Transfering Files to the BeagleBone

iTerm2

I recently got using iTerm2 because as I was trying to set up the regular terminal on my mac, there were a few more features I was wanting. A great feature is the ability to save window arrangements.  This allows the user to configure profiles and save them as a "Window". In each window you can start the shell with a command giving you a head start. When I use the Beaglebone I have one shell start with

ssh root@192.168.7.2

which starts the ssh to access my Beaglebone. In the other window I have the command

cd /Documents/Beaglebone

which is where I contain files that I use a favorite IDE on my Mac or Linux to copy over to my Beaglebone. I saved these two shells in my "Beaglebone" window arrangement.  I am not to familiar with Vim or eMacs because I do not program everyday so I have not invested the time to learn. This make it easy to start up the iTerm2 and get right into working on my Beaglebone.

SCP (Secure Copy)

Once I have my terminal all set, I use SCP to copy files from my Mac to the Beaglebone. The command is as follows

scp test.py root@192.168.7.2:~/Python

The first argument is the file you want transferred. Next is the the Beaglebone user and IP address followed by a colon and the path to where you want to transfer the file.

The iTerm allows me to work entirely from the terminal. I have also reconfigured the light weight editor nano to syntax highlight for python files so I can do quick corrections without going to my favorite IDE everytime. I'll place another post how I configured nano for the syntax highlighting.

Laser Wood Burning

I usually complete my projects about 85-90% before moving on to the next one. As I mentioned before, I wanted to do a laser wood burner. The idea is you would take a gray scale image with has the data stored in a particular way. Regardless of how your program would interpret the data, there is a scale from light to dark.

Gray Scale Range

I want to use this stored data in an image file to control a laser. It would ride on a X-Y carriage as the laser is controlled maybe by pulse width modulation. This would effect how long the laser burns and at what intensity to get contrast on the image.

Pulse Width Modulation

I think this would be a cool project to do where you can have 

1. An image processed
2. Converted to data for the laser to interpret X,Y and power
3. Have a microcontroller or computer control the burning process

The end result would hopefully be something along the lines of

Hopefully final result for the laser wood burning project

If this can be done by hand why not have a computer do it :-) I think it would be a pretty cool challenge . Any suggestions are appreciated.

I want a real work shop!!!!

I really want  a designated area for a workshop which apartments are no good for. I have a few cordless tools and it gets me by but I want the works. Large bench, shelving, table saws room for a 3d printer, etc. I am talking about a shop that is similar to the one below.

As I have mentioned previously in my blog, I am working on a "barn door" tracker for my astrophotography. I struggled to cut out the "doors" for my tracker on my small second floor patio. One day, I'll have the workshop I want. 

Beagle Bone Black Up and Functional

I have had limited time as of late but I wanted to confirm that after updating to the latest Angstrom distro that my Beagle Bone Black is functioning. I can properly SSH into the device so this weekend I plan on getting more involved with it...time permitting. Hope others are enjoying the Beagle Bone!

Beagle Bone Black SSH Issue

I bought some new toys for my beagle bone black and wanted to get started this weekend. Unfortunately there is a SSH problem with the release distribution of angstrom. I could not connect to the board through the SSH but apparently it is fixed with the latest. I found the a forum on the discussion posted below.

Link to solution

Now I need to get a bigger micro SD card to get going...guess I have to wait :-(