interface electronics including input power and intended loads. Any loads applied

outside of the specified output range may result in unintended and/or inaccurate operation and/or possible permanent

damage to the BeagleBone and/or interface electronics. Please consult the System Reference Manual prior to

connecting any load to the BeagleBone output. If there is uncertainty as to the load specification, please contact the

Supplier representative. During normal operation, some circuit components may have case temperatures greater

than 60 C as long as the input and output are maintained at a normal ambient operating temperature. These

components include but are not limited to linear regulators, switching transistors, pass transistors, and current sense

resistors which can be identified using the BeagleBone schematic located at the link in the BeagleBone System

Reference Manual. When placing measurement probes near these devices during normal operation, please be aware

that these devices may be very warm to the touch. As with all electronic evaluation tools, only qualified personnel

knowledgeable in electronic measurement and diagnostics normally found in development environments should use

the BeagleBone.

Agreement to Defend, Indemnify and Hold Harmless. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold the Suppliers, its

licensors and their representatives harmless from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, expenses,

costs and liabilities (collectively, "Claims") arising out of or in connection with any use of the BeagleBone that is

not in accordance with the terms of the agreement. This obligation shall apply whether Claims arise under law of tort or

contract or any other legal theory, and even if the BeagleBone fails to perform as described or expected.

Safety-Critical or Life-Critical Applications. If you intend to evaluate the components for possible use in safety

critical applications (such as life support) where a failure of the Sup p li e r’s product would reasonably be expected

to cause severe personal injury or death, such as devices which are classified as FDA Class III or similar

classification, then you must specifically notify Suppliers of such intent and enter into a separate Assurance and

Indemnity Agreement.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 6

WARRANTY: The element14 BeagleBone Black Assembly as purchased is warranted

against defects in materials and workmanship in accordance with the terms and conditions

of the channel it has been purchased from. This warranty does not cover any problems

occurring as a result of improper use, modifications, exposure to water, excessive

voltages, abuse, or accidents. All boards will be returned via standard mail if an issue is

found. If no issue is found or express return is needed, the customer will pay all shipping

costs

.

Before returning the board, please visit

BeagleBoard.org/support

For up to date SW images and technical information refer to

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack

All support for this board is provided via community support at

www.beagleboard.org/discuss

To return a defective board for repair, please request an RMA from the respective sales

channel it has been purchased from.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 7

Table of

Contents

1.0

I

NTRODUCTION

....................................................................................................................................................... 13

2.0

C

HANGE

H

ISTORY

................................................................................................................................................... 13

2.1

Board Changes ............................................................................................................................................... 13

3.0

C

ONNECTING UP

Y

OUR ELEMENT

14

B

EAGLE

B

ONE

B

LACK

....................................................................................... 14

3.1

What’s In the Box ........................................................................................................................................... 14

3.2

Main Connection Scenarios ........................................................................................................................... 15

3.3

Tethered To A PC ............................................................................................................................................ 15

3.4

Standalone w/Display and Keyboard/Mouse ................................................................................................. 18

4.0

ELEMENT

14

B

EAGLE

B

ONE

B

LACK

O

VERVIEW

........................................................................................................ 24

4.1

BeagleBone Compatibility ............................................................................................................................. 25

4.2

element14 BeagleBone Black Features and Specification ............................................................................. 26

4.3

Board Component Locations.......................................................................................................................... 27

5.0

ELEMENT

14

B

EAGLE

B

ONE

B

LACK

H

IGH

L

EVEL

S

PECIFICATION

............................................................................. 29

5.1

Block Diagram ............................................................................................................................................... 29

5.2

Processor ....................................................................................................................................................... 29

5.3

Memory .......................................................................................................................................................... 30

5.4

Power Management ....................................................................................................................................... 31

5.5

PC USB Interface ........................................................................................................................................... 32

5.6

Serial Debug Port ........................................................................................................................................... 32

5.7

USB1 Host Port .............................................................................................................................................. 32

5.8

Power Sources ................................................................................................................................................ 32

5.9

Reset Button ................................................................................................................................................... 33

5.10

Power Button ................................................................................................................................................. 33

5.11

Indicators ....................................................................................................................................................... 33

5.12

CTI JTAG Header .......................................................................................................................................... 34

5.13

HDMI Interface .............................................................................................................................................. 34

5.14

Cape Board Support....................................................................................................................................... 34

6.0

D

ETAILED

H

ARDWARE

D

ESIGN

............................................................................................................................... 35

6.1

Power Section ................................................................................................................................................ 36

6.1.1

TPS65217C PMIC ......................................................................................................................................... 36

6.1.2

DC Input ........................................................................................................................................................ 38

6.1.3

USB Power ..................................................................................................................................................... 39

6.1.4

Power Selection ............................................................................................................................................. 40

6.1.5

Power Button ................................................................................................................................................. 41

6.1.6

Battery Access Pads ....................................................................................................................................... 41

6.1.7

Power Consumption ....................................................................................................................................... 42

6.1.8

Processor Interfaces....................................................................................................................................... 42

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 8

6.1.9

Power Rails .................................................................................................................................................... 43

6.1.10

Power LED ................................................................................................................................................ 47

6.1.11

TPS65217C Power Up Process ................................................................................................................ 47

6.1.12

Processor Control Interface ....................................................................................................................... 48

6.1.13

Low Power Mode Support ........................................................................................................................ 48

6.2

S

ITARA

AM3358BZCZ100

P

ROCESSOR

.................................................................................................................. 49

6.2.1

Description..................................................................................................................................................... 49

6.2.2

High Level Features ....................................................................................................................................... 50

6.2.3

Documentation ............................................................................................................................................... 50

6.2.4

Crystal Circuitry ............................................................................................................................................ 51

6.2.5

Reset Circuitry ............................................................................................................................................... 51

6.2.6

Memory Device .............................................................................................................................................. 52

6.2.7

DDR3L Memory Design ................................................................................................................................. 53

6.2.8

Power Rails .................................................................................................................................................... 55

6.2.9

VREF .............................................................................................................................................................. 55

6.3

4GB

E

MMC

M

EMORY

............................................................................................................................................ 56

6.3.1

eMMC Device ................................................................................................................................................ 56

6.3.2

eMMC Circuit Design .................................................................................................................................... 56

6.4

B

OARD

ID

EEPROM .............................................................................................................................................. 58

6.5

M

ICRO

S

ECURE

D

IGITAL

......................................................................................................................................... 59

6.5.1

microSD Design ............................................................................................................................................. 59

6.6

U

SER

LED

S

............................................................................................................................................................. 60

6.7

B

OOT

C

ONFIGURATION

........................................................................................................................................... 61

6.7.1

Boot Configuration Design ............................................................................................................................ 61

6.8

D

EFAULT

B

OOT

O

PTIONS

........................................................................................................................................ 62

6.9

10/100

E

THERNET

................................................................................................................................................... 62

6.9.1

Ethernet Processor Interface ......................................................................................................................... 63

6.9.2

Ethernet Connector Interface ......................................................................................................................... 64

6.9.3

Ethernet PHY Power, Reset, and Clocks ........................................................................................................ 65

6.9.4

LAN8710A Mode Pins .................................................................................................................................... 66

6.10

HDMI

I

NTERFACE

................................................................................................................................................... 67

6.10.1

Supported Resolutions ............................................................................................................................... 67

6.10.2

HDMI Framer ............................................................................................................................................ 68

6.10.3

HDMI Video Processor Interface............................................................................................................... 68

6.10.4

HDMI Control Processor Interface ........................................................................................................... 69

6.10.5

Interrupt Signal .......................................................................................................................................... 69

6.10.6

Audio Interface .......................................................................................................................................... 70

6.10.7

Power Connections .................................................................................................................................... 71

6.10.8

HDMI Connector Interface ........................................................................................................................ 71

6.11

USB

H

OST

.............................................................................................................................................................. 73

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 9

6.11.1

Power Switch ............................................................................................................................................. 73

6.11.2

ESD Protection .......................................................................................................................................... 73

6.11.3

Filter Options ............................................................................................................................................ 73

6.12

PRU-ICSS .............................................................................................................................................................. 74

6.12.1

PRU-ICSS Features ................................................................................................................................... 74

6.12.2

PRU-ICSS Block Diagram ........................................................................................................................ 74

6.12.3

PRU-ICSS Pin Access ............................................................................................................................... 75

7.0

C

ONNECTORS

.......................................................................................................................................................... 76

7.1

Expansion Connectors ................................................................................................................................... 76

7.2

Power Jack ..................................................................................................................................................... 81

7.3

USB Client ..................................................................................................................................................... 82

7.4

USB Host ....................................................................................................................................................... 83

7.5

Serial Header ................................................................................................................................................. 84

7.6

HDMI ............................................................................................................................................................. 86

7.7

microSD ......................................................................................................................................................... 87

7.8

Ethernet .......................................................................................................................................................... 88

7.9

JTAG Connector ............................................................................................................................................. 88

8.0

C

APE

B

OARD

S

UPPORT

............................................................................................................................................ 89

8.1

element14 BeagleBone Black Cape Compatibility ......................................................................................... 90

8.2

EEPROM ....................................................................................................................................................... 92

8.3

Pin Usage Consideration ............................................................................................................................... 99

8.4

Expansion Connectors ................................................................................................................................. 100

8.5

Signal Usage ................................................................................................................................................ 104

8.6

Cape Power.................................................................................................................................................. 106

8.7

Mechanical................................................................................................................................................... 107

9.0

ELEMENT

14

B

EAGLE

B

ONE

B

LACK

M

ECHANICAL

................................................................................................. 110

9.1

Dimensions and Weight ................................................................................................................................ 110

9.2

Silkscreen and Component

Locations ........................................................................................................ 110

10.0

P

ICTURES

............................................................................................................................................................ 113

11.0

S

UPPORT

I

NFORMATION

......................................................................................................................................... 115

11.1

Hardware Design ......................................................................................................................................... 115

11.2

Software Updates ......................................................................................................................................... 115

11.3

RMA Support ................................................................................................................................................ 116

11.4

Trouble Shooting HDMI Issues .................................................................................................................... 117

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 10

FIGURES

FIGURE 1

KIT CONTENTS

............................................................................................................... 14

FIGURE 2

TETHERED CONFIGURATION

.................................................................................... 15

FIGURE 3

USB CONNECTION TO THE BOARD

......................................................................... 16

FIGURE 4

BOARD POWER LED

..................................................................................................... 16

FIGURE 5

BOARD BOOT STATUS

................................................................................................. 17

FIGURE 6

DESKTOP CONFIGURATION

....................................................................................... 18

FIGURE 7

CONNECT MICROHDMI CABLE TO THE MONITOR

............................................... 19

FIGURE 8

DVI-D TO HDMI ADAPTER

............................................................................................ 19

FIGURE 9

WIRELESS KEYBOARD AND MOUSE COMBO

....................................................... 19

FIGURE 10

CONNECT KEYBOARD AND MOUSE RECEIVER TO THE BOARD

.................... 20

FIGURE 11

KEYBOARD AND MOUSE HUBS

................................................................................. 20

FIGURE 12

ETHERNET CABLE CONNECTION

............................................................................. 21

FIGURE 13

EXTERNAL DC POWER

................................................................................................ 21

FIGURE 14

CONNECT MICROHDMI CABLE TO THE BOARD

................................................... 22

FIGURE 15

BOARD BOOT STATUS

................................................................................................. 22

FIGURE 16

DESKTOP SCREEN

........................................................................................................ 23

FIGURE 17

CONNECTORS, LEDS AND SWITCHES

.................................................................... 27

FIGURE 18

KEY COMPONENTS

....................................................................................................... 28

FIGURE 19

ELEMENT14 BEAGLEBONE BLACK KEY COMPONENTS

.................................... 29

FIGURE 20

ELEMENT14 BEAGLEBONE BLACK BLOCK DIAGRAM

......................................... 35

FIGURE 21

HIGH LEVEL POWER BLOCK DIAGRAM

................................................................... 36

FIGURE 22

TPS65217C BLOCK DIAGRAM

..................................................................................... 38

FIGURE 23

TPS65217 DC CONNECTION

....................................................................................... 39

FIGURE 24

USB POWER CONNECTIONS

..................................................................................... 40

FIGURE 25

POWER RAILS

................................................................................................................. 44

FIGURE 26

POWER RAIL POWER UP SEQUENCING

................................................................. 46

FIGURE 27

TPS65217C POWER SEQUENCING TIMING

............................................................ 46

FIGURE 28

POWER PROCESSOR INTERFACES

......................................................................... 47

FIGURE 29

SITARA AM3358BZCZ BLOCK DIAGRAM

.................................................................. 49

FIGURE 30

PROCESSOR CRYSTALS

............................................................................................. 51

FIGURE 31

BOARD RESET CIRCUITRY

......................................................................................... 52

FIGURE 32

DDR3L MEMORY DESIGN

............................................................................................ 54

FIGURE 33

DDR3L VREF DESIGN

................................................................................................... 55

FIGURE 34

EMMC MEMORY DESIGN

............................................................................................. 57

FIGURE 35

EEPROM DESIGN REV A5

............................................................................................ 58

FIGURE 36

MICROSD DESIGN

......................................................................................................... 59

FIGURE 37

USER LEDS

...................................................................................................................... 60

FIGURE 38

PROCESSOR BOOT CONFIGURATION DESIGN

.................................................... 61

FIGURE 39

PROCESSOR BOOT CONFIGURATION

.................................................................... 62

FIGURE 40

ETHERNET PROCESSOR INTERFACE

..................................................................... 63

FIGURE 41

ETHERNET CONNECTOR INTERFACE

..................................................................... 64

FIGURE 42

ETHERNET. PHY, POWER, RESET AND CLOCKS

................................................. 65

FIGURE 43

ETHERNET PHY MODE PINS

...................................................................................... 66

FIGURE 44

HDMI FRAMER PROCESSOR INTERFACE

.............................................................. 69

FIGURE 45

24.576MHZ OSCILLATOR

............................................................................................. 70

FIGURE 46

HDMI POWER CONNECTIONS

................................................................................... 71

FIGURE 47

CONNECTOR INTERFACE CIRCUITRY

.................................................................... 72

FIGURE 48

USB HOST CIRCUITRY

................................................................................................. 73

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 11

FIGURE 49

PRU-ICSS BLOCK DIAGRAM

....................................................................................... 74

FIGURE 50

EXPANSION CONNECTOR LOCATION

..................................................................... 76

FIGURE 51

5VDC POWER JACK

...................................................................................................... 81

FIGURE 52

USB CLIENT CONNECTOR

.......................................................................................... 82

FIGURE 53

USB HOST CONNECTOR

............................................................................................. 83

FIGURE 54

SERIAL DEBUG HEADER

............................................................................................. 84

FIGURE 55

FTDI USB TO SERIAL ADAPTER

................................................................................. 84

FIGURE 56

SERIAL CONNECTOR

................................................................................................... 85

FIGURE 58

HDMI CABLE

.................................................................................................................... 86

FIGURE 57

HDMI CONNECTOR

....................................................................................................... 86

FIGURE 59

MICROSD CONNECTOR

............................................................................................... 87

FIGURE 60

ETHERNET CONNECTOR

............................................................................................ 88

FIGURE 61 EXPANSION BOARD EEPROM WITHOUT WRITE PROTECT

.............................. 93

FIGURE 62 EXPANSION BOARD EEPROM WRITE PROTECT

.................................................. 94

FIGURE 63 EXPANSION BOOT PINS

.............................................................................................. 99

FIGURE 64

SINGLE EXPANSION CONNECTOR

......................................................................... 100

FIGURE 65

SINGLE CAPE EXPANSION CONNECTOR

............................................................. 101

FIGURE 66

EXPANSION CONNECTOR

........................................................................................ 102

FIGURE 67

STACKED CAPE EXPANSION CONNECTOR

......................................................... 102

FIGURE 68

STACKED W/SIGNAL STEALING EXPANSION CONNECTOR

............................ 103

FIGURE 69

CONNECTOR PIN INSERTION DEPTH

.................................................................... 104

FIGURE 70

CAPE BOARD DIMENSIONS

...................................................................................... 108

FIGURE 71

BOARD DIMENSIONS

.................................................................................................. 110

FIGURE 72

COMPONENT SIDE SILKSCREEN

............................................................................ 111

FIGURE 73

CIRCUIT SIDE SILKSCREEN

..................................................................................... 112

FIGURE 74

TOP SIDE

........................................................................................................................ 113

FIGURE 75

BOTTOM SIDE

............................................................................................................... 114

FIGURE 76

SERIAL NUMBER LOCATION

.................................................................................... 116

FIGURE 77

INITIAL SERIAL NUMBER FORMAT

......................................................................... 116

FIGURE 78

REVISED SERIAL NUMBER FORMAT

..................................................................... 116

TABLES

TABLE 1 ELEMENT14 BEAGLEBONE BLACK FEATURES ............................................... 26

TABLE 2 BEAGLEBONE BLACK BATTERY PINS .............................................................. 41

TABLE 3 ELEMENT14 BEAGLEBONE BLACK POWER CONSUMPTION (MA@5V) ........ 42

TABLE 4 PROCESSOR FEATURES .................................................................................... 50

TABLE 5 EMMC BOOT PINS ............................................................................................... 57

TABLE 6 EEPROM CONTENTS .......................................................................................... 58

TABLE 7 USER LED CONTROL SIGNALS/PINS ................................................................ 60

TABLE 8 HDMI SUPPORTED MONITOR RESOLUTIONS ................................................. 67

TABLE 9 TDA19988 I2C ADDRESS ..................................................................................... 69

TABLE 10 PRU0 AND PRU1 ACCESS .................................................................................. 75

TABLE 11 EXPANSION HEADER P8 PINOUT ...................................................................... 78

TABLE 12 EXPANSION HEADER P9 PINOUT ...................................................................... 80

TABLE 13 J1 SERIAL HEADER PINS .................................................................................... 85

TABLE 14 P8 LCD CONFLICT PINS ...................................................................................... 90

TABLE 15 P8 EMMC CONFLICT PINS .................................................................................. 91

TABLE 16 EXPANSION BOARD EEPROM ........................................................................... 94

TABLE 17 EEPROM PIN USAGE ........................................................................................... 97

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 12

TABLE 18 SINGLE CAPE CONNECTORS .......................................................................... 101

TABLE 19 STACKED CAPE CONNECTORS ...................................................................... 102

TABLE 20 EXPANSION VOLTAGES ................................................................................... 106

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 13

1.0 Introduction

The element14 BeagleBone Black is identical in technical design and functionality

as the specified BeagleBoard.org product (BeagleBone Black) and runs on the

version of the software provided by BeagleBoard.org to element14. General support

for this board is available from the BeagleBoard.org community.

This document is the

System Reference Manual

for the element14 BeagleBone Black

and covers its use and design. The board will primarily be referred to in the remainder of

this document simply as the board, although it may also be referred to as the

e l e m e n t 1 4 BeagleBone Black as a reminder. There are also references to the

original BeagleBone as well, and will be referenced as simply BeagleBone.

This design is subject to change without notice as we will work to keep improving the

design as the product matures based on feedback and experience. Software updates

will be frequent and will be independent of the hardware revisions and as such not result

in a change in the revision number.

Make sure you check the support Wiki frequently for the most up to date information.

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack

2.0 Change History

This section describes the change history of this document and board. Document changes

are not always a result of a board change.

2.1 Board Changes

2.1.1 Rev C (Part#: BBONE-BLACK-4G)

•

Changed the eMMC from 2GB to 4GB.

2GB devices are getting harder to get as they are being phased out. This required

BeagleBoard.org to move to 4GB. We now have two sources for the device. This will

however, require an increase in the price of the board.

2.1.2 Rev B (Part#: BBONE-BLACK)

•

The processor on Rev B has been changed to the AM3358BZCZ100. All other

specifications are as per Rev A6A of the BeagleBone Black.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 14

3.0 Connecting up Your element14 BeagleBone Black

This section provides instructions on how to hook up your board. Two scenarios will be

discussed:

1) Tethered to a PC and

2) As a standalone development platform in a desktop PC configuration.

3.1 What’s In the Box

In the box you will find three main items as shown in

Figure 1

.

•

element14 BeagleBone Black

•

miniUSB to USB Type A Cable

•

Quick Start Guide.

This is sufficient for the tethered scenario and creates an out of box experience where the

board can be used immediately with no other equipment needed.

Figure 1 Kit Contents

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 15

3.2 Main Connection Scenarios

This section will describe how to connect the board for use. This section is basically a

slightly more detailed description of the Quick Start Guide that came in the box. There is

also a Quick Start Guide document on the board that should also be refereed. The intent

here is that someone looking to purchase the board will be able to read this section and

get a good idea as to what the initial set up will be like.

The board can be configured in several different ways, but we will discuss the two most

common scenarios as described in the Quick Start Guide card that comes in the box.

•

Tethered to a PC via the USB cable

o

Board is accessed as a storage drive

o

Or a RNDIS Ethernet connection.

•

Standalone desktop

o

Display

o

Keyboard and mouse

o

External 5V power supply

Each of these configurations is discussed in general terms in the following sections.

For an up-to-date list of confirmed working accessories please go to

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Accessories

3.3 Tethered To A PC

In this configuration, the board is powered by the PC via the provided USB cable--no

other cables are required. The board is accessed either as a USB storage drive or via the

browser on the PC. You need to use either Firefox or Chrome on the PC, IEx will not

work properly.

Figure 2

shows this configuration.

Figure 2 Tethered Configuration

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 16

All the power for the board is provided by the PC via the USB cable. In some instances,

the PC may not be able to supply sufficient power for the board. In that case, an external

5VDC power supply can be used, but this should rarely be necessary.

3.3.1 Connect the Cable to the Board

1. Connect the small connector on the USB cable to the board as shown in

Figure 4

.

The connector is on the bottom side of the board.

Figure 3 USB Connection to the Board

2. Connect the large connector of the USB cable to your PC or laptop USB port.

3. The board will power on and the power LED will be on as shown in

Figure 4

below.

Figure 4 Board Power LED

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 17

4. When the board starts to the booting process started by the process of applying

power, the LEDs will come on in sequence as shown in

Figure 5

below. It will take

a few seconds for the status LEDs to come on, so be patient. The LEDs will be

flashing in an erratic manner as it begins to boot the Linux kernel.

Figure 5 Board Boot Status

3.3.2 Accessing the Board as a Storage Drive

The board will appear around a USB Storage drive on your PC after the kernel has

booted, which will take a round 10 seconds. The kernel on the board needs to boot before

the port gets enumerated. Once the board appears as a storage drive, do the following:

1) Open the USB Drive folder.

2) Click on the file named

start.html

3) The file will be opened by your browser on the PC and you should get a display

showing the Quick Start Guide.

4) Your board is now operational! Follow the instructions on your PC screen.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 18

3.4 Standalone w/Display and Keyboard/Mouse

In this configuration, the board works more like a PC, totally free from any connection to a

PC as shown in

Figure 6

. It allows you to create your code to make the board do

whatever you need it to do. It will however require certain common PC accessories.

These accessories and instructions are described in the following section.

Figure 6 Desktop Configuration

Optionally an Ethernet cable can also be used for network access.

3.4.1 Required Accessories

In order to use the board in this configuration, you will need the following accessories:

•

(1) 5 VDC 1A power supply

•

(1) HDMI monitor or a DVI-D monitor. (

NOTE:

Only HDMI will give you audio

capability).

•

(1) Micro HDMI to HDMI cable or a Micro HDMI to DVI-D adapter.

•

(1) USB wireless keyboard and mouse combo.

•

(1) USB HUB (OPTIONAL). The board has only one USB host port, so you may

need to use a USB Hub if your keyboard and mouse requires two ports.

For an up-to-date list of confirmed working accessories please go to

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Accessories

3.4.2

Connecting Up the Board

1. Connect the big end of the HDMI cable as shown in

Figure 7

to your HDMI monitor.

Refer to your monitor Owner’s Manual for the location of your HDMI port. If you

have a DVI-D Monitor go to

Step 3

, otherwise proceed to

Step 4.

Figure 7 Connect microHDMI Cable to the Monitor

2. If you have a DVI-D monitor you must use a DVI-D to HDMI adapter in addition to

your HDMI cable. An example is shown in

Figure 8

below from two perspectives.

If you use this configuration, you will not have audio support.

To microHDMI Cable

To the Monitor

3. If you have a single wireless keyboard and mouse combination such as seen in

Figure

9

below, you need to plug the receiver in the USB host port of the board as

shown in

Figure 10

.

Figure 8 DVI-D to HDMI Adapter

Figure 9 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo

Figure 10

Connect Keyboard and Mouse Receiver to the Board

If you have a wired USB keyboard requiring two USB ports, you will need a HUB similar to

the ones shown in

Figure 11

. You may want to have more than one port for other devices.

Note that the board can only supply up to 500mA, so if you plan to load it down, it will need

to be externally powered.

4. Connect the Ethernet Cable

If you decide you want to connect to your local area network, an Ethernet cable can be

used. Connect the Ethernet Cable to the Ethernet port as shown in

Figure 12

. Any

standard 100M Ethernet cable should work.

Figure 11 Keyboard and Mouse Hubs

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 21

Figure 12 Ethernet Cable Connection

Apply Power

The final step is to plug in the DC power supply to the DC power jack as shown in

Figure

13

below.

Figure 13 External DC Power

5. The cable needed to connect to your display is a microHDMI to HDMI. Connect the

microHDMI connector end to the board at this time. The connector is on the bottom

side of the board as shown in

Figure 14

below.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 22

Figure 14 Connect microHDMI Cable to the Board

The connector is fairly robust, but we suggest that you not use the cable as a leash for

your Beagle. Take proper care not to put too much stress on the connector or cable.

6. Booting the Board

As soon as the power is applied to the board, it will start the booting up process.

When the board starts to boot the LEDs will come on in sequence as shown in

Figure

15

below. It will take a few seconds for the status LEDs to come on, so be patient.

The LEDs will be flashing in an erratic manner as it boots the Linux kernel.

Figure 15 Board Boot Status

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 23

While the four user LEDS can be over written and used as desired, they do have

specific meanings in the image that is shipped with the board once the Linux kernel

has booted.

•

USER0

is the heartbeat indicator from the Linux kernel.

•

USER1

turns on when the microSD card is being accessed

•

USER2

is an activity indicator. It turns on when the kernel is not in the idle loop.

•

USER3

turns on when the onboard eMMC is being accessed.

7. A Booted System

a. The board will have a mouse pointer appear on the screen as it enters the

Linux boot step. You may have to move the physical mouse to get the mouse

pointer to appear. The system can come up in the suspend mode with the HDMI

port in a sleep mode.

b. After a minute or two a login screen will appear. You do not have to do anything

at this point.

c. After a minute or two the desktop will appear. It should be similar to the one

shown in

Figure 16

. HOWEVER, it will change from one release to the next, so

do not expect your system to look exactly like the one in the figure, but it will be

very similar.

d. And at this point you are ready to go!

Figure 16

shows the desktop after booting.

Figure 16 Desktop Screen

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 24

4.0 element14 BeagleBone Black Overview

The element14 BeagleBone Black is the latest addition to the BeagleBoard.org family and

like its predecessors, is designed to address the Open Source Community, early adopters,

and anyone interested in a low cost ARM Cortex-A8 based processor.

It has been equipped with a minimum set of features to allow the user to experience the

power of the processor and is not intended as a full development platform as many of the

features and interfaces supplied by the processor are not accessible from the element14

BeagleBone Black via onboard support of some interfaces. It is not a complete product

designed to do any particular function. It is a foundation for experimentation and learning

how to program the processor and to access the peripherals by the creation of your own

software and hardware.

It also offers access to many of the interfaces and allows for the use of add-on boards

called capes, to add many different combinations of features. A user may also develop

their own board or add their own circuitry.

The element14 BeagleBone Black is manufactured by element14 in China for the benefit

of the community and its supporters. In addition, elememt14 will provide the RMA

support for the element14 BeagleBone Black.

Jason Kridner of Texas Instruments handles the community promotions and is the

spokesmen for BeagleBoard.org.

The board is designed by Gerald Coley, an employee of Texas Instruments and a charter

member of the BeagleBoard.org community.

The PCB layout was done by CircuitCo and C i r c u i t C o is the sole funder of

its development and transition to production.

The Software is written and supported by the thousands of community members, including

Jason Kridner, employees of Texas Instruments, DigiKey and element14.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 25

4.1 BeagleBone Compatibility

The board is intended to be compatible with the original BeagleBone as much as

possible. There are several areas where there are differences between the two designs.

These differences are listed below, along with the reasons for the differences.

•

Sitara AM3358BZCZ100, 1GHZ, processor.

o

Sorry, we just had to make it faster.

•

512MB DDR3L

o

Cost reduction

o

Performance boost

o

Memory size increase

o

Lower power

•

No Serial port by default.

o

Cost reduction

o

Can be added by buying a TTL to USB Cable that is widely available

o

Single largest cost reduction action taken

•

No JTAG emulation over USB.

o

Cost reduction. JTAG header is not populated, but can easily be

mounted.

•

EEPROM Reduced from 32KB to 4KB

o

Cost Reduction

•

Onboard Managed NAND (eMMC)

o

4GB

o

Cost reduction

o

Performance boost x8 vs. x4 bits

o

Performance boost due to deterministic properties vs. microSD card

•

GPMC bus may not be accessible from the expansion headers in some cases

o

Result of eMMC on the main board

o

Signals are still routed to the expansion connector

o

If eMMC is not used, signals can be used via expansion if eMMC is held

in reset

•

There may be 10 less GPIO pins available

o

Result of eMMC

o

If eMMC is not used, could still be used

•

The power expansion header, for battery and backlight, has been removed

o

Cost reduction, space reduction

o

Four pins were added to provide access to the battery charger function.

•

HDMI interface onboard

o

Feature addition

o

Audio and video capable

o

Micro HDMI

•

No three function USB cable

o

Cost reduction

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 26

•

GPIO3_21 has a 24.576 MHZ clock on it.

o

This is required by the HDMI Framer for Audio purposes. We needed to

run a clock into the processor to generate the correct clock frequency.

The pin on the processor was already routed to the expansion header. In

order not to remove this feature on the expansion header, it was left

connected. In order to use the pin as a GPIO pin, you need to disable the

clock. While this disables audio to the HDMI, the fact that you want to

use this pin for something else, does the same thing.

4.2 element14 BeagleBone Black Features and Specification

This section covers the specifications and features of the board and provides a high

level description of the major components and interfaces that make up the board.

Table 1

provides a list of the features.

Table 1 element14 BeagleBone Black Features

Fe

a

t

u

re

s

Processor

Sitara

AM3358BZCZ100

1GHz, 2000

MIPS

G

r

ap

h

ics

E

ngine

SGX530 3D, 20M Polygons/S

SDRAM Memory

512MB DDR3L 800MHZ

O

nboa

r

d

Flash

4GB, 8bit Embedded MMC

PMIC

TPS65217C PMIC regulator and one additional LDO.

Debug Support

O

p

ti

o

n

al

O

n

boar

d

20

-

p

in

C

T

I

J

T

A

G

,

Se

r

ial

He

ad

er

Power Source

miniUSB USB or

DC

Jack

5VDC External Via

Expansion

Header

PCB

3.4” x

2.1”

6

layers

Indicators

1-Power, 2-Ethernet, 4-User Controllable LEDs

HS

U

S

B

2

.0

C

l

ient

P

o

r

t

A

c

e

s

to

U

S

B

0

,

C

li

e

n

t

m

od

e

v

ia

m

i

n

i

USB

HS USB 2.0 Host Port

Access to USB1, Type A Socket, 500mA LS/FS/HS

Serial Port

UART0 access via 6 pin 3.3V TTL Header. Header is populated

Ethernet

10/100,

RJ45

S

D/

M

C

o

nne

c

t

or

m

ic

ro

SD

,

3

.

3

V

User Input

Reset

Button

Boot

Button

Power

Button

Video

Out

16b HDMI, 1280x1024

(MAX)

1024x768,1280x720,1440x900

,1920x1080@24Hz

w/EDID

Support

A

u

dio

Via HDMI Interface, Stereo

Expansion Connectors

P

o

w

er

5

V,

3

.

3

V

,

VDD

_

A

D

C

(1

.

8

V)

3.3V I/O on all

signals

McASP0, SPI1, I2C, GPIO(69 max), LCD, GPMC, MMC1, MMC2,

7

AIN

(1.8V MAX)

, 4 Timers, 4 Serial Ports,

CAN0,

EHRPWM(0,2),XDMA

Interrupt, Power button, Expansion Board

ID

(Up to 4 can be

stacked)

Weight

1.4 oz (39.68

grams)

P

o

w

er

Refer to Section

6.1.7

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 27

4.3 Board Component Locations

This section describes the key components on the board. It provides information on their

location and function. Familiarize yourself with the various components on the board.

4.3.1 Connectors, LEDs, and Switches

Figure 17

below shows the locations of the connectors, LEDs, and switches on the PCB

layout of the board.

Figure 17

Connectors, LEDs and Switches

•

DC Power

is the main DC input that accepts 5V power.

•

Power Button

alerts the processor to initiate the power down sequence.

•

10/100 Ethernet

is the connection to the LAN.

•

Serial Debug

is the serial debug port.

•

USB Client

is a miniUSB connection to a PC that can also power the board.

•

BOOT switch

can be used to force a boot from the microSD card if the power is

cycled on the board, removing power and reapplying the power to the board..

•

There are four blue

LED

S that can be used by the user.

•

Reset Button

allows the user to reset the processor.

•

microSD

slot is where a microSD card can be installed.

•

microHDMI

connector is where the display is connected to.

•

USB Host

can be connected different USB interfaces such as Wi-Fi, BT,

Keyboard, etc.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 28

4.3.2 Key Components

Figure 18

below shows the locations of the key components on the PCB layout of the

board.

Figure 18 Key Components

•

Sitara AM3358BZCZ100

is the processor for the board.

•

Micron 512MB DDR3L or Kingston 512MB DDR3 is the Dual Data Rate RAM

memory.

•

TPS65217C PMIC

provides the power rails to the various components on the

board.

•

SMSC Ethernet PHY

is the physical interface to the network.

•

Micron eMMC

is an onboard MMC chip that holds up to 4GB of data.

•

HDMI

Framer provides control for an HDMI or DVI-D display with an adapter.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 29

5.0

element14 BeagleBone Black High Level Specification

This section provides the high level specification of the element14 BeagleBone Black.

5.1 Block Diagram

Figure 19

below is the high level block diagram of the element14 BeagleBone Black.

Figure 19 element14 BeagleBone Black Key Components

5.2 Processor

The revision B board has moved to the Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 device.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 30

5.3 Memory

Described in the following sections are the three memory devices found on the board.

5.3.1 512MB DDR3L

A single 256Mb x16 DDR3L 4Gb (512MB) memory device is used. The memory used is

one of two devices:

- MT41K256M16HA-125 from Micron

- D2516EC4BXGGB from Kingston

It will operate at a clock frequency of 400MHz yielding an effective rate of 800MHZ on the

DDR3L bus allowing for 1.6GB/S of DDR3L memory bandwidth.

5.3.2 4KB EEPROM

A single 4KB EEPROM is provided on I2C0 that holds the board information. This

information includes board name, serial number, and revision information. This is the

not the same as the one used on the original BeagleBone. The device was changed for

cost reduction reasons. It has a test point to allow the device to be programmed and

otherwise to provide write protection when not grounded.

5.3.3 4GB Embedded MMC

A single 4GB embedded MMC (eMMC) device is on the board. The device connects to the

MMC1 port of the processor, allowing for 8bit wide access. Default boot mode for the board

will be MMC1 with an option to change it to MMC0, the SD card slot, for booting from the SD

card as a result of removing and reapplying the power to the board. Simply pressing the

reset button will not change the boot mode. MMC0 cannot be used in 8Bit mode because

the lower data pins are located on the pins used by the Ethernet port. This does not interfere

with SD card operation but it does make it unsuitable for use as an eMMC port if the 8 bit

feature is needed.

5.3.4 MicroSD Connector

The board is equipped with a single microSD connector to act as the secondary boot

source for the board and, if selected as such, can be the primary boot source. The

connector will support larger capacity microSD cards. The microSD card is not provided

with the board. Booting from MMC0 will be used to flash the eMMC in the production

environment or can be used by the user to update the SW as needed.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 31

5.3.5 Boot Modes

As mentioned earlier, there are four boot modes:

•

eMMC Boot…

This is the default boot mode and will allow for the fastest boot

time and will enable the board to boot out of the box using the pre-flashed

OS image without having to purchase an microSD card or an microSD card

writer.

•

SD Boot…

This mode will boot from the microSD slot. This mode can be used to

override what is on the eMMC device and can be used to program the eMMC

when used in the manufacturing process or for field updates.

•

Serial Boot…

This mode will use the serial port to allow downloading of the

software direct. A separate USB to serial cable is required to use this port.

•

USB Boot…

This mode supports booting over the USB port.

Software to support USB and serial boot modes is not provided by beagleboard.org.

Please contact TI for support of this feature.

A switch is provided to allow switching between the modes.

•

Holding the boot switch down during a removal and reapplication of power

without a microSD card inserted will force the boot source to be the USB port and

if nothing is detected on the USB client port, it will go to the serial port for

download.

•

Without holding the switch, the board will boot try to boot from the eMMC. If it is

empty, then it will try booting from the microSD slot, followed by the serial

port, and then the USB port.

•

If you hold the boot switch down during the removal and reapplication of

power to the board, and you have a microSD card inserted with a bootable

image, the board will boot from the microSD card.

NOTE: Pressing the RESET button on the board will NOT result in a change of the

boot mode. You MUST remove power and reapply power to change the boot mode.

The boot pins are sampled during power on reset from the PMIC to the processor.

The reset button on the board is a warm reset only and will not force a boot mode

change.

5.4 Power Management

The

TPS65217C

power management device is used along with a separate LDO to

provide power to the system. The

TPS65217C

version provides for the proper voltages

required for the DDR3L. This is the same device as used on the original BeagleBone with

the exception of the power rail configuration settings which will be changed in the

internal EEPROM to the

TPS65217C

to support the new voltages.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 32

DDR3L requires 1.5V instead of 1.8V on the DDR2 as is the case on the original

BeagleBone. The 1.8V regulator setting has been changed to 1.5V for the DDR3L. The

LDO3 3.3V rail has been changed to 1.8V to support those rails on the processor. LDO4

is still 3.3V for the 3.3V rails on the processor. An external

LDOTLV70233

provides the

3.3V rail for the rest of the board.

5.5 PC USB Interface

The board has a miniUSB connector that connects the USB0 port to the processor. This is

the same connector as used on the original BeagleBone.

5.6 Serial Debug Port

Serial debug is provided via UART0 on the processor via a single 1x6 pin header. In

order to use the interface a USB to TTL adapter will be required. The header is

compatible with the one provided by FTDI and can be purchased for about $12 to $20

from various sources. Signals supported are TX and RX. None of the handshake signals

are supported.

5.7 USB1 Host Port

On the board is a single USB Type A female connector with full LS/FS/HS Host support

that connects to USB1 on the processor. The port can provide power on/off control and

up to 500mA of current at 5V. Under USB power, the board will not be able to supply the

full 500mA, but should be sufficient to supply enough current for a lower power USB

device supplying power between 50 to 100mA.

You can use a wireless keyboard/mouse configuration or you can add a HUB for standard

keyboard and mouse interfacing.

5.8 Power Sources

The board can be powered from four different sources:

•

A USB port on a PC

•

A 5VDC 1A power supply plugged into the DC connector.

•

A power supply with a USB connector.

•

Expansion connectors

The USB cable is shipped with each board. This port is limited to 500mA by the Power

Management IC. It is possible to change the settings in the

TPS65217C

to increase this

current, but only after the initial boot. And, at that point the PC most likely will complain,

but you can also use a dual connector USB cable to the PC to get to 1A.

The power supply is not provided with the board but can be easily obtained from

numerous sources. A 1A supply is sufficient to power the board, but if there is a cape

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 33

plugged into the board or you have a power hungry device or hub plugged into the host

port, then more current may needed from the DC supply.

Power routed to the board via the expansion header could be provided from power

derived on a cape. The DC supply should be well regulated and 5V +/-.25V.

5.9 Reset Button

When pressed and released, causes a reset of the board. The reset button used on the

element14 BeagleBone Black is a little larger than the one used on the original

BeagleBone. It has also been moved out to the edge of the board so that it is more

accessible.

5.10 Power Button

A power button is provided near the reset button close to the Ethernet connector. This

button takes advantage of the input to the PMIC for power down features. While a lot of

capes have a button, it was decided to add this feature to the board to ensure

everyone had access to some new features. These features include:

•

Interrupt is sent to the processor to facilitate an orderly shutdown to save files

and to un-mount drives.

•

Provides ability to let the processor put board into a sleep mode to save power.

•

Can alert processor to wake up from sleep mode and restore state before sleep

was entered.

•

Allows board to enter the sleep mode, preserving the RTC clock

If you hold the button down longer than 8 seconds, the board will power off if you release

the button when the power LED turns off. If you continue to hold it, the board will power

back up completing a power cycle.

5.11 Indicators

There are a total of five blue LEDs on the board.

•

One blue power LED indicates that power is applied and the power

management IC is up. If this LED flashes when applying power, it means that an

excess current flow was detected and the PMIC has shut down.

•

Four blue LEDs that can be controlled via the SW by setting GPIO pins.

In addition, there are two LEDs on the RJ45 to provide Ethernet status indication. One is

yellow (100M Link up if on) and the other is green (Indicating traffic when flashing).

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 34

5.12 CTI JTAG Header

A place for an optional 20 pin CTI JTAG header is provided on the board to facilitate the

SW development and debugging of the board by using various JTAG emulators. This

header is not supplied standard on the board. To use this, a connector will need to be

soldered onto the board.

If you need the JTAG connector you can solder it on yourself. No other components are

needed. The connector is made by Samtec and the part number is FTR-110-03-G-D-06.

You can purchase it from www.newark.com.

5.13 HDMI Interface

A single HDMI interface is connected to the 16 bit LCD interface on the processor. The

16b interface was used to preserve as many expansion pins as possible to allow for use

by the user. The NXP TDA19988BHN is used to convert the LCD interface to HDMI and

convert the audio as well. The signals are still connected to the expansion headers to

enable the use of LCD expansion boards or access to other functions on the board as

needed.

The HDMI device does not support HDCP copy protection. Support is provided via

EDID to allow the SW to identify the compatible resolutions. Currently the following

resolutions are supported via the software:

•

1280 x 1024

•

1440 x 900

•

1024 x 768

•

1280 x 720

5.14 Cape Board Support

The element14 BeagleBone Black has the ability to accept up to four expansion boards or

capes that can be stacked onto the expansion headers. The word cape comes from the

shape of the board as it is fitted around the Ethernet connector on the main board. This

notch acts as a key to ensure proper orientation of the cape.

The majority of capes designed for the original BeagleBone will work on the element14

BeagleBone Black. The two main expansion headers will be populated on the board.

There are a few exceptions where certain capabilities may not be present or are limited to

the element14 BeagleBone Black. These include:

•

GPMC bus may NOT be available due to the use of those signals by the eMMC. If

the eMMC is used for booting only and the file system is on the microSD card, then

these signals could be used.

•

Another option is to use the microSD or serial boot modes and not use the eMMC.

•

The power expansion header is not on the elem ent14 BeagleBone Black so

those functions are not supported.

For more information on cape support refer to Section 9.0.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 35

6.0 Detailed Hardware Design

This section provides a detailed description of the Hardware design. This can be useful

for interfacing, writing drivers, or using it to help modify specifics of your own design.

Figure 20

below is the high level block diagram of the board. For those who may be

concerned,

Figure 20

is the same figure as

Figure 19

back on page 31

.

It is placed here

again for convenience so it is closer to the topics to follow.

Figure 20 element14 BeagleBone Black Block Diagram

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 36

6.1 Power Section

Figure 21

is the high level block diagram of the power section of the board.

Figure 21 High Level Power Block Diagram

This section describes the power section of the design and all the functions performed by the

TPS65217C

.

6.1.1 TPS65217C PMIC

The main Power Management IC (PMIC) in the system is the

TPS65217C

which is a

single chip power management IC consisting of a linear dual-input power path, three

step-down converters, and four LDOs. LDO stands for Low Drop Out. If you want to know

more about an LDO, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low- dropout_regulator. If

you want to learn more about step-down converters, you can go to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC-to-DC_converter

The system is supplied by a USB port or DC adapter. Three high-efficiency 2.25MHz

step-down converters are targeted at providing the core voltage, MPU, and memory

voltage for the board.

The step-down converters enter a low power mode at light load for maximum efficiency

across the widest possible range of load currents. For low-noise applications the devices

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 37

can be forced into fixed frequency PWM using the I

2

C interface. The step-down converters

allow the use of small inductors and capacitors to achieve a small footprint solution

size.

LDO1 and LDO2 are intended to support system standby mode. In normal operation,

they can support up to 100mA each. LDO3 and LDO4 can support up to 285mA each.

By default only LDO1 is always ON but any rail can be configured to remain up in

SLEEP state. In particular the DCDC converters can remain up in a low-power PFM

mode to support processor suspend mode. The

TPS65217C

offers flexible power-up and

power-down sequencing and several house-keeping functions such as power-good output,

pushbutton monitor, hardware reset function and temperature sensor to protect the

battery.

For more information on the

TPS65217C

, refer to http://www.ti.com/product/tps65217C.

Figure 22

is the high level block diagram of the

TPS65217C

.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 38

Figure 22 TPS65217C Block Diagram

6.1.2 DC Input

Figure 23

below shows how the DC input is connected to the

TPS65217C

.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 39

Figure 23 TPS65217 DC Connection

A 5VDC supply can be used to provide power to the board. The power supply current

depends on how many and what type of add-on boards are connected to the board. For

typical use, a 5VDC supply rated at 1A should be sufficient. If heavier use of the

expansion headers or USB host port is expected, then a higher current supply will be

required.

The connector used is a 2.1MM center positive x 5.5mm outer barrel. The 5VDC rail is

connected to the expansion header. It is possible to power the board via the expansion

headers from an add-on card. The 5VDC is also available for use by the add-on cards

when the power is supplied by the 5VDC jack on the board.

6.1.3 USB Power

The board can also be powered from the USB port. A typical USB port is limited to

500mA max. When powering from the USB port, the VDD_5V rail is not provided to the

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 40

expansion headers, so capes that require the 5V rail to supply the cape direct, bypassing

the

TPS65217C

, will not have that rail available for use. The 5VDC supply from the USB

port is provided on the SYS_5V, the one that comes from the

TPS65217C

, rail of the

expansion header for use by a cape.

Figure 24

is the connection of the USB power

input on the PMIC.

Figure 24 USB Power Connections

6.1.4 Power Selection

The selection of either the 5VDC or the USB as the power source is handled internally to

the

TPS65217C

and automatically switches to 5VDC power if both are connected. SW

can change the power configuration via the I2C interface from the processor. In addition,

the SW can read the

TPS65217C

and determine if the board is running on the 5VDC

input or the USB input. This can be beneficial to know the capability of the board to supply

current for things like operating frequency and expansion cards.

It is possible to power the board from the USB input and then connect the DC power

supply. The board will switch over automatically to the DC input.

6.1.5 Power Button

A power button is connected to the input of the

TPS65217C

. This is a momentary switch,

the same type of switch used for reset and boot selection on the board.

If you push the button the

TPS65217C

will send an interrupt to the processor. It is up to

the processor to then pull the

PMIC_POWER_EN

pin low at the correct time to power

down the board. At this point, the PMIC is still active, assuming that the power input was

not removed. Pressing the power button will cause the board to power up again if the

processor puts the board in the power off mode.

In power off mode, the RTC rail is still active, keeping the RTC powered and running off the

main power input. If you remove that power, then the RTC will not be powered. You also

have the option of using the battery holes on the board to connect a battery if desired as

discussed in the next section.

If you push and hold the button for greater than 8 seconds, the PMIC will power down. But

you must release the button when the power LED turns off. Holding the button past that

point will cause the board to power cycle.

6.1.6 Battery Access Pads

Four pads are provided on the board to allow access to the battery pins on the

TPS65217C

.

The pads can be loaded with a 4x4 header or you may just wire a battery into the pads. In

addition they could provide access via a cape if desired. The four signals are listed below in

Table 2

.

Table 2 element14 BeagleBone Black Battery Pins

P

IN

DE

S

I

G

N

A

TION

F

U

N

C

T

ION

BAT

TP5 Battery connection point.

S

ENSE

TP6 Battery voltage sense input, connect to BAT directly at

the

b

a

t

e

r

y

te

r

m

i

n

a

l.

TS

TP7 Temperature sense input. Connect to NTC thermistor to

sense

b

a

t

e

r

y

temp

e

r

a

tur

e

.

G

ND

TP8

S

y

stem

g

roun

d

.

There is no fuel gauge function provide by the

TPS65217C

. That would need to be added if

that function was required. Access to 1-wire SPI, or I2C interfaces required to use a fuel

gauge will need to be accessed by using the expansion headers on the board.

NOTE: Refer to the TPS65217C documentation before

connecting anything to these pins.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 42

6.1.7 Power Consumption

The power consumption of the board varies based on power scenarios and the board boot

processes. Measurements were taken with the board in the following configuration:

•

DC powered and USB powered

•

HDMI monitor connected

•

USB HUB

•

4GB Thumbdrive

•

Ethernet connected @ 100M

•

Serial debug cable connected

Table 3

is an analysis of the power consumption of the board in these various scenarios.

Table 3 element14 BeagleBone Black Power Consumption (mA@5V)

M

ODE

USB

DC

D

C

+USB

R

e

s

e

t

T

B

D

T

B

D

T

B

D

I

d

l

in

g @

UBoot

210

K

e

r

n

e

l

B

ooting (

Pe

a

k

)

460

Kernel Idling

350 350 350

K

e

r

n

e

l I

d

l

in

g

Dis

p

lay

B

la

n

k

280 280 280

Loa

d

i

n

g a W

eb

p

age

430 430 430

The current will fluctuate as various activates occur, such as the LEDs on and

microSD/eMMC accesses.

6.1.8 Processor Interfaces

The processor interacts with the

TPS65217C

via several different signals. Each of these

signals is described below.

6.1.8.1 I2C0

I2C0 is the control interface between the processor and the

TPS65217C

. It allows the

processor to control the registers inside the

TPS65217C

for such things as voltage

scaling and switching of the input rails.

6.1.8.2 PMC_POWR_EN

On power up the

VDD_RTC

rail activates first. After the RTC circuitry in the processor has

activated it instructs the

TPS65217C

to initiate a full power up cycle by activating the

PMIC_POWR_EN

signal by taking it HI. When powering down, the processor can take this

pin low to start the power down process.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 43

6.1.8.3 LDO_GOOD

This signal connects to the

RTC_PORZn

signal, RTC power on reset. The small

n

indicates that the signal is an active low signal. Word processors seem to be unable to put

a bar over a word so the

n

is commonly used in electronics. As the RTC circuitry comes

up first, this signal indicates that the LDOs, the 1.8V VRTC rail, is up and stable. This

starts the power up process.

6.1.8.4 PMIC_PGOOD

Once all the rails are up, the

PMIC_PGOOD

signal goes high. This releases the

PORZn

signal on the processor which was holding the processor reset.

6.1.8.5 WAKEUP

The WAKEUP signal from the

TPS65217C

is connected to the

EXT_WAKEUP

signal on

the processor. This is used to wake up the processor when it is in a sleep mode. When an

event is detected by the

TPS65217C,

such as the power button being pressed

,

it

generates this signal.

6.1.8.6 PMIC_INT

The

PMIC_INT

signal is an interrupt signal to the processor. Pressing the power button

will send an interrupt to the processor allowing it to implement a power down mode in an

orderly fashion, go into sleep mode, or cause it to wake up from a sleep mode. All of

these require SW support.

6.1.9 Power Rails

Figure 25

shows the connections of each of the rails from the

TPS65217C

.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 44

Figure 25 Power Rails

6.1.9.1 VRTC Rail

The

VRTC

rail is a 1.8V rail that is the first rail to come up in the power sequencing. It

provides power to the RTC domain on the processor and the I/O rail of the

TPS65217C

.

It can deliver up to 250mA maximum.

6.1.9.2 VDD_3V3A Rail

The

VDD_3V3A

rail is supplied by the

TPS65217C

and provides the 3.3V for the

processor rails and can provide up to 400mA.

6.1.9.3 VDD_3V3B Rail

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 45

The current supplied by the

VDD_3V3A

rail is not sufficient to power all of the 3.3V

rails on the board. So a second LDO is supplied, U4, a

TL5209A

, which sources the

VDD_3V3B

rail. It is powered up just after the

VDD_3V3A

rail.

6.1.9.4 VDD_1V8 Rail

The

VDD_1V8

rail can deliver up to 400mA and provides the power required for the

1.8V rails on the processor and the HDMI framer. This rail is not accessible for use

anywhere else on the board.

6.1.9.5 VDD_CORE Rail

The

VDD_CORE

rail can deliver up to 1.2A at 1.1V. This rail is not accessible for use

anywhere else on the board and connects only to the processor. This rail is fixed at 1.1V

and is should not be adjusted by SW using the PMIC. If you do, then the processor will

no longer process..

6.1.9.6 VDD_MPU Rail

The

VDD_MPU

rail can deliver up to 1.2A. This rail is not accessible for use anywhere

else on the board and connects only to the processor. This rail defaults to 1.1V and can be

scaled up to allow for higher frequency operation. Changing of the voltage is set via the

I2C interface from the processor.

6.1.9.7 VDDS_DDR Rail

The

VDDS_DDR

rail defaults to

1.5V

to support the DDR3L rails and can deliver up to

1.2A. It is possible to adjust this voltage rail down to

1.35V

for lower power operation of

the DDR3L device. Only DDR3L devices can support this voltage setting of 1.35V.

6.1.9.8 Power Sequencing

The power up process is consists of several stages and events.

Figure 26

describes

the events that make up the power up process for the processer from the PMIC. This

diagram is used elsewhere to convey additional information. I saw no need to bust it

up into smaller diagrams. It is from the processor datsheet supplied by Texas Instruments.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 46

Figure 26 Power Rail Power Up Sequencing

Figure 27

the voltage rail sequencing for the

TPS65217C

as it powers up and the

voltages on each rail. The power sequencing starts at 15 and then goes to one. That is the

way the

TPS65217C

is configured. You can refer to the TPS65217C datasheet for more

information.

Figure 27 TPS65217C Power Sequencing Timing

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 47

6.1.10 Power LED

The power LED is a blue LED that will turn on once the

TPS65217C

has finished the

power up procedure. If you ever see the LED flash once, that means that the

TPS65217C

started the process and encountered an issue that caused it to shut down. The

connection of the LED is shown in

Figure 25

.

6.1.11 TPS65217C Power Up Process

Figure 28

shows the interface between the

TPS65217C

and the processor. It is a cut from

the PDF form of the schematic and reflects what is on the schematic.

Figure 28 Power Processor Interfaces

When voltage is applied, DC or USB, the

TPS65217C

connects the power to the SYS

output pin which drives the switchers and LDOs in the

TPS65217C

.

At power up all switchers and LDOs are off except for the

VRTC LDO

(1.8V), which

provides power to the VRTC rail and controls the

RTC_PORZn

input pin to the processor,

which starts the power up process of the processor. Once the RTC rail powers up, the

RTC_PORZn

pin, driven by the

LDO_PGOOD

signal from the

TPS65217C

, of the

processor is released.

Once the

RTC_PORZn

reset is released, the processor starts the initialization process.

After the RTC stabilizes, the processor launches the rest of the power up process by

activating the

PMIC_POWER_EN

signal that is connected to the

TPS65217C

which starts

the

TPS65217C

power up process.

The

LDO_PGOOD

signal is provided by the

TPS65217C

to the processor. As this

signal is 1.8V from the

TPS65217C

by virtue of the

TPS65217C

VIO rail being set to

1.8V, and the

RTC_PORZ

signal on the processor is 3.3V, a voltage level shifter,

U4

, is

used. Once the LDOs and switchers are up on the

TPS65217C

, this signal goes active

releasing the processor. The LDOs on the

TPS65217C

are used to power the VRTC rail

on the processor.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 48

6.1.12 Processor Control Interface

Figure 28

above shows two interfaces between the processor and the

TPS65217C

used

for control after the power up sequence has completed.

The first is the

I2C0

bus. This allows the processor to turn on and off rails and to set the

voltage levels of each regulator to supports such things as voltage scaling.

The second is the interrupt signal. This allows the T

PS65217C

to alert the processor

when there is an event, such as when the optional power button is pressed. The interrupt

is an open drain output which makes it easy to interface to 3.3V of the processor.

6.1.13 Low Power Mode Support

This section covers three general power down modes that are available. These modes are

only described from a Hardware perspective as it relates to the HW design.

6.1.13.1 RTC Only

In this mode all rails are turned off except the

VDD_RTC

. The processor will need to

turn off all the rails to enter this mode. The

VDD_RTC

staying on will keep the RTC active

and provide for the wakeup interfaces to be active to respond to a wake up event.

6.1.13.2 RTC Plus DDR

In this mode all rails are turned off except the

VDD_RTC

and the

VDDS_DDR

, which

powers the DDR3L memory. The processor will need to turn off all the rails to enter this

mode. The

VDD_RTC

staying on will keep the RTC active and provide for the wakeup

interfaces to be active to respond to a wake up event.

The

VDDS_DDR

rail to the DDR3L is provided by the 1.5V rail of the

TPS65217C

and

with

VDDS_DDR

active, the DDR3L can be placed in a self refresh mode by the

processor prior to power down which allows the memory data to be saved.

Currently, this feature is not included in the standard software release. The plan is to

include it in future releases.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 49

6.1.13.3 Voltage Scaling

For a mode where the lowest power is possible without going to sleep, this mode allows

the voltage on the ARM processor to be lowered along with slowing the processor

frequency down. The I2C0 bus is used to control the voltage scaling function in the

TPS65217C

.

6.2 Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 Processor

The board is designed to use either the Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 processor in the 15 x 15

package.

6.2.1 Description

Figure 29

is a high level block diagram of the processor. For more information on the

processor, go to http://www.ti.com/product/am3358.

Figure 29 Sitara AM3358BZCZ Block Diagram

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 50

6.2.2 High Level Features

Table 4

below shows a few of the high level features of the Sitara processor.

Table 4 Processor Features

Operating Systems

Linux, Android, Windows

bedded

CE,QNX, ThreadX

MMC/SD

3

Standby Power 7 mW

CAN

2

ARM CPU

1 ARM Cortex-A8

UART (SCI)

6

ARM MHz (Max.)

275,500,600,800,1000

ADC

8-ch 12-bit

ARM MIPS (Max.) 1000,1200,2000

PWM (Ch)

3

Graphics

Acceleration

1 3D

eCAP

3

Other Hardware

Acceleration

2 PRU-ICSS,Crypto

Accelerator

eQEP

3

On-Chip L1 Cache 64 KB (ARM Cortex-A8)

RTC

1

On-Chip L2 Cache 256 KB (ARM Cortex-

A8)

I2C

3

Other On-Chip

Memory

128 KB

McASP

2

Displ

a

y

Options

LCD

SPI

2

General Purpose

Memory

1 16-bit (GPMC, NAND

flash, NOR Flash, SRAM)

DMA (Ch)

64-Ch EDMA

DRAM 1 16-bit (LPDDR-400,

DDR2-532, DDR3-400)

IO Supply (V)

1.8V(ADC),3.3V

USB Ports

2

Operating

Temperature

Range

(C)

-40 to 90

6.2.3 Documentation

Full documentation for the processor can be found on the TI website at

http://www.ti.com/product/am3358 for the current processor used on the board. Make

sure that you always use the latest datasheets and Technical Reference Manuals (TRM).

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 51

6.2.4 Crystal Circuitry

Figure 30

is the crystal circuitry for the AM3358B processor.

Figure 30 Processor Crystals

6.2.5 Reset Circuitry

Figure 31

is the board reset circuitry. The initial power on reset is generated by the

TPS65217C

power management IC. It also handles the reset for the Real Time Clock.

The board reset is the SYS_RESETn signal. This is connected to the NRESET_INOUT pin

of the processor. This pin can act as an input or an output. When the reset button is

pressed, it sends a warm reset to the processor and to the system.

On the revision A5D a change was made. On power up, the NRESET_INOUT signal can

act as an output. In this instance it can cause the SYS_RESETn line to go high

prematurely. In order to prevent this, the PORZn signal from the TPS65217C is

connected to the SYS_RESETn line using an open drain buffer. These insure that the line

does not momentarily go high on power up.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 52

Figure 31 Board Reset Circuitry

DDR3L Memory

The element14 BeagleBone Black uses a single MT41K256M16HA-125 512MB DDR3L

device from Micron that interfaces to the processor over 16 data lines, 16 address lines,

and 14 control lines. The following sections provide more details on the design.

6.2.6 Memory Device

The design supports the standard DDR3 and DDR3L x16 devices and us built using the

DDR3L. A single x16 device is used on the board and there is no support for two x8

devices. The DDR3 devices work at 1.5V and the DDR3L devices can work down to

1.35V to achieve lower power. The specific Micron device used is the

MT41K256M16HA-

125

. It comes in a 96-BALL FBGA package with 0.8 mil pitch. Other standard DDR3

devices can also be supported, but the DDR3L is the lower power device and was chosen

for its ability to work at 1.5V or 1.35V. The standard frequency that the DDR3L is run at on

the board is 400MHZ.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 53

6.2.7 DDR3L Memory Design

Figure 32

is the schematic for the DDR3L memory device. Each of the groups of signals

is described in the following lines.

Address Lines:

Provide the row address for ACTIVATE commands, and the column

address and auto pre-charge bit (A10) for READ/WRITE commands, to select one location

out of the memory array in the respective bank. A10 sampled during a PRECHARGE

command determines whether the PRECHARGE applies to one bank (A10 LOW,

bank selected by BA[2:0]) or all banks (A10 HIGH). The address inputs also provide the

op-code during a LOAD MODE command. Address inputs are referenced to VREFCA.

A12/BC#: When enabled in the mode register (MR), A12 is sampled during READ and

WRITE commands to determine whether burst chop (on-the-fly) will be performed (HIGH =

BL8 or no burst chop, LOW = BC4 burst chop).

Bank Address Lines:

BA[2:0] define the bank to which an ACTIVATE, READ, WRITE, or

PRECHARGE command is being applied. BA[2:0] define which mode register (MR0,

MR1, MR2, or MR3) is loaded during the LOAD MODE command. BA[2:0] are referenced

to V

REFCA

.

CK and CK# Lines:

are differential clock inputs. All address and control input signals are

sampled on the crossing of the positive edge of CK and the negative edge of CK#. Output

data strobe (DQS, DQS#) is referenced to the crossings of CK and CK#.

Clock Enable Line:

CKE enables (registered HIGH) and disables (registered LOW)

internal circuitry and clocks on the DRAM. The specific circuitry that is enabled/disabled is

dependent upon the DDR3 SDRAM configuration and operating mode. Taking CKE LOW

provides PRECHARGE power-down and SELF REFRESH operations (all banks idle) or

active power-down (row active in any bank). CKE is synchronous for power- down

entry and exit and for self refresh entry. CKE is asynchronous for self refresh exit. Input

buffers (excluding CK, CK#, CKE, RESET#, and ODT) are disabled during power- down.

Input buffers (excluding CKE and RESET#) are disabled during SELF REFRESH. CKE is

referenced to V

REFCA

.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 54

Figure 32 DDR3L Memory Design

Chip Select Line:

CS# enables (registered LOW) and disables (registered HIGH) the

command decoder. All commands are masked when CS# is registered HIGH. CS#

provides for external rank selection on systems with multiple ranks. CS# is considered

part of the command code. CS# is referenced to V

REFCA

.

Input Data Mask Line:

DM is an input mask signal for write data. Input data is masked

when DM is sampled HIGH along with the input data during a write access. Although the

DM ball is input-only, the DM loading is designed to match that of the DQ and DQS balls.

DM is referenced to VREFDQ.

On-die Termination Line:

ODT enables (registered HIGH) and disables (registered LOW)

termination resistance internal to the DDR3L SDRAM. When enabled in normal operation,

ODT is only applied to each of the following balls: DQ[7:0], DQS, DQS#, and DM for the

x8; DQ[3:0], DQS, DQS#, and DM for the x4. The ODT input is ignored if disabled via the

LOAD MODE command. ODT is referenced to VREFCA.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 55

6.2.8 Power Rails

The

DDR3L

memory device and the DDR3 rails on the processor are supplied by the

TPS65217C

. Default voltage is 1.5V but can be scaled down to 1.35V if desired.

6.2.9 VREF

The

VREF

signal is generated from a voltage divider on the

VDDS_DDR

rail that

powers the processor DDR rail and the DDR3L device itself.

Figure 33

below shows the

configuration of this signal and the connection to the DDR3L memory device and the

processor.

Figure 33 DDR3L VREF Design

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 56

6.3 4GB eMMC Memory

The eMMC is a communication and mass data storage device that includes a Multi-

MediaCard (MMC) interface, a NAND Flash component, and a controller on an

advanced 11-signal bus, which is compliant with the MMC system specification. The

nonvolatile eMMC draws no power to maintain stored data, delivers high performance

across a wide range of operating temperatures, and resists shock and vibration disruption.

One of the issues faced with SD cards is that across the different brands and even within

the same brand, performance can vary. Cards use different controllers and different

memories, all of which can have bad locations that the controller handles. But the

controllers may be optimized for reads or writes. You never know what you will be getting.

This can lead to varying rates of performance. The eMMC card is a known controller and

when coupled with the 8bit mode, 8 bits of data instead of 4, you get double the

performance which should result in quicker boot times.

The following sections describe the design and device that is used on the board to

implement this interface.

6.3.1 eMMC Device

The device used is one of two different devices:

•

Micron MTFC4GLDEA 0M WT

•

Kingston KE4CN2H5A-A58

The package is a 153 ball WFBGA device on both devices.

6.3.2 eMMC Circuit Design

Figure 34

is the design of the eMMC circuitry. The eMMC device is connected to the

MMC1 port on the processor. MMC0 is still used for the microSD card as is currently

done on the original BeagleBone. The size of the eMMC supplied is now 4GB.

The device runs at 3.3V both internally and the external I/O rails. The VCCI is an

internal voltage rail to the device. The manufacturer recommends that a 1uf capacitor be

attached to this rail, but a 2.2uF was chosen to provide a little margin.

Pullup resistors are used to increase the rise time on the signals to compensate for any

capacitance on the board.

Figure 34 eMMC Memory Design

The pins used by the eMMC1 in the boot mode are listed below in

Table 5

.

Table 5 eMMC Boot Pins

For eMMC devices the ROM will only support raw mode. The ROM Code reads out raw

sectors from image or the booting file within the file system and boots from it. In raw

mode the booting image can be located at one of the four consecutive locations in the

main area: offset 0x0 / 0x20000 (128 KB) / 0x40000 (256 KB) / 0x60000 (384 KB). For this

reason, a booting image shall not exceed 128KB in size. However it is possible to flash

a device with an image greater than 128KB starting at one of the aforementioned

locations. Therefore the ROM Code does not check the image size. The only drawback is

that the image will cross the subsequent image boundary. The raw mode is detected by

reading sectors #0, #256, #512, #768. The content of these sectors is then verified for

presence of a TOC structure. In the case of a

GP Device

, a Configuration Header (CH)

must

be located in the first sector followed by a

GP header

. The CH might be void (only

containing a CHSETTINGS item for which the Valid field is zero).

The ROM only supports the 4-bit mode. After the initial boot, the switch can be made to

8-bit mode for increasing the overall performance of the eMMC interface.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 58

6.4 Board ID EEPROM

The BeagleBone is equipped with a single 32Kbit(4KB) 24LC32AT-I/OT EEPROM to allow

the SW to identify the board.

Table 6

below defined the contents of the EERPOM.

Table 6 EEPROM Contents

Name

Size

(

b

yt

es)

Contents

Header

4

0xAA, 0x55, 0x33,

EE

Board Name

8

Name for board in ASCII: A335BONE

Version

4

Hardware version code for board in

ASCII:

A3 for Rev A3, 00A4 for Rev A4, 00A5 for Rev A5, 00A6 for Rev

A

6

.

Serial Number

12

Serial number of the board. This is a 12 character string which

is: WWYY4P16nnnn

where: WW = 2 digit week of the year of

production

YY = 2 digit year of

production

nnnn =

incrementing board

number

Configuration

Option

32

Codes to show the configuration setup on this

board.

0000000000000000000000000000000

RSVD

6

FF FF FF FF FF

FF

RSVD

6

FF FF FF FF FF

FF

RSVD

6

FF FF FF FF FF

FF

Available

32690

Available space for other non-volatile codes/data

Figure 35

shows the new design on the EEPROM interface

.

Figure 35 EEPROM Design Rev A5

The EEPROM is accessed by the processor using the I2C 0 bus. The

WP

pin is enabled

by default. By grounding the test point, the write protection is removed.

The first 48 locations should not be written to if you choose to use the extras storage

space in the EEPROM for other purposes. If you do, it could prevent the board from

booting properly as the SW uses this information to determine how to set up the board.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 59

6.5 Micro Secure Digital

The microSD connector on the board will support a microSD card that can be used for

booting or file storage on the element14 BeagleBone Black.

6.5.1 microSD Design

Figure 36

below is the design of the microSD interface on the board.

Figure 36 microSD Design

The signals

MMC0-3

are the data lines for the transfer of data between the processor and

the microSD connector.

The

MMC0_CLK

signal clocks the data in and out of the microSD card.

The

MMCO_CMD

signal indicates that a command versus data is being sent.

There is no separate card detect pin in the microSD specification. It uses

MMCO_DAT3

for that function. However, most microSD connectors still supply a CD function on the

connectors. In the element14 BeagleBone Black design, this pin is connected to the

MMC0_SDCD

pin for use by the processor. You can also change the pin to

GPIO0_6

,

which is able to wake up the processor from a sleep mode when an microSD card is

inserted into the connector.

Pullup resistors are provided on the signals to increase the rise times of the signals to

overcome PCB capacitance.

Power is provided from the

VDD_3V3B

rail and a 10uf capacitor is provided for

filtering.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 60

6.6 User LEDs

There are four user LEDs on the element14 BeagleBone Black. These are connected

to GPIO pins on the processor.

Figure 37

shows the interfaces for the user LEDs.

Figure 37 User LEDs

Resistors R71-R74 was changed to 4.75K on the revision A5B board.

Table 7 shows the signals used to control the four LEDs from the processor.

Table 7 User LED Control Signals/Pins

A logic level of “1” will cause the LEDs to turn on.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 61

6.7 Boot Configuration

The design supports two groups of boot options on the board. The user can switch

between these modes via the Boot button. The primary boot source is the onboard eMMC

device. By holding the Boot button, the user can force the board to boot from the

microSD slot. This enables the eMMC to be overwritten when needed or to just boot an

alternate image. The following sections describe how the boot configuration works.

In most applications, including those that use the provided demo distributions available

from

beagleboard.org

, the processor-external boot code is composed of two stages. After

the primary boot code in the processor ROM passes control, a secondary stage

(secondary program loader -- "SPL" or "MLO") takes over. The SPL stage initializes only

the required devices to continue the boot process, and then control is transferred to the

third stage "U-boot". Based on the settings of the boot pins, the ROM know where to go

and get the SPL and UBoot code. In the case of the element14 BeagleBone Black, that

is either eMMC or microSD based on the position of the boot switch.

6.7.1 Boot Configuration Design

Figure 38

shows the circuitry that is involved in the boot configuration process. On

power up, these pins are read by the processor to determine the boot order. S2 is used to

change the level of one bit from HI to LO which changes the boot order.

Figure 38 Processor Boot Configuration Design

It is possible to override these setting via the expansion headers. But be careful not to add

too much load such that it could interfere with the operation of the HDMI interface or

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 62

LCD panels. If you choose to override these settings, it is strongly recommended that you

gate these signals with the

SYS_RESETn

signal. This ensures that after coming out of

reset these signals are removed from the expansion pins.

6.8 Default Boot Options

Based on the selected option found in

Figure 39

below, each of the boot sequences for

each of the two settings is shown.

Figure 39 Processor Boot Configuration

The first row in

Figure 39

is the default setting. On boot, the processor will look for the

eMMC on the MMC1 port first, followed by the microSD slot on MMC0, USB0 and UART0.

In the event there is no microSD card and the eMMC is empty, UART0 or USB0

could be used as the board source.

If you have a microSD card from which you need to boot from, hold the boot button

down. On boot, the processor will look for the SPIO0 port first, then microSD on the MMC0

port, followed by USB0 and UART0. In the event there is no microSD card and the eMMC

is empty, USB0 or UART0 could be used as the board source.

6.9 10/100 Ethernet

The e l e m e n t 1 4 BeagleBone Black is equipped with a 10/100 Ethernet interface. It

uses the same PHY as is used on the original BeagleBone. The design is described in the

following sections.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 63

6.9.1 Ethernet Processor Interface

Figure 40

shows the connections between the processor and the PHY. The interface is in

the MII mode of operation.

Figure 40 Ethernet Processor Interface

This is the same interface as is used on the BeagleBone. No changes were made in

this design for the board.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 64

6.9.2 Ethernet Connector Interface

The off board side of the PHY connections are shown in

Figure 41

below.

Figure 41 Ethernet Connector Interface

This is the same interface as is used on the BeagleBone. No changes were made in

this design for the board.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 65

6.9.3 Ethernet PHY Power, Reset, and Clocks

Figure 42

shows the power, reset, and lock connections to the

LAN8710A

PHY. Each of

these areas is discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Figure 42 Ethernet. PHY, Power, Reset and Clocks

6.9.3.1 VDD_3V3B Rail

The VDD_3V3B rail is the main power rail for the

LAN8710A

. It originates at the VD_3V3B

regulator and is the primary rail that supports all of the peripherals on the board. This rail

also supplies the VDDIO rails which set the voltage levels for all of the I/O signals between

the processor and the

LAN8710A

.

6.9.3.2 VDD_PHYA Rail

A filtered version of VDD_3V3B rail is connected to the VDD rails of the LAN8710 and the

termination resistors on the Ethernet signals. It is labeled as

VDD_PHYA

. The filtering

inductor helps block transients that may be seen on the VDD_3V3B rail.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 66

6.9.3.3 PHY_VDDCR Rail

The

PHY_VDDCR

rail originates inside the LAN8710A. Filter and bypass capacitors are

used to filter the rail. Only circuitry inside the LAN8710A uses this rail.

6.9.3.4 SYS_RESET

The reset of the LAN8710A is controlled via the

SYS_RESETn

signal, the main board

reset line.

6.9.3.5 Clock Signals

A crystal is used to create the clock for the LAN8710A. The processor uses the

RMII_RXCLK

signal to provide the clocking for the data between the processor and the

LAN8710A.

6.9.4 LAN8710A Mode Pins

There are mode pins on the LAN8710A that sets the operational mode for the PHY when

coming out of reset. These signals are also used to communicate between the processor

and the LAN8710A. As a result, these signals can be driven by the processor which can

cause the PHY not to be initiated correctly. To ensure that this does not happen, three low

value pull up resistors are used.

Figure 43

below shows the three mode pin resistors.

Figure 43 Ethernet PHY Mode Pins

This will set the mode to be 111, which enables all modes and enables auto-negotiation.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 67

6.10 HDMI Interface

The element14 BeagleBone Black has an onboard HDMI framer that converts the LCD

signals and audio signals to drive a HDMI monitor. The design uses an NXP

TDA19988

HDMI Framer.

The following sections provide more detail into the design of this interface.

6.10.1 Supported Resolutions

The maximum resolution supported by the element14 BeagleBone Black is 1280x1024 @

60Hz.

Table 8

below shows the supported resolutions. Not all resolutions may work on all

monitors, but these have been tested and shown to work on at least one monitor. EDID is

supported on the element14 BeagleBone Black. Based on the EDID reading from the

connected monitor, the highest compatible resolution is selected.

Table 8 HDMI Supported Monitor Resolutions

RES

O

L

U

T

I

O

N

A

U

D

I

O

800 x

600 @60Hz

800 x

600 @56Hz

640 x 480 @75Hz

640 x 480 @60Hz YES

720 x 400 @70Hz

1280 x

1024

@75Hz

1024 x

768 @75Hz

1024 x

768 @70Hz

1024 x 768 @60Hz

800 x 600 @75Hz

800 x 600 @72Hz

720 x 480 @60Hz YES

1280 x

720 @6

0

Hz

YES

1920

x

1080@24Hz

YES

NOTE: The updated software image used on the Rev A5B board added support for

1920x1080@24HZ.

Audio is limited to CEA supported resolutions. LCD panels only activate the audio in

CEA modes. This is a function of the specification and is not something that can be fixed

on the board via a hardware change or a software change.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 68

6.10.2 HDMI Framer

The

TDA19988

is a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) 1.4a transmitter. It is

backward compatible with DVI 1.0 and can be connected to any DVI 1.0 or HDMI sink.

The HDCP mode is not used in the design. The non-HDCP version of the device is used

in the element14 BeagleBone Black design.

This device provides additional embedded features like CEC (Consumer Electronic

Control). CEC is a single bidirectional bus that transmits CEC over the home appliance

network connected through this bus. This eliminates the need of any additional device to

handle this feature. While this feature is supported in this device, as of this point, the SW

to support this feature has not been implemented and is not a feature that is considered

critical. It can be switched to very low power Standby or Sleep modes to save power

when HDMI is not used.

TDA19988

embeds I

2

C-bus master interface for DDC-bus

communication to read EDID. This device can be controlled or configured via I

2

C-bus

interface.

6.10.3 HDMI Video Processor Interface

The

Figure 44

shows the connections between the processor and the HDMI framer

device. There are 16 bits of display data, 5-6-5 that is used to drive the framer. The

reason for 16 bits is that allows for compatibility with display and LCD capes already

available on the original BeagleBone. The unused bits on the

TDA19988

are tied low. In

addition to the data signals are the VSYNC, HSYNC, DE, and PCLK signals that round out

the video interface from the processor.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 69

Figure 44 HDMI Framer Processor Interface

6.10.4 HDMI Control Processor Interface

In order to use the

TDA19988

, the processor needs to setup the device. This is done via

the I2C interface between the processor and the

TDA19988

. There are two signals on the

TDA19988

that could be used to set the address of the

TDA19988

. In this design they are

both tied low. The I2C interface supports both 400kHz and 100KhZ operation.

Table 9

shows the I2C address.

Table 9 TDA19988 I2C Address

6.10.5 Interrupt Signal

There is a HDMI_INT signal that connects from the TDA19988 to the processor. This

signal can be used to alert the processor in a state change on the HDMI interface.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 70

6.10.6 Audio Interface

There is an I2S audio interface between the processor and the

TDA19988

. Stereo audio

can be transported over the HDMI interface to an audio equipped display. In order to

create the required clock frequencies, and external 24.576MHz oscillator,

Y4

, is used.

From this clock, the processor generates the required clock frequencies for the

TDA19988

.

There are three signals used to pass data from the processor to the

TDA19988

. SCLK is

the serial clock. SPI1_CS0 is the data pin to the

TDA199888

. SPI1_D0 is the word sync

pin. These signals are configured as I2S interfaces.

Audio is limited to CEA supported resolutions. LCD panels only activate the audio in

CEA modes. This is a function of the specification and is not something that can be fixed

on the board via a hardware change or a software change.

In order to create the correct clock frequencies, we had to add an external

24.576MHZ

oscillator. Unfortunately this had to be input into the processor using the pin previously

used for

GPIO3_21

. In order to keep GPIO3_21 functionality, we provided a way to

disable the oscillator if the need was there to use the pin on the expansion header.

Figure

45

shows the oscillator circuitry.

Figure 45 24.576MHz Oscillator

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 71

6.10.7 Power Connections

Figure 46

shows the power connections to the

TDA19988

device. All voltage rails for

the device are at 1.8V. A filter is provided to minimize any noise from the 1.8V rail getting

back into the device.

Figure 46 HDMI Power Connections

All of the interfaces between the processor and the

TDA19988

are 3.3V tolerant allowing

for direct connection.

6.10.8 HDMI Connector Interface

Figure 47

shows the design of the interface between the HDMI Framer and the

connector.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 72

Figure 47 Connector Interface Circuitry

The connector for the HDMI interface is a microHDMI. It should be noted that this

connector has a different pinout than the standard or mini HDMI connectors. D6 and D7

are ESD protection devices.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 73

6.11 USB Host

The board is equipped with a single USB host interface accessible from a single USB Type

A female connector.

Figure 48

is the design of the USB Host circuitry.

Figure 48 USB Host Circuitry

6.11.1 Power Switch

U8

is a switch that allows the power to the connector to be turned on or off by the

processor. It also has an over current detection that can alert the processor if the current

gets too high via the

USB1_OC

signal. The power is controlled by the

USB1_DRVBUS

signal from the processor.

6.11.2 ESD Protection

U9

is the ESD protection for the signals that go to the connector.

6.11.3 Filter Options

FB7

and

FB8

were added to assist in passing the FCC emissions test. The

USB1_VBUS

signal is used by the processor to detect that the 5V is present on the connector.

FB7

is

populated and

FB8

is replaces with a .1 ohm resistor.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 74

6.12 PRU-ICSS

The PRU-ICSS module is located inside the AM3358 processor. Access to these pins is

provided by the expansion headers and is multiplexed with other functions on the board.

Access is not provided to all of the available pins.

All documentation is located at http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package. This

feature is not supported by Texas Instruments.

6.12.1 PRU-ICSS Features

The features of the PRU-ICSS include:

Two independent programmable real-time (PRU) cores:

–

32-Bit Load/Store RISC architecture

– 8K Byte instruction RAM (2K instructions) per core

– 8K Bytes data RAM per core

– 12K Bytes shared RAM

• Operating frequency of 200 MHz

• PRU operation is little endian similar to ARM processor

• All memories within PRU-ICSS support parity

• Includes Interrupt Controller for system event handling

• Fast I/O interface

– 16 input pins and 16 output pins per PRU core. (Not all of these are accessible on the

element14 BeagleBone Black).

6.12.2 PRU-ICSS Block Diagram

Figure 49

is a high level block diagram of the PRU-ICSS.

Figure 49 PRU-ICSS Block Diagram

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 75

6.12.3 PRU-ICSS Pin Access

Both PRU 0 and PRU1 are accessible from the expansion headers. Some may not be

useable without first disabling functions on the board like LCD for example. Listed below is

what ports can be accessed on each PRU.

PRU0

•

8 outputs or 9 inputs

PRU1

•

13 outputs or 14 inputs

•

UART0_TXD, UART0_RXD, UART0_CTS, UART0_RTS

Table 10

below shows which PRU-ICSS signals can be accessed on the element14

BeagleBone Black and on which connector and pins they are accessible from. Some

signals are accessible on the same pins.

Table 10 PRU0 and PRU1 Access

P

I

N

P

R

OC

N

A

ME

P8

11

R12

GPI

O

1

_

1

3

p

r

1_

p

ru

0_

p

ru

_

r

30_15

(

O

u

tp

u

t

)

12

T

1

2

GPI

O

1

_

1

2

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_14 (Output)

15

U13

GPI

O

1

_

1

5

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_15 (Input)

16

V

1

3

GPI

O

1

_

1

4

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_14 (Input)

20

V9

GPI

O

1

_

3

1

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_13 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_13 (INPUT)

21

U9

GPI

O

1

_

3

0

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_12 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_12 (INPUT)

27

U5

GPI

O

2

_

2

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_8 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_8 (INPUT)

28

V5

GPI

O

2

_

2

4

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_10 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_10 (INPUT)

29

R5

GPIO2_23

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_9

(

O

u

t

p

u

t

)

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_9

(

IN

P

U

T

)

39

T3

GPI

O

2

_

1

2

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_6 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_6 (INPUT)

40

T4

GPI

O

2

_

1

3

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_7

(

O

u

t

p

u

t

)

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_7

(

IN

P

U

T

)

41

T1

GPI

O

2

_

1

0

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_4 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_4 (INPUT)

42

T2

GPI

O

2

_

1

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_5 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_5 (INPUT)

43

R3

GPI

O

2

_

8

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_2 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_2 (INPUT)

44

R4

GPI

O

2

_

9

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_3 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_3 (INPUT)

45

R1

GPI

O

2

_

6

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_0 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_0 (INPUT)

46

R2

GPI

O

2

_

7

pr1_pru1_pru_r30_1 (Output) pr1_pru1_pru_r31_1 (INPUT)

P9

17

A16 I2C1_SCL

pr1_uart0_txd

18

B16 I2C1_SDA

pr1_uart0_rxd

19

D

1

7

I2

C2

_

SC

L

pr1_uart0_rts_n

20

D

1

8

I2

C2

_

S

D

A

pr1_uart0_cts_n

21

B

1

7

U

A

R

T

2

_

TX

D

pr1_uart0_rts_n

22

A

1

7

U

A

R

T

2

_

R

X

D

pr1_uart0_cts_n

24

D

1

5

U

A

R

T

1

_

TX

D

pr1_uart0_txd

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_16 (Input)

25

A

1

4

G

P

I

O

3

_

2

1*

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_5

(

O

u

tp

u

t

)

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_5((Input

)

26

D

1

6

U

A

R

T

1

_

R

X

D

pr1_uart0_rxd pr1_pru1_pru_r31_16

27

C13 GPIO3_19

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_7 (Output)

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_7 (Input)

28

C

1

2

SP

I1

_

C

S

0

eC

A

P

2_

in

_

P

W

M2_

o

u

t

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_3 (Output)

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_3 (Input)

29

B

1

3

SP

I1

_

D

0

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_1 (Output)

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_1 (Input)

30

D

1

2

SP

I1

_

D

1

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_2 (Output)

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_2 (Input)

31

A

1

3

SP

I1_

S

CL

K

pr1_pru0_pru_r30_0 (Output)

pr1_pru0_pru_r31_0 (Input)

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 76

7.0 Connectors

This section describes each of the connectors on the board.

7.1 Expansion Connectors

The expansion interface on the board is comprised of two 46 pin connectors. All signals on

the expansion headers are

3.3V

unless otherwise indicated.

NOTE: Do not connect 5V logic level signals to these pins or the board will be

damaged.

NOTE: DO NOT APPLY VOLTAGE TO ANY I/O PIN WHEN POWER IS NOT

SUPPLIED TO THE BOARD. IT WILL DAMAGE THE PROCESSOR AND VOID THE

WARRANTY.

NO PINS ARE TO BE DRIVEN UNTIL AFTER THE SYS_RESET LINE GOES HIGH.

Figure 50

shows the location of the expansion connectors.

Figure 50 Expansion Connector Location

The location and spacing of the expansion headers are the same as on the original

BeagleBone.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 77

7.1.1 Connector P8

Table 11

shows the pinout of the

P8

expansion header. Other signals can be connected to

this connector based on setting the pin mux on the processor, but this is the default

settings on power up. The SW is responsible for setting the default function of each pin.

There are some signals that have not been listed here. Refer to the processor

documentation for more information on these pins and detailed descriptions of all of the

pins listed. In some cases there may not be enough signals to complete a group of signals

that may be required to implement a total interface.

The

PROC

column is the pin number on the processor.

The

column is the pin number on the expansion header.

The

MODE

columns are the mode setting for each pin. Setting each mode to align with the

mode column will give that function on that pin.

NOTE: DO NOT APPLY VOLTAGE TO ANY I/O PIN WHEN POWER IS NOT

SUPPLIED TO THE BOARD. IT WILL DAMAGE THE PROCESSOR AND VOID THE

WARRANTY.

NO PINS ARE TO BE DRIVEN UNTIL AFTER THE SYS_RESET LINE GOES HIGH.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 78

Table 11 Expansion Header P8 Pinout

P

I

P

R

O

N

A

M

MO

DE

MO

DE

MO

DE

2

MO

DE

3

MO

DE

4

MO

DE

5

MO

DE

6

MO

DE

7

1

,2

GND

3

R9

GPIO1_6 gpmc_ad6 mmc1_dat6 gpio1[6]

4

T9

GPIO1_7 gpmc_ad7 mmc1_dat7 gpio1[7]

5

R8

GPIO1_2 gpmc_ad2 mmc1_dat2 gpio1[2]

6

T8

GPIO1_3 gpmc_ad3 mmc1_dat3 gpio1[3]

7

R7

TIMER4 gpmc_advn_a

timer4

gpio2[2]

8

T7

TIMER7 gpmc_oen_re

timer7

gpio2[3]

9

T6

TIMER5 gpmc_be0n_c

timer5

gpio2[5]

10

U6

TIMER6 gpmc_wen

timer6

gpio2[4]

11 R12 GPIO1_13 gpmc_ad13 lcd_data18 mmc1_dat5 mmc2_dat1 eQEP2B_in

p

r

1_p

r

u0_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

gpio1[13]

12 T12 GPIO1_12 gpmc_ad12 Lcd_data19 mmc1_dat4 Mmc2_dat0 Eqep2a_in pr1_pru0_pru_r30_ gpio1[12]

13 T10 EHRPWM2B

gpmc_ad9 lcd_data22 mmc1_dat1 mmc2_dat5 ehrpwm2B gpio0[23]

14 T11 GPIO0_26 gpmc_ad10 lcd_data21 mmc1_dat2 mmc2_dat6 ehrpwm2_tripzone gpio0[26]

15 U13 GPIO1_15 gpmc_ad15 lcd_data16 mmc1_dat7 mmc2_dat3 eQEP2_strobe

p

r

1_p

r

u0_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gpio1[15]

16 V13 GPIO1_14

gp

m

c

_

ad

1

4

lcd

_

d

a

t

a1

7

mm

c

1_da

t

6

mm

c

2_da

t

2

e

QE

P

2

_

in

d

e

x

p

r

1_p

r

u0_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gp

i

o

1

[

1

4

]

17 U12 GPIO0_27 gpmc_ad11 lcd_data20 mmc1_dat3 mmc2_dat7 ehrpwm0_synco gpio0[27]

18 V12 GPIO2_1 gpmc_clk_mu lcd_memory_ gpmc_wait1 mmc2_clk mcasp0_fsr gpio2[1]

19 U10 EHRPWM2A

gpmc_ad8 lcd_data23 mmc1_dat0 mmc2_dat4 ehrpwm2A gpio0[22]

20

V9

GPIO1_31 gpmc_csn2 gpmc_be1n mmc1_cmd

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

0

_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1

_

gpio1[31]

21

U9

GPIO1_30 gpmc_csn1 gpmc_clk mmc1_clk

p

r

1_p

r

u1

_

p

r

u

_

r

30_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gpio1[30]

22

V8

GPIO1_5 gpmc_ad5 mmc1_dat5 gpio1[5]

23

U8

GPIO1_4 gpmc_ad4 mmc1_dat4 gpio1[4]

24

V7

GPIO1_1 gpmc_ad1 mmc1_dat1 gpio1[1]

25

U7

GPIO1_0 gpmc_ad0 mmc1_dat0 gpio1[0]

26

V6

GPIO1_29

gp

m

c

_

c

s

n

0

gp

i

o

1

[

2

9

]

27

U5

GPIO2_22 lcd_vsync gpmc_a8 pr1_pru1_pru_r30_ pr1_pru1_pru_r31_ gpio2[22]

28

V5

GPIO2_24 lcd_pclk gpmc_a10

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

0

_

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

31_

gpio2[24]

29

R5

GPIO2_23 lcd_hsync gpmc_a9

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gpio2[23]

30

R6

GPIO2_25 lcd_ac_bias_e gpmc_a11 gpio2[25]

31

V4

UART5_CTS lcd_data14 gpmc_a18 eQEP1_index mcasp0_axr1 uart5_rxd uart5_ctsn gpio0[10]

32

T5

UART5_RTS lcd_data15 gpmc_a19 eQEP1_strobe mcasp0_ahclkx mcasp0_axr3 uart5_rtsn gpio0[11]

33

V3

UART4_RTS lcd_data13 gpmc_a17 eQEP1B_in mcasp0_fsr mcasp0_axr3 uart4_rtsn gpio0[9]

34

U4

UART3_RTS lcd_data11 gpmc_a15 ehrpwm1B mcasp0_ahclkr mcasp0_axr2 uart3_rtsn gpio2[17]

35

V2

UART4_CTS lcd_data12 gpmc_a16 eQEP1A_in mcasp0_aclkr mcasp0_axr2 uart4_ctsn gpio0[8]

36

U3

UART3_CTS lcd_data10 gpmc_a14 ehrpwm1A mcasp0_axr0 uart3_ctsn gpio2[16]

37

U1

UART5_TXD

lcd_data8 gpmc_a12 ehrpwm1_tripzone

_

i

n

mcasp0_aclkx uart5_txd uart2_ctsn gpio2[14]

38

U2

UART5_RX lcd_data9 gpmc_a13 ehrpwm0_synco mcasp0_fsx uart5_rxd uart2_rtsn gpio2[15]

39

T3

GPIO2_12 lcd_data6 gpmc_a6 eQEP2_index

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

0

_

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

1

_

gpio2[12]

40

T4

GPIO2_13 lcd_data7 gpmc_a7 eQEP2_strobe pr1_edio_data_out

7

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

1

_

gpio2[13]

41

T1

GPIO2_10 lcd_data4 gpmc_a4 eQEP2A_in

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

0

_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gpio2[10]

42

T2

GPIO2_11 lcd_data5 gpmc_a5 eQEP2B_in

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1

_

gpio2[11]

43

R3

GPIO2_8 lcd_data2 gpmc_a2

eh

r

pw

m

2_t

r

i

pzo

n

e

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

0

_

p

r

1_p

r

u

1_p

r

u_

r

3

1

_

gpio2[8]

44

R4

GPIO2_9 lcd_data3 gpmc_a3 ehrpwm0_synco

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

p

r

1_

p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

31_

gpio2[9]

45

R1

GPIO2_6 lcd_data0 gpmc_a0 ehrpwm2A

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gpio2[6]

46

R2

GPIO2_7 lcd_data1 gpmc_a1 ehrpwm2B

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

0_

p

r

1_p

r

u1_

p

r

u_

r

3

1_

gpio2[7]

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 79

7.1.2 Connector P9

Table 12

lists the signals on connector

P9

. Other signals can be connected to this

connector based on setting the pin mux on the processor, but this is the default settings on

power up.

There are some signals that have not been listed here. Refer to the processor

documentation for more information on these pins and detailed descriptions of all of the

pins listed. In some cases there may not be enough signals to complete a group of signals

that may be required to implement a total interface.

The

PROC

column is the pin number on the processor.

The

column is the pin number on the expansion header.

The

MODE

columns are the mode setting for each pin. Setting each mode to align with the

mode column will give that function on that pin.

NOTES:

In the table are the following notations:

PWR_BUT

is a 5V level as pulled up internally by the TPS65217C. It is activated by pulling

the signal to GND.

# Both of these signals connect to pin 41 of P11. Resistors are installed that allow for the

GPIO3_20 connection to be removed by removing R221. The intent is to allow the SW to

use either of these signals, one or the other, on pin 41. SW should set the unused pin in

input mode when using the other pin. This allowed us to get an extra signal out to the

expansion header.

@ Both of these signals connect to pin 42 of P11. Resistors are installed that allow for the

GPIO3_18 connection to be removed by removing R202. The intent is to allow the SW to

use either of these signals, on pin 42. SW should set the unused pin in input mode when

using the other pin. This allowed us to get an extra signal out to the expansion header.

NOTE: DO NOT APPLY VOLTAGE TO ANY I/O PIN WHEN POWER IS NOT

SUPPLIED TO THE BOARD. IT WILL DAMAGE THE PROCESSOR AND VOID THE

WARRANTY.

NO PINS ARE TO BE DRIVEN UNTIL AFTER THE SYS_RESET LINE GOES HIGH.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 80

Table 12 Expansion Header P9 Pinout

*GPIO3_21 is also the 24.576MHZ clock input to the processor to enable HDMI audio. To use this pin

the oscillator must be disabled.

7.2 Power Jack

The DC power jack is located next to the RJ45 Ethernet connector as shown in

Figure

51

. This uses the same power connector as is used on the original BeagleBone. The

connector has a 2.1mm diameter center post (5VDC) and a 5.5mm diameter outer

dimension on the barrel (GND).

Figure 51 5VDC Power Jack

The board requires a regulated 5VDC +/-.25V supply at 1A. A higher current rating may be

needed if capes are plugged into the expansion headers. Using a higher current power

supply will not damage the board.

5VDC Power Jack

7.3 USB Client

The USB Client connector is accessible on the bottom side of the board under the row of

four LEDs as shown in

Figure 52

. It uses a 5 pin miniUSB cable, the same as is used on

the original BeagleBone. The cable is provided with the board. The cable can also be

used to power the board.

Figure 52 USB Client Connector

This port is a USB Client only interface and is intended for connection to a PC.

USB Client

Connector

7.4 USB Host

There is a single USB Host connector on the board and is shown in

Figure 53

below.

The port is USB 2.0 HS compatible and can supply up to 500mA of current. If more

current or ports is needed, then a HUB can be used.

USB Host

Connector

Figure

53

US

B

H

o

s

t

C

o

n

e

ctor

7.5 Serial Header

Each board has a debug serial interface that can be accessed by using a special serial

cable that is plugged into the serial header as shown in

Figure 54

below.

Two signals are provided, TX and RX on this connector. The levels on these signals are

3.3V. In order to access these signals, a FTDI USB to Serial cable is recommended as

shown in

Figure 55

below.

The cable can be purchased from several different places and must be the 3.3V version

TTL-232R-3V3

. Information on the cable itself can be found direct from FTDI at:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/DataSheets/Cables/DS_TTL-

232R_CABLES.pdf

Serial Debug

Connector Pin 1

Serial Debug

Cable Pin 1

Figure 54 Serial Debug Header

Figure 55 FTDI USB to Serial Adapter

Pin 1 of the cable is the black wire. That must align with the pin 1 on the board which is

designated by the white dot on the PCB.

Refer to the support WIKI http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack for more

sources of this cable and other options that will work.

Table is the pinout of the connector as reflected in the schematic. It is the same as the

FTDI cable which can be found at

http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/DataSheets/Cables/DS_TTL-

232R_CABLES.pdf with the exception that only three pins are used on the board. The pin

numbers are defined in

Table 13

. The signals are from the perspective of the board.

Table 13 J1 Serial Header Pins

PIN NUMBER SIGNAL

1

Ground

4

R

ece

ive

5

T

ra

nsm

i

t

Figure 56

shows the pin location on the board.

PIN 1

PIN 4

PIN 5

Figure 56 Serial connector

7.6 HDMI

Access to the HDMI interface is through the HDMI connector that is located on the bottom

side of the board as shown in

Figure 57

below.

The connector is microHDMI connector. This was done due to the space limitations we

had in finding a place to fit the connector. It requires a microHDMI to HDMI cable as

shown in

Figure 58

below. The cable can be purchased from several different sources.

Figure 58 HDMI Cable

HDMI Connector

Figure 57 HDMI Connector

7.7 microSD

A microSD connector is located on the backside of the board as shown in

Figure 59

below. The microSD card is not supplied with the board.

When plugging in the SD card, the writing on the card should be up. Align the card with

the connector and push to insert. Then release. There should be a click and the card will

start to eject slightly, but it then should latch into the connector. To eject the card, push

the SD card in and then remove your finger. The SD card will be ejected from the

connector.

Do not pull the SD card out or you could damage the

connector.

microSD

Conn

ec

tor

Figure 59 microSD Connector

7.8 Ethernet

The board comes with a single 10/100 Ethernet interface located next to the power jack as

shown in

Figure 60

.

The PHY supports AutoMDX which means either a straight or a swap cable can be used

7.9 JTAG Connector

A place for an optional 20 pin CTI JTAG header is provided on the board to facilitate the

SW development and debugging of the board by using various JTAG emulators. This

header is not supplied standard on the board. To use this, a connector will need to be

soldered onto the board.

If you need the JTAG connector you can solder it on yourself. No other components are

needed. The connector is made by Samtec and the part number is FTR-110-03-G-D-06.

You can purchase it from www.newark.com.

10/100 Ethernet

Figure 60 Ethernet Connector

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 89

8.0 Cape Board Support

The element14 BeagleBone Black has the ability to accept up to four expansion boards or

capes that can be stacked onto the expansion headers. The word cape comes from the

shape of the board as it is fitted around the Ethernet connector on the main board. This

notch acts as a key to ensure proper orientation of the cape.

This section describes the rules for creating capes to ensure proper operation with the

element14 BeagleBone Black and proper interoperability with other capes that are

intended to co- exist with each other. Co-existence is not a requirement and is in itself,

something that is impossible to control or administer. But, people will be able to create

capes that operate with other capes that are already available based on public information

as it pertains to what pins and features each cape uses. This information will be able to be

read from the EEPROM on each cape.

This section is intended as a guideline for those wanting to create their own capes. Its

intent is not to put limits on the creation of capes and what they can do, but to set a few

basic rules that will allow the SW to administer their operation with the element14

BeagleBone Black. For this reason there is a lot of flexibility in the specification that we

hope most people will find liberating and in the spirit of Open Source Hardware. I am sure

there are others that would like to see tighter control, more details, more rules and

much more order to the way capes are handled.

Over time, this specification will change and be updated, so please refer to the latest

version of this manual prior to designing your own capes to get the latest information.

DO NOT APPLY VOLTAGE TO ANY I/O PIN

WHEN

POWER IS

NOT SUPPLIED TO THE BOARD. IT

WILL

DAMAGE THE

PROCESSOR AND VOID

THE WARRANTY.

NO PINS ARE TO BE DRIVEN UNTIL AFTER

THE

SYS_RESET

LINE GOES

HIGH.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 90

8.1 element14 BeagleBone Black Cape Compatibility

The main expansion headers are the same between the BeagleBone and element14

BeagleBone Black. While the pins are the same, some of these pins are now used on the

element14 BeagleBone Black. The following sections discuss these pins.

The Power Expansion header was removed from the element14 BeagleBone Black and is

not available.

PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS SECTION AND READ CAREFULLY!!

8.1.1 LCD Pins

The LCD pins are used on the e l e m e n t 1 4 BeagleBone Black to drive the HDMI

framer. These signals are listed in

Table 14

below.

Table 14 P8 LCD Conflict Pins

P

IN

P

ROC

N

A

M

E

M

OD

E

0

27 U5 GPIO2_22 lcd_vsync

28

V5

G

PI

O

2_2

4

lcd

_

p

c

l

k

29 R5 GPIO2_23 lcd_hsync

30 R6 GPIO2_25 lcd_ac_bias_en

31 V4 UART5_CTSN lcd_data14

32

T5

UA

R

T

5_

R

T

SN

lcd

_

da

t

a

1

5

33 V3 UART4_RTSN lcd_data13

34 U4 UART3_RTSN lcd_data11

35

V2

UA

R

T

4_

C

T

SN

lcd

_

da

t

a

1

2

36 U3 UART3_CTSN lcd_data10

37

U1

UA

R

T

5_

TXD

lcd

_

da

t

a

8

38 U2 UART5_RXD lcd_data9

39 T3 GPIO2_12 lcd_data6

40

T4

G

PI

O

2_1

3

lcd

_

da

t

a

7

41 T1 GPIO2_10 lcd_data4

42

T2

G

PI

O

2_1

1

lcd

_

da

t

a

5

43 R3 GPIO2_8 lcd_data2

44 R4 GPIO2_9 lcd_data3

45 R1 GPIO2_6 lcd_data0

46 R2 GPIO2_7 lcd_data1

If you are using these pins for other functions, there are a few things to keep in mind:

•

On the HDMI Framer, these signals are all inputs so the framer will not be

driving these pins.

•

The HDMI framer will add a load onto these pins.

•

There are small filter caps on these signals which could also change the

operation of these pins if used for other functions.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 91

•

When used for other functions, the HDMI framer cannot be used.

•

There is no way to power off the framer as this would result in the framer

being powered through these input pins which would not a be a good idea.

•

These pins are also the

SYSBOOT

pins. DO NOT drive them before

the

SYS_RESETN

signal goes high. If you do, the board may not boot

because you would be changing the boot order of the processor.

In order to use these pins, the SW will need to reconfigure them to whatever function you

need the pins to do. To keep power low, the HDMI framer should be put in a low power

mode via the SW using the

I2C0

interface.

8.1.2 eMMC Pins

The element14 BeagleBone Black uses 10 pins to connect to the processor that also

connect to the P8 expansion connector. These signals are listed below in

Table 15

. The

proper mode is MODE2.

Table 15 P8 eMMC Conflict Pins

P

IN

P

RO

C

S

I

G

N

A

L

M

ODE

22 V8 MMC1_DAT5

1

23 U8 MMC1_DAT4

1

24 V7 MMC1_DAT1

1

5

R8 MMC1_DAT2

1

4

T9 MMC1_DAT7

1

3

R9 MMC1_DAT6

1

6

T8 MMC1_DAT3

1

25 U7 MMC1_DAT0

1

20 V9 MMC1_CMD 2

21 U9 MMC1_CLK 2

If using these pins, several things need to be kept in mind when doing so:

•

On the eMMC device, these signals are inputs and outputs.

•

The eMMC device will add a load onto these pins.

•

When used for other functions, the eMMC cannot be used. This means you

must boot from the microSD slot.

•

If using these pins, you need to put the eMMC into reset. This requires that

the eMMC be accessible from the processor in order to set the eMMC to accept

the eMMC pins.

•

DO NOT drive the eMMC pins until the eMMC has been put into reset.

This means that if you choose to use these pins, they must not drive any

signal until enabled via Software. This requires a buffer or some other form of

hold off function enabled by a GPIO pin on the expansion header.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 92

On power up, the eMMC is NOT reset. If you hold the Boot button down, this will force a

boot from the microSD. This is not convenient when a cape is plugged into the board.

There are two solutions to this issue:

1. Wipe the eMMC clean. This will cause the board to default to microSD boot. If

you want to use the eMMC later, it can be reprogrammed.

2. You can also tie LCD_DATA2 low on the cape during boot. This will be the same as

if you were holding the boot button. However, in order to prevent unforeseen

issues, you need to gate this signal with RESET, when the data is sampled. After

reset goes high, the signal should be removed from the pin.

BEFORE

the SW reinitializes the pins, it

MUST

put the eMMC in reset. This is done by

taking eMMC_RSTn (GPIO1_20) LOW

after

the eMMC has been put into a mode to

enable the reset line. This pin does not connect to the expansion header and is accessible

only on the board.

DO NOT

automatically drive any conflicting pins until the SW enables it. This puts the SW

in control to ensure that the eMMC is in reset before the signals are used from the cape.

You can use a GPIO pin for this. No, we will not designate a pin for this function. It will be

determined on a cape by cape basis by the designer of the respective cape.

8.2 EEPROM

Each cape must have its own EEPROM containing information that will allow the SW to

identify the board and to configure the expansion headers pins as needed. The one

exception is proto boards intended for prototyping. They may or may not have an

EEPROM on them. An EEPROM is required for all capes sold in order for them operate

correctly when plugged into the element14 BeagleBone Black.

The address of the EEPROM will be set via either jumpers or a dipswitch on each

expansion board.

Figure 61

below is the design of the EEPROM circuit.

The EEPROM used is the same one as is used on the BeagleBone and the element14

BeagleBone Black, a CAT24C256. The CAT24C256 is a 256 kb Serial CMOS EEPROM,

internally organized as 32,768 words of 8 bits each. It features a 64−byte page write buffer

and supports the Standard (100 kHz), Fast (400 kHz) and Fast−Plus (1 MHz) I

2

C protocol.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 93

Figure 61 Expansion Board EEPROM Without Write Protect

The addressing of this device requires two bytes for the address which is not used on

smaller size EEPROMs, which only require only one byte. Other compatible devices may

be used as well. Make sure the device you select supports 16 bit addressing. The part

package used is at the discretion of the cape designer.

8.2.1 EEPROM Address

In order for each cape to have a unique address, a board ID scheme is used that sets the

address to be different depending on the setting of the dipswitch or jumpers on the capes.

A two position dipswitch or jumpers is used to set the address pins of the EEPROM.

It is the responsibility of the user to set the proper address for each board and the position

in the stack that the board occupies has nothing to do with which board gets first choice

on the usage of the expansion bus signals. The process for making that determination and

resolving conflicts is left up to the SW and, as of this moment in time, this method is a

something of a mystery due t the new Device Tree methodology introduced in the 3.8

kernel.

Address line A2 is always tied high. This sets the allowable address range for the

expansion cards to

0x54

to

0x57

. All other I2C addresses can be used by the user in the

design of their capes. But, these addresses must not be used other than for the board

EEPROM information. This also allows for the inclusion of EEPROM devices on the

cape if needed without interfering with this EEPROM. It requires that A2 be grounded on

the EEPROM not used for cape identification.

8.2.2 I2C Bus

The EEPROMs on each expansion board are connected to I2C2 on connector P9 pins 19

and 20. For this reason I2C2 must always be left connected and should not be changed by

SW to remove it from the expansion header pin mux settings. If this is done, then the

system will be unable to detect the capes.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 94

The I2C signals require pullup resistors. Each board must have a 5.6K resistor on these

signals. With four capes installed this will be an effective resistance of 1.4K if all capes

were installed and all the resistors used were exactly 5.6K. As more capes are added the

resistance is reduced to overcome capacitance added to the signals. When no capes are

installed the internal pullup resistors must be activated inside the processor to prevent

I2C timeouts on the I2C bus.

The I2C2 bus may also be used by capes for other functions such as I/O expansion or

other I2C compatible devices that do not share the same address as the cape EEPROM.

8.2.3 EEPROM Write Protect

The design in

Figure 62

has the write protect disabled. If the write protect is not enabled,

this does expose the EEPROM to being corrupted if the I2C2 bus is used on the cape and

the wrong address written to. It is recommended that a write protection function be

implemented and a Test Point be added that when grounded, will allow the EEPROM to be

written to. To enable write operation, Pin 7 of the EEPROM must be tied to ground. When

not grounded, the pin is HI via pullup resistor R210 and therefore write protected. Whether

or not Write Protect is provided is at the discretion of the cape designer.

Figure 62 Expansion Board EEPROM Write Protect

8.2.4 EEPROM Data Format

Table 16

shows the format of the contents of the expansion board EEPROM. Data is

stored in Big Endian with the least significant value on the right. All addresses read as a

single byte data from the EEPROM, but two byte addressing is used. ASCII values are

intended to be easily read by the user when the EEPROM contents are dumped.

Table 16 Expansion Board EEPROM

Nam

e

Offset

Siz

e

(bytes)

Contents

Header

0

4

0xAA, 0x55, 0x33, 0xEE

EEPROM Revision

4

2

Revision number of the overall format of this EEPROM in ASCII =A1

Board Name

6

32

Name of board in ASCII so user can read it when the EEPROM is dumped.

Up to developer of the board as to what they call the board..

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 95

Version

38

4

Hardware version code for board in ASCII. Version format is up to the

developer.

i

.

e

.

0

2

.

1

…

0

A1

..

.

1

0

A

0

Manufacturer

42

16

ASCII name of the manufacturer. Company or individual’s name.

Part Number

58

16

ASCII Characters for the part number. Up to maker of the board.

Number of Pins

74

2

Number of pins used by the daughter board including the power pins

used.

D

ec

i

m

a

l

va

l

u

e

o

f

t

o

ta

l

p

i

n

s

9

2

m

a

x

,

s

t

o

red

i

n

H

E

X

.

Serial Number

76

12

Serial number of the board. This is a 12 character string which is:

WWYY&&&&nnnn

where: WW = 2 digit week of the year of production

YY = 2 digit year of production

&&&&=Assembly code to let the manufacturer document the assembly

number or product. A way to quickly tell from reading the serial number

what the board is. Up to the developer to determine.

nnnn = incrementing board number for that week of production

Pin Usage

88

148

Two bytes

for each configurable pins of the 74 pins on the expansion

connectors MSB LSB

Bit order: 15 14 ……………1..0

Bit 15…………..Pin is used or not……..…...0=Unused by cape 1=Used by

cape Bit 14-13………Pin Direction…………...….1 0=Output 01=Input

11=BDIR Bits 12-7………Reserved……………………should be all zeros

Bit 6……….…..Slew Rate …………………..0=Fast 1=Slow

Bit 5…….……..Rx Enable…………………..0=Disabled 1=Enabled Bit

4……….…..Pull Up/Dn Select…………..0=Pulldown 1=PullUp Bit

3…………...Pull Up/DN enabled………..0=Enabled 1=Disabled Bits 2-

0

……….Mux Mode Selection………..Mode 0-7

VDD_3V3B Current

236

2

Maximum current in milliamps. This is HEX value of the current in

decimal

1

50

0

m

A

=

0

x

0

5

0

xD

C

32

5

m

A

=

0

x

0

1

0

x4

5

VDD_5V Current

238

2

Maximum current in milliamps. This is HEX value of the current in

decimal

1

50

0

m

A

=

0

x

0

5

0

xD

C

32

5

m

A

=

0

x

0

1

0

x4

5

SYS_5V Current

240

2

Maximum current in milliamps. This is HEX value of the current in

decimal

1

50

0

m

A

=

0

x

0

5

0

xD

C

32

5

m

A

=

0

x

0

1

0

x4

5

DC Supplied

242

2

Indicates whether or not the board is supplying voltage on the VDD_5V

rail and the current rating 000=No 1-0xFFFF is the current supplied

storing the decimal equivalent in HEX format

Available 244 32543 Available space for other non-volatile codes/data to be used as

needed by the manufacturer or SW driver. Could also store

p

re

s

e

ts f

o

r

u

s

e

b

y

S

W

.

8.2.5 Pin Usage

Table 17

is the locations in the EEPROM to set the I/O pin usage for the cape. It contains

the value to be written to the Pad Control Registers. Details on this can be found in

section

9.2.2

of the

AM3358 Technical Reference Manual

, The table is left blank as a

convenience and can be printed out and used as a template for creating a custom

setting for each cape. The 16 bit integers and all 16 bit fields are to be stored in Big

Endian format.

Bit 15 PIN USAGE

is an indicator and should be a 1 if the pin is used or 0 if it is

unused.

Bits 14-7 RESERVED

is not to be used and left as 0.

Bit 6 SLEW CONTROL

0=Fast 1=Slow

Bit 5 RX Enabled

0=Disabled 1=Enabled

Bit 4 PU/PD

0=Pulldown 1=Pullup.

Bit 3 PULLUP/DN

0=Pullup/pulldown enabled

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 96

1= Pullup/pulldown disabled

Bit 2-0 MUX MODE SELECT

Mode 0-7. (refer to TRM)

Refer to the TRM for proper settings of the pin MUX mode based on the signal selection

to be used.

The

AIN0-6

pins do not have a pin mux setting, but they need to be set to indicate if each

of the pins is used on the cape. Only bit 15 is used for the AIN signals.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 97

Table 17 EEPROM Pin Usage

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Off

set

Conn

Name

Usage

Type

Reserved

S

L

E

W

R

X

P

U

-

P

D

P

U

/

D

E

N

Mux Mode

88

P9-22

UART2_RX

D

90

P9-21

UART2_TX

D

92

P9-18

I2C1_SDA

94

P9-17

I2C1_SCL

96

P9-42

GPIO0_7

98

P8-35

UART4_CTS

N

100

P8-33

UART4_RTS

N

102

P8-31

UART5_CTS

N

104

P8-32

UART5_RTS

N

106

P9-19

I2C2_SCL

108

P9-20

I2C2_SDA

110

P9-26

UART1_RX

D

112

P9-24

UART1_TX

D

114

P9-41

CLKOUT2

116

P8-19

EHRPWM2

A

118

P8-13

EHRPWM2

B

120

P8-14

GPIO0_26

122

P8-17

GPIO0_27

124

P9-11

UART4_RX

D

126

P9-13

UART4_TX

D

128

P8-25

GPIO1_0

130

P8-24

GPIO1_1

132

P8-5

GPIO1_2

134

P8-6

GPIO1_3

136

P8-23

GPIO1_4

138

P8-22

GPIO1_5

140

P8-3

GPIO1_6

142

P8-4

GPIO1_7

144

P8-12

GPIO1_12

146

P8-11

GPIO1_13

148

P8-16

GPIO1_14

150

P8-15

GPIO1_15

152

P9-15

GPIO1_16

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 98

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Off

set

Conn

Name

Usage

Type

Reserved

S

L

E

W

R

X

P

U

-

P

D

P

U

/

D

E

N

Mux Mode

154

P9-23

GPIO1_17

156

P9-14

EHRPWM1

A

158

P9-16

EHRPWM1

B

160

P9-12

GPIO1_28

162

P8-26

GPIO1_29

164

P8-21

GPIO1_30

166

P8-20

GPIO1_31

168

P8-18

GPIO2_1

170

P8-7

TIMER4

172

P8-9

TIMER5

174

P8-10

TIMER6

176

P8-8

TIMER7

178

P8-45

GPIO2_6

180

P8-46

GPIO2_7

182

P8-43

GPIO2_8

184

P8-44

GPIO2_9

186

P8-41

GPIO2_10

188

P8-42

GPIO2_11

190

P8-39

GPIO2_12

192

P8-40

GPIO2_13

194

P8-37

UART5_TX

D

196

P8-38

UART5_RX

D

198

P8-36

UART3_CTS

N

200

P8-34

UART3_RTS

N

202

P8-27

GPIO2_22

204

P8-29

GPIO2_23

206

P8-28

GPIO2_24

208

P8-30

GPIO2_25

210

P9-29

SPI1_D0

212

P9-30

SPI1_D1

214

P9-28

SPI1_CS0

216

P9-27

GPIO3_19

218

P9-31

SPI1_SCLK

220

P9-25

GPIO3_21

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 99

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Off

set

Conn

Name

Usage

Type

Reserved

S

L

E

W

R

X

P

U

-

P

D

P

U

/

D

E

N

Mux Mode

0

0 0

222

P9-39

AIN

0

224

P9-40

AIN

1

226

P9-37

AIN

2

228

P9-38

AIN

3

230

P9-33

AIN

4

232

P9-36

AIN

5

234

P9-35

AIN

6

8.3 Pin Usage Consideration

This section covers things to watch for when hooking up to certain pins on the expansion

headers.

8.3.1 Boot Pins

There are 16 pins that control the boot mode of the processor that are exposed on the

expansion headers.

Figure 63

below shows those signals as they appear on the

element14 BeagleBone Black.:

Figure 63 Expansion Boot Pins

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 100

If you plan to use any of these signals, then on power up, these pins should not be driven.

If you do, it can affect the boot mode of the processor and could keep the processor from

booting or working correctly.

If you are designing a cape that is intended to be used as a boot source, such as a NAND

board, then you should drive the pins to reconfigure the boot mode, but only at reset.

After the reset phase, the signals should not be driven to allow them to be used for the

other functions found on those pins. You will need to override the resistor values in order

to change the settings. The DC pull-up requirement should be based on the AM3358 Vih

min voltage of 2 volts and AM3358 maximum input leakage current of 18uA. Also take into

account any other current leakage paths on these signals which could be caused by your

specific cape design.

The DC pull-down requirement should be based on the AM3358 Vil max voltage of 0.8

volts and AM3358 maximum input leakage current of 18uA plus any other current

leakage paths on these signals.

8.4 Expansion Connectors

A combination of male and female headers is used for access to the expansion headers

on the main board. There are three possible mounting configurations for the expansion

headers:



Single-no board stacking but can be used on the top of the stack.



Stacking-up to four boards can be stacked on top of each other.



Stacking with signal stealing-up to three boards can be stacked on top of each

other, but certain boards will not pass on the signals they are using to prevent signal

loading or use by other cards in the stack.

The following sections describe how the connectors are to be implemented and used for

each of the different configurations.

8.4.1 Non-Stacking Headers-Single Cape

For non-stacking capes single configurations or where the cape can be the last board on

the stack, the two 46 pin expansion headers use the same connectors.

Figure 64

is a

picture of the connector. These are dual row 23 position 2.54mm x 2.54mm connectors.

Figure 64 Single Expansion Connector

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 101

The connector is typically mounted on the bottom side of the board as shown in

Figure

65

. These are very common connectors and should be easily located. You can also

use two single row 23 pin headers for each of the dual row headers.

Figure 65 Single Cape Expansion Connector

It is allowed to only populate the pins you need. As this is a non-stacking configuration,

there is no need for all headers to be populated. This can also reduce the overall cost

of the cape. This decision is up to the cape designer.

For convenience listed in

Table 18

are some possible choices for part numbers on this

connector. They have varying pin lengths and some may be more suitable than others

for your use. It should be noted, that the longer the pin and the further it is inserted into

the element14 BeagleBone Black connector, the harder it will be to remove due to the

tension on 92 pins. This can be minimized by using shorter pins or removing those

pins that are not used by your particular design. The first item in

Table 17

is on the

edge and may not be the best solution. Overhang is the amount of the pin that goes past

the contact point of the connector on the BeagleBone Black

.

Table 18 Single Cape Connectors

S

UPPLIER

PART

N

UM

B

ER

TA

I

L LEN

G

T

H

(

i

n

)

O

V

ER

H

A

N

G

(i

n

)

Major League

TSHC-123-D-03-145-G-LF

.145 .004

Major League

TSHC-123-D-03-240-G-LF

.240 .099

Major League

T

SH

C

-

12

3

-

D

-

0

3

-

255

-

G

-

LF

.255 .114

The G in the part number is a plating option. Other options may be used as well as long

as the contact area is gold. Other possible sources are Sullins and Samtec for these

connectors. You will need to ensure the depth into the connector is sufficient

8.4.2 Main Expansion Headers-Stacking

For stacking configuration, the two 46 pin expansion headers use the same

connectors.

Figure 66

is a picture of the connector. These are dual row 23 position 2.54mm x

2.54mm connectors.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 102

Figure 66 Expansion Connector

The connector is mounted on the top side of the board with longer tails to allow insertion

into the element14 BeagleBone Black.

Figure 67

is the connector configuration for the

connector.

Figure 67 Stacked Cape Expansion Connector

For convenience listed in

Table 19

are some possible choices for part numbers on this

connector. They have varying pin lengths and some may be more suitable than others for

your use. It should be noted, that the longer the pin and the further it is inserted into the

element14 BeagleBone Black connector, the harder it will be to remove due to the

tension on 92 pins. This can be minimized by using shorter pins. There are most likely

other suppliers out there that will work for this connector as well. If anyone finds other

suppliers of compatible connectors that work, let us know and they will be added to this

document. The first item in

Table 19

is on the edge and may not be the best solution.

Overhang is the amount of the pin that goes past the contact point of the connector on the

element14 BeagleBone Black.

The third part listed in

Table 20

will have insertion force issues.

Table 19 Stacked Cape Connectors

S

UPPLIER

PART

N

UM

B

ER

TA

I

L LEN

G

T

H

(

i

n

)

O

V

ER

H

A

N

G

(

m

)

Major

L

e

a

g

u

e

SSHQ-123-D-06-G-

LF

.190

0.049

Major League

SSHQ-123-D-08-G-

LF

.390 0.249

Major League

SSHQ-123-D-10-G-

LF

.560 0.419

There are also different plating options on each of the connectors above. Gold plating on

the contacts is the minimum requirement. If you choose to use a different part number for

plating or availability purposes, make sure you do not select the “LT” option.

Other possible sources are Sullins and Samtec but make sure you select one that has the

correct mating depth.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 103

8.4.3 Stacked Capes w/Signal Stealing

Figure 68

is the connector configuration for stackable capes that does not provide all of

the signals upwards for use by other boards. This is useful if there is an expectation that

other boards could interfere with the operation of your board by exposing those signals

for expansion. This configuration consists of a combination of the stacking and non-

stacking style connectors.

Figure 68 Stacked w/Signal Stealing Expansion Connector

8.4.4 Retention Force

The length of the pins on the expansion header has a direct relationship to the amount of

force that is used to remove a cape from the e l e m e n t 1 4 BeagleBone Black. The

longer the pins extend into the connector the harder it is to remove. There is no rule

that says that if longer pins are used, that the connector pins have to extend all the way

into the mating connector on the e l e m e n t 1 4 BeagleBone Black, but this is controlled

by the user and therefore is hard to control. We have also found that if you use gold pins,

While more expensive, it makes for a smoother finish which reduces the friction.

This section will attempt to describe the tradeoffs and things to consider when selecting a

connector and its pin length.

8.4.5 element14 BeagleBone Black Female Connectors

Figure 69

shows the key measurements used in calculating how much the pin extends

past the contact point on the connector, what we call overhang.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 104

Figure 69 Connector Pin Insertion Depth

To calculate the amount of the pin that extends past the Point of Contact, use the following

formula:

Overhang=Total Pin Length- PCB thickness (.062) - contact point (.079)

The longer the pin extends past the contact point, the more force it will take to insert and

remove the board. Removal is a greater issue than the insertion.

8.5 Signal Usage

Based on the pin muxing capabilities of the processor, each expansion pin can be

configured for different functions. When in the stacking mode, it will be up to the user to

ensure that any conflicts are resolved between multiple stacked cards. When stacked, the

first card detected will be used to set the pin muxing of each pin. This will prevent other

modes from being supported on stacked cards and may result in them being inoperative.

In

Section 7.1

of this document, the functions of the pins are defined as well as the pin

muxing options. Refer to this section for more information on what each pin is. To simplify

things, if you use the default name as the function for each pin and use those

functions, it will simplify board design and reduce conflicts with other boards.

Interoperability is up to the board suppliers and the user. This specification does not

specify a fixed function on any pin and any pin can be used to the full extent of the

functionality of that pin as enabled by the processor.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 105

DO NOT APPLY VOLTAGE TO ANY I/O PIN WHEN POWER IS NOT

SUPPLIED TO THE BOARD. IT WILL DAMAGE THE PROCESSOR AND

VOID THE WARRANTY.

NO PINS ARE TO BE DRIVEN UNTIL AFTER THE SYS_RESET LINE

GOES HIGH.

8.6 Cape Power

This section describes the power rails for the capes and their usage.

8.6.1 Main Board Power

The

Table 20

describes the voltages from the main board that are available on the

expansion connectors and their ratings. All voltages are supplied by connector

P9

. The

current ratings listed are per pin.

Table 20 Expansion Voltages

Current

Name

P9

Name

Current

GND

1

2

GND

250mA VDD_3V3B

3

4

VDD_3V3B

250mA

1000mA VDD_5V

5

6

VDD_5V 1000mA

250mA SYS_5V

7

8

SYS_5V 250mA

:

GND

43

44

GND

45

46

GND

The

VDD_3V3B

rail is supplied by the LDO on the element14 BeagleBone Black and is

the primary power rail for expansion boards. If the power requirement for the capes

exceeds the current rating, then locally generated voltage rail can be used. It is

recommended that this rail be used to power any buffers or level translators that may be

used.

VDD_5V

is the main power supply from the DC input jack. This voltage is not present

when the board is powered via USB. The amount of current supplied by this rail is

dependent upon the amount of current available. Based on the board design, this rail is

limited to 1A per pin from the main board.

The

SYS_5V

rail is the main rail for the regulators on the main board. When powered from

a DC supply or USB, this rail will be 5V. The available current from this rail depends on

the current available from the USB and DC external supplies.

8.6.2 Expansion Board External Power

A cape can have a jack or terminals to bring in whatever voltages may be needed by that

board. Care should be taken not to let this voltage feedback into any of the expansion

header pins.

It is possible to provide 5V to the main board from an expansion board. By supplying a

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 107

5V signal into the

VDD_5V

rail, the main board can be supplied. This voltage must not

exceed 5V. You should not supply any voltage into any other pin of the expansion

connectors. Based on the board design, this rail is limited to 1A per pin to the

element14 BeagleBone Black.

There are several precautions that need to me taken when working with the expansion headers to

prevent damage to the board.

1) Do not apply any voltages to any I/O pins when the board is not powered on.

2) Do not drive any external signals into the I/O pins until after the VDD_3V3B rail is up.

3) Do not apply any voltages that are generated from external sources.

4) If voltages are generated from the VDD_5V signal, those supplies must not become active until

after the VDD_3V3B rail is up.

5) If you are applying signals from other boards into the expansion headers, make sure you power

the board up after you power up the element14 BeagleBone Black or make the connections after

power is applied on both boards.

Powering the processor via its I/O pins can cause damage to the processor.

8.7 Mechanical

This section provides the guidelines for the creation of expansion boards from a

mechanical standpoint. Defined is a standard board size that is the same profile as the

element14 BeagleBone Black. It is expected that the majority of expansion boards created

will be of standard size. It is possible to create boards of other sizes and in some cases

this is required, as in the case of an LCD larger than the element14 BeagleBone Black

board.

8.7.1 Standard Cape Size

Figure 70

is the outline of the standard cape. The dimensions are in inches.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 108

Figure 70 Cape Board Dimensions

A slot is provided for the Ethernet connector to stick up higher than the cape when

mounted. This also acts as a key function to ensure that the cape is oriented correctly.

Space is also provided to allow access to the user LEDs and reset button on the main

board.

Some people have inquired as to the difference in the radius of the corners of the

element14 BeagleBone Black and why they are different. This is a result of having the

BeagleBone fit into the Altoids style tin.

It is not required that the cape be exactly like the element14 BeagleBone Black board in

this respect.

8.7.2 Extended Cape Size

Capes larger than the standard board size are also allowed. A good example would be an

LCD panel. There is no practical limit to the sizes of these types of boards. The notch for

the key is also not required, but it is up to the supplier of these boards to ensure that the

element14 BeagleBone Black is not plugged in incorrectly in such a manner that damage

would be cause to the e l e m e n t 1 4 BeagleBone Black or any other capes that

may be installed. Any such damage will be the responsibility of the supplier of such a

cape to repair.

As with all capes, the EEPROM is required and compliance with the power requirements

must be adhered to.

8.7.3 Enclosures

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 109

There are numerous enclosures being created in all different sizes and styles. The

mechanical design of these enclosures is not being defined by this specification.

The ability of these designs to handle all shapes and sizes of capes, especially when you

consider up to four can be mounted with all sorts of interface connectors, it is difficult to

define a standard enclosure that will handle all capes already made and those yet to be

defined.

If cape designers want to work together and align with one enclosure and work around it

that is certainly acceptable. But we will not pick winners and we will not do anything that

impedes the openness of the platform and the ability of enclosure designers and cape

designers to innovate and create new concepts.

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 110

9.0 element14 BeagleBone Black Mechanical

9.1 Dimensions and Weight

Size : 3.5” x 2.15” (86.36mm x 53.34mm)

Max height : .187” (4.76mm)

PCB Layers : 6

PCB thickness :

.062” RoHS Compliant : Yes Weight: 1.4 oz

9.2 Silkscreen and Component

Locations

Figure 71 Board Dimensions

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 111

Figure 72 Component Side Silkscreen

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 112

Figure 73 Circuit Side Silkscreen

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 113

10.0

Pictures

Figure 74 Top Side

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 114

Figure 75 Bottom Side

element14 is a trademark of Premier Farnell plc 115

11.0 Support Information

All support for this design is through the BeagleBoard.org community at:

beagleboard@googlegroups.com or

http://beagleboard.org/discuss .

11.1 Hardware Design

Design documentation can be found on the eMMC of the board under the

documents/hardware directory when connected using the USB cable. Provided there is:

•

Schematic in PDF

•

Schematic in OrCAD (Cadence Design Entry CIS 16.3)

•

PCB Gerber

•

PCB Layout File (Allegro)

•

Bill of Material

•

System Reference Manual (This document).

This directory is not always kept updated in every SW release due to the frequency of

changes of the SW. The best solution is to download the files from the WIKI at

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack

We do not track SW revision of what is in the eMMC. SW is tracked separately from the

HW due to the frequency of changes which would require massive relabeling of boards

due to the frequent SW changes. You should always use the latest SW revision.

To see what SW revision is loaded into the eMMC follow the instructions at

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:Updating_The_Software#Checking_The_An%20gstrom_Ima

ge_Version

11.2 Software Updates

It is a good idea to always use the latest software. Instructions for how to update your

software to the latest version can be found at:

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Updating_the_eMMC_Software

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11.3 RMA Support

If you feel your board is defective or has issues, please request an RMA from the

channel you purchased the element14 BeagleBone Black. You will need the serial

number and revision of the board.

Figure 76 Serial Number Location

Figure 77 Initial Serial Number format

Figure 78 Revised Serial Number format

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11.4 Trouble Shooting HDMI Issues

Many people are having issues with getting HDMI to work on their TV/Display.

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to buy all the TVs and Monitors on the

market today nor go to Ebay and buy all of the TVs and monitors made over the last five

years to thoroughly test each and every one. We are depending on community members

to help us get these tested and information provided on how to get them to work.

One would think that if it worked on a lot of different TVs and monitors it would work on

most if not all of them, assuming they meet the specification. However, there are other

issues that could also result in these various TVs and monitors not working. The intent is

that this page will be useful in navigating some of these issues. As others also find

solutions, as long as we know about them, they will be added here as well. For access to

the most up to date troubleshooting capabilities, go to the support wiki at

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_HDMI

The early release of the Software had some issues in the HDMI driver. Be sure and use

the latest SW to take advantage of the improvements.

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:Updating_The_Software

11.4.1 EDID

EDID is the way the board requests information from the display and determines all the

resolutions that it can support. The driver on the board will then look at these timings and

find the highest resolution that is compatible with the board and uses that resolution for the

display. For more information on EDID, you can take a look at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data

If the board is not able to read the EDID, for whatever reason, it does not have this

information. A few possible reasons for this are:

•

Bad cable

•

Cable not plugged in all the way on both ends

•

Display not powered on. (It should still work powered off, but some displays do not).

11.4.2 DISPLAY SOURCE SELECTION

One easy thing to overlook is that you need to select the display source that matches the

port you are using on the TV. Some displays may auto select, so you may need to

disconnect the other inputs until you are sure the display works with the board.

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11.4.3 OUT OF SEQUENCE

Sometimes the display and the board can get confused. One way to prevent this is after

everything is cabled up and running, you can power cycle the display, with the board still

running. You can also try resetting the board and let it reboot to resync with the TV.

11.4.4 OVERSCAN

Some displays use what is called overscan. This can be seen in TVs and not so much on

Monitors. It causes the image to be missing on the edges, such that you cannot see them

displayed. Some higher end displays allow you to disable overscan.

Most TVs have a mode that allows you to adjust the image. These are options like Normal,

Wide, Zoom, or Fit. Normal seems to be the best option as it does not chop of the edges.

The other ones will crop of the edges.

11.4.5 Taking a Nap

In some cases the board can come up in a power down/screen save mode. No display will

be present. This is due to the board believing that it is asleep. To some out of this, you

will need to hit the keyboard or move the mouse.

Once working, the board will time out and go back to sleep again. This can cause the

display to go into a power down mode as well. You may need to turn the display back on

again. Sometimes, it may take a minute or so for the display to catch up and show the

image.

11.4.6 AUDIO

Audio will only work on TV resolutions. This is due to the fact that is the way the

specification was written. Some displays have built in speakers and others require

external. Make sure you have a TV resolution and speakers are connected if they are not

built in. The SW should default to a TV resolution giving audio support. The HDMI

driver should default to the highest audio supported resolution.

11.4.7 Getting Help

If you need some up to date troubleshooting techniques, we have a Wiki set up at

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_HDMI