<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>In regard to the comparison between the BBB and the RPi for commercial uses, I ran across this article this morning while researching something completely different and it reminded me of this post. In this author's comparison, they stated the RPi was only worse for commercial uses as it is a closed box (firmware is a blob that is not open source) making it impossible to take just the schematics and incorporate a simplified version into your design. <br>
<br><a href="http://makezine.com/magazine/how-to-choose-the-right-platform-raspberry-pi-or-beaglebone-black/">http://makezine.com/magazine/how-to-choose-the-right-platform-raspberry-pi-or-beaglebone-black/</a><br><br></div>
However, reading into the comments I saw a reference to the link below on the terms of use of the BBB:<br><br><a href="http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Terms_of_Use">http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#Terms_of_Use</a><br>
<br></div>It seems they are not okay with taking the BBB and incorporating it directly (as a built board) into your production design. They are okay with taking the design itself and including it into your own custom board.<br>
<br></div>So I guess it comes down to how many units you were considering for commercial use - if the number is high enough to go through the trouble of pulling in the BBB schematic into your design and then outsourcing and building your own version of the BBB, then the BBB is still the winner. If you just want to place the board directly in your design and use it as a building block, the BBB does not look like a good idea.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 1:03 PM, Glen Smith <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mrglenasmith@gmail.com" target="_blank">mrglenasmith@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div>Basically what happened is I stay late at the office so I can go to the TriEmbed meeting (I call it my Arduino Anonymous meeting). Boss is curious, so I explain a little about Arduinos and he asks the inevitable question: "Well what can they do?" Which as we all know is like asking "What can water do?" So I try to explain using examples that people can relate to - in this case, towards our business. As with any subject, your level of expertise depends on who you are comparing yourself to. In this office, I'm the electronics/computer guru, when I go to the TriEmbed meetings, I feel like I'm wearing a life jacket and water wings and I'm still in over my head. I'd love to get paid to bring our company a little more into current technology, but for now I'm just working on projects that interest me. Fortunately, there is enough overlap to keep the boss interested. It would be great fun to walk into the office and set up a small number of demo units.<br>
<br></div>I considered the R-Pi, but from some research and meeting discussion, it appears that making the jump from research and prototype units to commercial / production with the R-Pi is more difficult than with BeagleBone Black or Atmel based devices. My personal home automation project needed a head end, so I went with BBB. Next up is to learn enough about Linux and the BBB to use it.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">Glen<br></font></span></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 10:13 AM, John Vaughters <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jvaughters04@yahoo.com" target="_blank">jvaughters04@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"><div><div><div><div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif">
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<br><div><div><div><div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif"><div><div>Glen,</div></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif">
Thanks
for follwoing up. Since you are dealing with what seems like a production type issue. I would like to make a suggestion that you concentrate on the reliability of the solution or the troubleshooting time will kill any hardware savings. Spend the money up front and test test test. From your description, you may want to consider a fully embedded solution vs. an Arduino. You will get your sound and it will be quite good actually. Solutions like R-Pi may be a better bet. There are literally tons of options out there for a fully embedded solution, so look around. <br clear="none">
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I personally have stayed away from ethernet as a reliable solution for Arduino. The logic being that the software is way to new and the point about the 8 vs. 32 bit just strengthened my belief. With an R-Pi and any other linux based embedded solution, you are getting very robust software stacks that have literally been in Development for decades. You also get serial UARTs that can be directly connected to Arduinos and UARTs have been around since computer interfaces have been around. Meaning about the most reliable software you can find. You can connect an arduino to an embedded
system via UART and expect very reliable communication to a very reliable Linux OS. This is a production solution. Of course you could also extend the Embedded hardware for I/O, but I would rather preserve my embedded device as a simple computer and let the Arduinos fry in the expected event of hardware problems ie shorts and mis-wiring. You can replace an Arduino for very little cost these days. Less than $10. <br clear="none">
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<br clear="none"> </div> </div> </div> <span>Concerning POE, you could look for embedded devices that accept
it, but it seems to me that they jack the cost up higher
than need be for that priveledge. You could also look for RJ-45 break out boards and some buck regulators which are super cheap and create your own POE break out solution. It really would not be that hard. Maybe search OshPark for a POE break out with a Buck regulator.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">When you are done testing and your hardware is selected, if you have a significant volume, talk to the vendors directly and see if there is anything you can do to make a bulk order and consider removing any hardware that you may not need. That may not be possible for manufacturing reasons, but I just do not know how much volume you are talking about. But this may help you with your cost. <br clear="none">
<br clear="none">Good Luck and please share the results of your decisions.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">John Vaughters</span><div><div></div></div></div></div></div><br><br></div> </div>
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