Updating Beaglebone black out of the box using ethernet and ssh seems to run into problems with opkg update; opkg upgrade step.

Steps to reproduce:

1.  Get a brand new Beaglebone black out of the box
2. Upgrade the image to the 06-20-2013 image using an MMC card
• Used the link from http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
• Grabbed the eMMC flasher image
• Uncompressed the image and burned a MicroSD card
• Followed http://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone-black-installing-operating-systems/flashing-the-beaglebone-black
3. rebooted Beaglebone connected via Ethernet
4. ssh'ed into the Beaglebone black
5. ran "opkg update", everything ok
6. did "opkg upgrade", things work for a while and then you get
   

   Downloading http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/feeds/unstable/ipk/glibc/armv7a//Packages.gz.wget: bad address 'www.angstrom-distribution.org'Downloading http://feeds.angstrom-distribution.org/feeds/v2012.12/ipk/eglibc/armv7a-vfp-neon/base/Packages.gz.wget: bad address 'feeds.angstrom-distribution.org'Downloading http://feeds.angstrom-distribution.org/feeds/v2012.12/ipk/eglibc/armv7a-vfp-neon/machine/beaglebone/Packages.gz.wget: bad address 'feeds.angstrom-distribution.org'Downloading http://feeds.angstrom-distribution.org/feeds/v2012.12/ipk/eglibc/armv7a-vfp-neon/debug/Packages.gz.wget: bad address 'feeds.angstrom-distribution.org'

   ...

Steps to fix:

My quick hack is to edit /etc/hosts and add in the IP address of feeds.angstrom-distribution.org

140.211.169.179 feeds.angstrom-distribution.org

So, my /etc/hosts file now looks like

root@beaglebone:~# cd /etc
root@beaglebone:/etc# vi hosts
root@beaglebone:/etc# cat hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain           localhost
140.211.169.179 feeds.angstrom-distribution.org
127.0.0.1 beaglebone
root@beaglebone:/etc#

Now, opkg upgrade seems to work fine.

Please note that this is a HACK.  Please remove the line from your /etc/hosts after the upgrade is done.

UPDATE:

The upgrade finished, but had lots of errors of not enough space, and then it dropped the ssh connection.  Rebooting it and attempting to restart opkg upgrade fails.

I'm beginning to think the correct way is to avoid opkg upgrade, or as http://www.circuidipity.com/getting-started-with-beaglebone-black.html put it:

'opkg upgrade'

Fix: Do not run this command or else Bad Things Will Happen.

First few boards have been built.  Calling it a night and building more tomorrow.

Our web store is now launched at https://exadler.myshopify.com, where you can actually buy the Dual Motor Controller Capes (DMCC Mk.6).

100 DMCC Mk.6 Boards

Got another shipment of DMCC Mk.6 blank boards.  Time to start assembling them!

Our store is also open now at https://exadler.myshopify.com if you want to buy one of these assembled boards.

DMCC Mk.5 does LED Lights!!

We do lights!!  Here we have two banks of LED lights controlled by the DMCC Mk.5 turning on and off using a PWM control program on the Beaglebone black.

We were prompted to do this quick breadboard wiring when someone asked us if we could control a long string of LED lights.  Our estimate based upon the current draw from this circuit is that we could control 800 LEDs (two sets of 400 LEDs) on a single DMCC (Dual Motor Controller Cape) board.

The Mark 5 DMCC (Dual Motor Controller Cape) has been built!  We are hoping to be able to sell these boards at the Toronto Maker Faire (http://makerfairetoronto.com) on September 21-22.

DMCC Mk.5 working!
(CR2032 coin cell left in picture accidentally - not used on board)

Here are the details on the connections of the board:

• Quadrature Encoder Inputs 1 and 2:
• The connector is compatible with US Digital E4P encoders (used by FIRST robotics teams - http://www.usdigital.com/products/e4p)
• Cape ID Selector:
• Used to select a different cape ID for stacking up to 4 capes on the same Beaglebone black
• Motor Power LED:
• Indicates that there is power from the Motor Power Connector.  The motors are powered from the Motor Power Connector instead of the Beaglebone black.  This allows the DMCC (Dual Motor Controller Cape) to power motors of a different voltage rating (up to +28V DC)
• Motor 1 and 2 LED:
• These LEDs are dark (off) when the motors are not being powered.  They light up GREEN when the motors are powered in forward motion, and they light up RED when the motors are powered in reverse motion.
• Motor 1 and 2 Connectors:
• Molex Micro-Fit (http://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=microfit_30&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction) connectors for the motors.  The Micro-Fit connectors were used because they were the only connectors that would fit (height-wise) on the stackable capes.
• Motor Power Connector:
• This is the input power that powers the motors.  A four pin Micro-Fit connector was used to provide the current required for driving two motors.

Here is a video showing the DMCC Mk.5 working:

DMCC Mk. 5

Dual Motor Cape Version 4 is in!!

I'm using the Silhouette Cameo Stencil cutting technique I found from http://www.idleloop.com/robotics/stencil/index.php.  The results were good enough to use:

Minor variations I found was that I had to set the physical cutter depth to 3 instead of 1 as indicated in Cathy Saxon's article.

Populating the board (except for missing J4, still in transit from Mouser):

One of the things you'll notice that I've changed is the motor and power connectors.  I've using Molex Microfit connectors http://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=microfit_30&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction, instead of the screw terminals.  The reason for the change is that I felt that using the screw terminals might be unreliable when using this board on a mobile robot.  The only downside is that the Microfit connectors are rated at 5A max.  I think I will have to leave it at that spec when I sell the boards (although you could always solder wires directly to the board to get a higher current -- the ST Micro HBridge chips are rated for up to 30A if you add a few heat sinks in).  I'll probably keep the spec at 5A continuous, and 10A peak (violating the Microfit spec a bit -- they do spec the two circuit connector at 7A, but I want a little leeway).