PocketBeagle 2 now run ardupilot

General
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Beagleboard.org has released an upgraded version of the popular PocketBeagle, designed as an ultra-compact, low-cost, and powerful single-board computer (SBC).
PocketBeagle 2 is based on Texas Instruments AM6252 - dual core and a new version was announced with a quadcore AM6254.

I create a DIY cape, using a GY-912 - ICM20498 IMU and a BMP388 baro in the same breadboard to save space.
To measure battery I choose to use a Holybro PM2D - to save space and the precision, but other i2c sensors can be used too.
There is headers for CAN, GPIO, GPS, OTG.

The PR was merged last week and the wiki page PR will be soon.
The GitHub page for the cape is found at GitHub - juvinski/pbboard: PocketBeagle2 DIY Cape for Ardupilot

A DShot without telemetry is ready - I’m ending the tests and will be available soon..

Any help, comments and ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks to @peterbarker for several insights and help.

pocketbeagle-2-cape-top
pocketbeagle-2-cape-top800×800 157 KB

pocketbeagle-2-cape-components
pocketbeagle-2-cape-components800×800 160 KB

This is the video of the first flight

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It’s BeagleBoard.org, not BeagleBone.org, but I get it. Also, only the earliest PocketBeagle 2 had the dual-core processor. If you get any today, they’ll be quad-core.

I think this is the first public post of PocketBeagle 2 support for ArduPilot, so I’d welcome a blog post on Beagle Board Blog | Learn More about the lastes News and content. Let me know if you’d like a login to create a guest post.

Congrats on Adding PocketBeagle 2 support by juvinski · Pull Request #30536 · ArduPilot/ardupilot · GitHub

Great to see the wiki PR pending and I created a review at Add Pocket Beagle 2 Wiki by juvinski · Pull Request #7165 · ArduPilot/ardupilot_wiki · GitHub in case it helps.

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Great work there !
We support beaglebone for years ! So that is nice it continues and the hardware is great . I am eager to see what can people can do with this (other than just loading BlueOS )

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Thanks @khancyr ,
I’m finishing my tests with DShot - I’m testing to see if can be the PRU deal with the telemetry - and eager to test the new version with a quad-core AM6254 processor :slight_smile:

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Very cool project,

Can this Setup run as a Companion Computer (Companion Computers — Dev documentation) to do things like vision processing or is the cpu only running ardupilot.

Thanks,

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Hi @Tristan_Redish
I never thought about a companion computer but is a quadcore cpu and pretty tiny - with no vision/ai accelerator running Ubuntu or debian

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Hi everyone,

Very interesting project! I’m curious about a few technical details:

  • What’s the maximum theoretical number of actuator outputs supported? Are all PWM signals generated using the PRUs?
  • Is the HAL based on Linux? If so, does it provide the same real-time guarantees as ChibiOS?

Thanks!

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Hi @rzahinos-dev
6 outputs. I have now 6 PWM and testing DShot - without telemetry.
Yes, is linux board runing RT kernel.

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Yep Great Work @juvinski
Glad to see the brave little board still making things fly :slight_smile:

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Hi @ppoirier , hoje are you my friend :slight_smile:
Fly and funny

Best regards

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does this have the same problem as the old one where the flash will corrupt if you don’t shut it down first before unplugging the battery?