[time-nuts] BeagleBone Black NTP server

Iain Young iain at g7iii.net
Sat May 10 08:12:13 UTC 2014


On 10/05/14 08:30, nuts wrote:
> On Fri, 9 May 2014 23:49:05 -0400
> Paul <tic-toc at bodosom.net> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 11:38 PM, nuts <nuts at lazygranch.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I can tell you that the BBB is really reliable. You don't hear that
>>> about the R. Pi,
>>>
>>
>> I find them comparable.  My Pi has actually run longer.  I don't
>> expect either to be able to run a year without crashing.
>>
>>
>>> Note a bug on the BBB is if you use a cape, it blocks the connector
>>> to the serial port.
>>
>>
>> I use "stacking" headers (the wrong way) to lift the cape.  I'd
>> rather have the console port than be able to close a case.
>> _______________________________________________
>
> I think I can visualize what you did. Kind of like how many daughter
> boards connect to motherboards.
>
> I was thinking it might make more sense to move the serial port pins to
> the bottom, or just make a flexible cable to hook up to the serial port.

Or just use UARTS 1, 2, 4, or 5 for your GPS device

> You have to wonder who made this "executive decision" to have the cape
> cover rather important pins.

No one made that decision.

Originally, you had the BBW, which did not have the header where the BBB
has the console pins. The capes were designed for the BBW.

When they did the BBB, they brought out the console pins to that extra
pin header. Using a BBW cape with a BBB does work in most cases, but yes
you lose access to the UART0 pins.

To be honest, I've only ever needed access on first boot, and when
developing [usually when I fsckup a kernel or some such]. Even then, I
can just remove the SD card and restore things to an earlier kernel.

[SNIP]

>> http://www.inplanesight.org/adsb_bbb_angstrom.html
>
> This page has instructions for using the BBB for mode-s decoding, but
> there are a few useful tips on it. For instance, you will want to
> change the "runlevel" if you want to SSH into the device rather than
> use the HDMI port.

Interesting on the mode-s stuff. I run all mine headless, and in debian,
just install ssh, no need to change the run level. Also, note that if
you want access to all the UARTs you will need to sacrifice the onboard
flash, and HDMI (IIRC), as I mentioned in my earlier email

(Oh and if anyone cares, my current fleet is 5 BBBs and 3 BBWs...)



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