beaglebone-black - Flipbook - Page 15
BeagleBone Black
3.2 Main Connection Scenarios
This section will describe how to connect the board for use. This section is basically a slightly more detailed
description of the Quick Start Guide that came in the box. There is also a Quick Start Guide document on the
board that should also be referred to. The intent here is that someone looking to purchase the board will be
able to read this section and get a good idea as to what the initial set up will be like.
The board can be con昀椀gured in several di昀昀erent ways, but we will discuss the two most common scenarios as
described in the Quick Start Guide card that comes in the box.
• Tethered to a PC via the USB cable
– Board is accessed as a storage drive
– Or a RNDIS Ethernet connection.
• Standalone desktop
– Display
– Keyboard and mouse
– External 5V power supply
Each of these con昀椀gurations is discussed in general terms in the following sections.
For an up-to-date list of con昀椀rmed working accessories please go to BeagleBone_Black_Accessories
3.2.1 Tethered To A PC
In this con昀椀guration, the board is powered by the PC via the provided USB cable–no other cables are required.
The board is accessed either as a USB storage drive or via the browser on the PC. You need to use either Firefox
or Chrome on the PC, Internet Explorer will not work properly. «昀椀gure-2» shows this con昀椀guration.
Fig. 3.2: Tethered Con昀椀guration
All the power for the board is provided by the PC via the USB cable. In some instances, the PC may not be able
to supply su昀케cient power for the board. In that case, an external 5VDC power supply can be used, but this
should rarely be necessary.
Connect the Cable to the Board
1. Connect the small connector on the USB cable to the board as shown in 昀椀gure-3. The connector is on
the bottom side of the board.
2. Connect the large connector of the USB cable to your PC or laptop USB port.
3. The board will power on and the power LED will be on as shown in 昀椀gure below.
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Chapter 3. Connecting Up Your BeagleBone Black
