viSparsh Intro

viSparsh Experience at TechEd2012

viSparsh Prototype 2

We have finally been able to come up with the 2nd prototype of the belt as shown in the pic. Although, the size of the belt still looks similar to the previous version, we have done some major technical upgradations in the belt. The belt has now more robust power management system with single ON-OFF button and less components. Previous post provides the list of changes in this new prototype.

After making it functionally robust, our next aim is to decrease the size of the belt.

In the next version, we are trying to make a sleek design by considering various possibilities like replacing bigger PandaBoard with small BeagleBone, removing Kinect's plastic casing to use only the required components etc.

One of our main focus at present is to build a sleek design before adding more functionalities.

viSparsh @ TechEd2012

All ready with the second prototype of the belt, we showcased viSparsh at the TechEd2012 held at Bengaluru from 21st to 23rd March 2012.

TechEd is Microsoft's annual event to showcase state of the art technologies. We were given a booth to demonstrate our prototype.

This second prototype of the belt has following upgradations

- Less Bulky due to replacement of twelve 1.2V batteries with single 3 cell LiPo Battery.

- Single switch On-Off belt

- One major component mbed removed by directly running vibration motor through PandaBoard.

- Voltage Cut-off circuit integrated to prevent battery from damaging.

- Better Haptic feedback using the new vibration motors.

It was a fantastic experience demonstrating our project in such a big platform. The project was highly appreciated by the industry experts and others who visited the event.

Better Haptic Feedback using new vibration motors

In our first prototype of the belt, we were using ROB 08449 buzzers (left side of the image) to give haptic feedback to the visually impaired people.

The vibrations produced by them were perpendicular to axes of the belt and thus got significantly reduced as we taped them inside the belt. Therefore, we needed more powerful vibration motors for our purpose.

We have replaced the current motors with Pico Vibe 9mm Vibration Motor- 25mm type (RHS of the image) as it provides vibrations both in X and Y planes.

As could be seen in the pic, they are slightly bigger in size (25mm length and 8.8mm diameter) compared to 3.4 mm length of ROB-08449 motors. However, both operate at 3V and Pico Vibe produces 13,500rpm speed compared to 12000rpm of ROB-08449 buzzers. This is a significant improvement as our output depends on the efficiency of these vibrations. Further, instead of earlier 6 motors, we now have to use only 3 motors in the belt ( one for each zone- left, centre and right).

mbed Removed

We have finally succeeded in removing one major component from the belt. The initial design of the belt had mbed in it. We were using mbed to generate PWM (Pulse width Modulation) to be sent to the actuators (vibration motors in our case). However, we eventually figured out that the same functionalities can be provided by PandaBoard without incurring that extra component cost of mbed.

PandaBoard has on-board GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pins that can be used to render multiple functionalities. We configured three GPIO pins as output and created three software threads to generate variable-duty PWM. This PWM further actuates the vibration motors to guide the visually impaired in obstacle-detection.

Removal of mbed is a major breakthrough for us as we are continuously working on decreasing the size of the belt to make a sleek wearable design.

Belt with 'Single Switch ON-OFF' feature

In line with the continuous up-gradations being done in the belt, the next is making the belt start with the press of a single button. The circuit deploys DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) switch along with the power cut-off circuit.

It now takes away the burden of making power connections everytime one had to wear the belt.

Belt upgraded with new Power Circuit

Power issues have been bothering us for quite some time. We were earlier using 4*1.2V batteries to power PandaBoard and mbed and 8*1.2 V for Kinect. This had made the design quite bulky and was taking unnecessary space. Thus, we decided to reduce the size by replacing these cells with 2000mAh, 3 cell LiPo battery which gives 11.1V. The pic above shows the integrated LiPo batteries in the belt.

Further, we have implemented the Power Cut Off Circuit to prevent 3 cell LiPo batteries from damaging whenever voltage drops below 9V.

We have built the voltage cut off circuit using details given in RC forum

The pic shows the implemented circuit.

Media Clippings

viSparsh: A touch of light

We are continuously fine-tuning the belt according to the feedback obtained from various blind organizations. We have been visiting National Association for Blinds(NAB), Delhi and obtained valuable feedback from Mohd. Wasim.


Mohd. Wasim is blind since his birth. He really appreciated the concept of a haptic belt that makes his hands and ear free and gives a broader perception of obstacles in the path. Here is a brief video describing the concept and working of viSparsh-

Test Drive-2: Rigorous Testing

This is the second test drive of viSparsh belt. We prepared an obstacle course in a closed hall and and simulated a special test environment with dummies and different sort of obstacles. The obstacles were of different materials, heights and widths. The test results were quite encouraging.


There has been some significant changes from our last test drive- 
1. We have increased number of vibrators from three to six to give a better indication of obstacle to the user. 
2. An autorun script has been created and deployed which starts the viSparsh belt automatically when we switch it on.  


Here is a video snippet of this test drive-

Autorun

Although we finished the first phase of viSparsh. There were certain fine tunings required to make the belt wearable. The belt stills needed to be started by executing a file on ubuntu-terminal. To resolve that we needed an autorun file which automatically runs at startup and kickstarts the belt. This can be done by creating an initialization daemon. We have created this daemon and now the belt can run on its own. The detailed process is given below- 

STEP1: Create the autorun script

Create a new file 'auto_visparsh' at Desktop with the commands starting the viSparsh belt as content. Copy following command in this file. 

COMMAND:

cd /root/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Bin/Release
./SimpleRead.net.exe 

STEP2: Copy this autorun file to /etc/init.d 

/etc/init.d contains all scripts which are run on startup and shutdown automatically. The '.d' in 'init.d' represents 'daemon'. Daemon are the processes which are executed in background.

COMMAND:

cd /etc/init.d
cp /home/visparsh/Desktop/auto_visparsh /etc/init.d

STEP3: Choose the run-level

Create a 'soft-link' of the autorun file in one of the run-level directory {rc0.d, rc1.d rc2.d rc3.d rc4.d, rc5.d, rc6.d}. For our purpose choose 'rc2.d'. Don't use 'rc0','rc1' and 'rc6' they contain shutdown scripts. We can also set priority of the process using 'SXX' where XX represents the priority {00<=XX<=99}. The letter 'S' represents 'Start' and can be replaced by 'K' to deactivate a script.   

COMMAND:

cd /etc/rc2.d
ln -s ../init.d/auto_visparsh S99auto_visparsh

STEP4: Restart

Now restart the board. This time belt will start automatically.

Test Drive-1: GET, SET……… GO!!!!!!!!!!

After the hard work of one and a half month finally we finished first phase of our project. We have designed the viSparsh v1.0. The belt includes a plastic box which contains PandaBoard, Mbed and Voltage Convertor and the Kinect fixed at the front of the belt. Currently we are using three vibration motors on three sides which we plan to increase to six in version 1.1.

We had our test drive today in our hostel and it worked exceptionally well with no false alarm. Some of the other fellows helped us in shooting the video and becoming the obstacles. Here is the video for this test drive-

Power Supply Issues

After powering the circuit from AC mains, it was time to switch on to batteries as the viSparsh belt would be mobile. So, we purchased a Chinese 12V 2100mAh battery pack to run Kinect and used 7805 voltage regulator to power mbed and PandaBoard with 5V. The batteries were drained out in a couple of minutes and situation got worst after recharging it. Hence, this Chinese battery proved useless for us.

We, then, used 8 AA size Kodak 2100 mAh rechargeable cells. Though it powered our setup for 15 odd minutes but not what we required. Then we got 8 more to power Kinect separately. Still, the power dissipation from 7805 was huge and we thought why not to eliminate that. As one cell is rated 1.2V (though it measures between 1.3-1.4), so we connect 4 cells in series to draw slightly more than 5V from it.

Here is the final number of cells we have used in the project:

1. Mbed:                  4 AA Size 1.2V 1000mAh          Output: Slightly more than 5V

2. PandaBoard:        4 AA Size 1.2V 2100mAh          Output: Slightly more than 5V

3. Kinect                  8 AA Size 1.2V 2500mAh          Output: Slightly more than 10V

Here, we were able to eliminate 7805 voltage regulator from our circuit and hence we minimized the power dissipation.We tested the belt for around half an hour and it worked perfectly with this configuration.

We may add 4 more cells in parallel to power PandaBoard.

Another option we may consider is to order a customized battery with our specifications.

Booting Ubuntu on Pandaboard EA3

STEP1: Download the Ubuntu image

Use this link to download the pre-installed image of ubuntu 10.10. 

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/ports/releases/10.10/release/ubuntu-netbook-10.10-preinstalled-netbook-armel+omap4.img.gz

STEP2: Prepare the SD card

Insert the SD card in your PC and unmount it. Then use this command to copy the pre-built image on the card.

COMMAND:

sudo sh -c 'zcat ./ubuntu-netbook-10.10-preinstalled-netbook-armel+omap4.img.gz|dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb; sync'

STEP3: Download and copy required u-boot and MLO files

For Pandaboard version A2 and later follow these instructions. In our case we had a EA3 version so we followed it.  

1.      Download http://people.canonical.com/~tobin/maverick/panda.tar.bz2 

2.      Untar with "tar -jxf panda.tar.bz2"

3.      Mount the first partition of the imaged SD card

4.      Copy MLO and u-boot.bin (extracted from the tar file) to the mounted partition.

STEP4: Boot from Pandaboard

Now unmounts the SD card and insert it in Pandaboard and give it the power. It shall start booting.

STEP5: Now use the same procedure to install OpenNI and Kinect that we used for BeagleBoard.

Reference: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/OMAPMaverickInstall

Getting ready to release the 1st version

Huhuuu! After facing lots of troubles at every step, we were finally able to get the project working by seamlessly integrating all the components. The video above shows as to how Kinect is able to detect an object (human in our case) and give an alarm depending on the distance between the human and Kinect. In our case, we have used three vibration motors for producing these alert signals. Each motor is used to send an alert for obstacle in one particular direction namely, left, right or middle. These three motors would help a visually impaired person in identifying the direction in which the obstacle is present. We hope to transfer this functionality on the belt in a day or two.This would mark the end of first phase of our project where we were supposed to make a working prototype of the viSparsh Belt.

Solving the Response Time Problem

The response time of the data transmitted by the Kinect to the BeagleBoard came to around 4-5 seconds which was quite contrary to our expectations. By 'Response Time' we mean the 'time lag' between two samples of data transmitted by the Kinect to the BeagleBoard.

In order to solve this problem we tried running the same on the PandaBoard and Hurray! the problem got solved. Response time decreased to a few milliseconds. Though both have the 1Ghz processor but BeagleBoard has 512MB DDR RAM whereas PandaBoard has 1GB DDR2 RAM.

Active USB Hub: The way out for our Kinect Detection Problem

To our utter surprise, Kinect stopped working all of a sudden. On running Kinect sample programs, it was not able to detect the device as mentioned in one of our previous posts. However few days back, we were able to find the solution for this. After trying all possible combinations like the software error possibilities etc., we were finally left with trying out the Active USB Hub option. And Hurray!, it actually worked. The problem was that although Kinect runs on a 12V adapter , it still draws ample amount of current from the USB port to which it is connected. Thus, while connecting Kinect to BeagleBoard/PandaBoard, Kinect was not able to draw to draw sufficient amount of current from the board. Thus, on connecting Kinect through the Active USB Hub instead of the board directly, we were able to remove Kinect detection problem.

Time for Efficiency Optimization

YIF journey has been a life-changer for each of the Young India Fellows. Especially for our team viSparsh, managing a technical project alongside an intensive liberal arts course has been tough. We have been working many days and nights to quickly complete the 1st phase of our ELM (to build viSparsh belt prototype). However, the demanding coursework and other activities at YIF also consumed effective part of our time. Thus, we finally understood the urgency for effective time management for our project which we were not able to strictly abide to earlier. As per the guidance of our mentor Prof. Rahul Mangharam, to start with we decided of chalking out a plan for our coming two weeks. Given below is the work allocation for our next two weeks:

– Resolving Issues coming with Kinect on Beagleboard(Tushar- 16/11/11)

– Completing all installation work( including OS and Kinect) on PandaBoard (Jatin-17/11/11)

– Talking to organizations like Kritical Solutions and Saksham NGO (suggested by YIFP admin) to get inputs from visually impaired people, knowing about their issues and talking to other people already working in this field. (Rolly-30/11/11)

– Making PCB for the project (Jatin-22/11/11)

– Integrating all components (Tushar-26/11/11)

– Making Initial Project with Belt (Tushar-26/11/11)

– Updating Blog, contacting people and other communications (Rolly- on regular basis)

Alongside, this initial work distribution we would be soon making a proper timeline till the end of our project to help us keep better track of the project and work accordingly to meet the deadlines.

Problem Bubbles Popping Out

It seems we are on the board of ‘Snakes & Ladders’. The time when we were about to complete our phase-I another technical issue has bugged us. The Kinect which was working well so far (as posted earlier) is not getting detected with beagleboard now. 

We are getting the follwing error on running a sample Kinect program-

Error:One or more of the following nodes could not be enumerated.

Device: PrimeSense/SensorKinect/5.0.3.4: The device is not connected!

For the last four days we have been struggling with this problem. We have tried various fixes available on the web but none has worked so far. We have even prepared a new SD card with everything installed from scratch but same error persists. We are trying our level best to find any point we have been unknowingly missing so far. However, this had resulted us in push our submission deadlines also accounting the fact that we have term papers and exams on the pipeline.

Battle with Bugs

The entire last was a battle with bugs and installation problems. The OpenNI website has updated the OpenNI files without updating the Sensor files. It created errors during installation and we were forced to read almost every blog and website on web to debug it. We left no stone unturned and finally managed to install the sensor correctly. Here is a detailed description on installation instructions and debugging. We are trying to put all the problems and there solutions at one place so that it can save others time.

STEP 1: Install required packages for Kinect
We need to install certain packages in Ubuntu. These packages, then, would facilitate the installation of OpenNI and Kinect.

COMMAND:

sudo apt-get install git-core cmake libglut3-dev pkg-config 

sudo apt-get install gcc g++ build-essential libxmu-dev 

sudo apt-get install libxi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev 

sudo apt-get install doxygen graphviz git

ERROR:

libglut3-dev cannot be installed

FIX:

sudo apt-get install git-core cmake freeglut3-dev pkg-config

sudo apt-get install gcc g++ build-essential libxmu-dev 

sudo apt-get install libxi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev 

sudo apt-get install doxygen graphviz git

In the latest versions ‘libglut3-dev’ has been replaced by ‘freeglut3-dev’ so install it inplace of ‘libglut3-dev’. In case it does not work, install libglut3 from launchpad.net/ubuntu/natty/+package/libglut3-dev.

Although some blogs tell that ‘doxygen’ and ‘graphviz’ are optional, we found that they are required so don’t skip them while installation.

STEP 2: Create a new directory for Kinect

COMMAND:

mkdir ~/kinect

cd ~/kinect

STEP 3: Download OpenNI from the git repository

COMMAND:

git clone https://github.com/OpenNI/OpenNI.git

STEP 4: Install OpenNI

COMMAND:

cd OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Build
make && sudo make install

ERROR1:
Cannot find the metadata file "system.windows.forms.dll"

FIX1:

sudo apt-get install mono-complete

Although, it is weird that linux throws error of windows dll file, the solution is to install ‘mono’. Mono is a platform for running and developing applications based on the ECMA/ISO Standards.

ERROR2:

No access permission for install.sh and RedistMaker.

FIX2:

The error indicates that the install.sh and RedistMaker files do not have execution permission. Therefore give them permission to execute.

cd ../CreateRedist

sudo chmod +x install.sh RedistMaker

cd ../Build

ERROR3:

CommonMakefile does not exit

FIX3:

sudo apt-get install mono-complete

ERROR 4:

“arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi” does not exist.

The error is generated as we are on ARM Platform and the Platform.Arm file tries to access gnueabi file for Angstrom (arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi) which does not exist in Ubuntu.

FIX 4:

cd Common 

mv Platform.Arm Platform.Arm.BAK

cp Platform.x86 Platform.Arm

ERROR 5:

Unrecognized command line option "-malign-double"

Unrecognized command line option "-mmse2"

FIX 5: Edit the Platform.Arm file in ~/kinect/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Build/Common

In the latest version of OpenNI, the ARM platform has been included by the name Linux-ARM. However if we go into ~/kinect/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-ARM/Build/ and try to build it you’ll face errors thus better would be to use the old Linux-x86 platform files with some modifications.

Open ~/kinect/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Build/Common/Platform.Arm and ~/kinect/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Build/Common/Platform.x86 files to comment out these lines:

  CFLAGS += -malign-double

  and

  ifeq ($(SSE_GENERATION), 2)

        CFLAGS += -msse2

  else

        ifeq ($(SSE_GENERATION), 3)

               CFLAGS += -msse3

        else

               ($error "Only SSE2 and SSE3 are supported")

        endif

  endif

We need to do this because ‘ -malign-double’ and ‘-msse3’ flags are valid only for x86 platform and will not work for gcc on ARM. Commenting out these statements makes the code usable for ARM.

STEP 5: Download Kinect driver

Most of the blogs mention https://github.com/boilerbots/Sensor.git to get the Kinect sensor’s files. These files are not updated and generated many errors and bugs. Use https://github.com/avin2/SensorKinect which is the updated version and do not produce these errors.

COMMAND: 

cd ~/kinect/
git clone https://github.com/avin2/SensorKinect
cd SensorKinect

STEP 6: Install Kinect driver

cd Platform/Linux-x86/Build
make && sudo make install

ERROR1:

CommonMakefile does not exit

FIX1:

sudo apt-get install mono-complete

Now try building again. If the method does not work do this-

gedit ~/kinect/SensorKinect/Platform/Linux-x86/Build

Replace ‘LIB_USED’ by ‘USED_LIBS’ and build again. You may find that the name is already ‘USED_LIBS’ in that case follow the below given instructions.

Latest versions of OpenNI have changed the name of the common file as CommonCppMakefile. How most of the Sensor files have not yet been updated. Therefore, execute this command to create a soft link copy of CommonCppMakefile with the name CommonMakefile.

cd /usr/include/ni

ln –s  ./CommonCppMakefile ./CommonMakefile

If it does not work open /usr/include/ni and search for these file-

CommonCppMakefile

CommonDefs.mak

CommonTargets.mak

CommonCSMakefile

CommonJavaMakefile

Platform.CE4100

Platform.x86

Platform.Arm

The OpenNI probably hasn’t created these files. Therefore, you need to copy them here. Execute these commands-

cd ~/kinect/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Build

cp Common/* /usr/include/ni

STEP 7: Now use your kinect

Connect the kinect with the beagleboard and run sample programs-

cd ~/kinect/OpenNI/Platform/Linux-x86/Bin/Release

./SampleNiRead

ERROR :

InitFromXml failed: Failed to set USB Interface!

FIX :

sudo rmmod gspca_kinect

    

Bootstrap

Here are the instructions to download an image of Ubuntu Maverick and installing it on SD/MMC card. You may choose any Ubuntu flavor as you wish. We have chosen Maverick 10.10 here. Download any other flavor of Ubuntu from here: http://rcn-ee.net/deb/rootfs/maverick/.

STEP 1: Download and extract Ubuntu Maverick 10.10

wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/rootfs/maverick/ubuntu-10.10-r7-minimal-armel.tar.xz

tar xjf ubuntu-10.10-r7-minimal-armel.tar.xz

cd ubuntu-10.10-r7-minimal-armel

STEP 2: Look for the MMC/SD card

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --probe-mmc

This would result in something like this-

Are you sure? I Don't see [/dev/idontknow], here is what I do see...

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes <-x86 Root Drive

Disk /dev/sdb: 7957 MB, 7957325824 bytes    <-MMC/SD card

mount:

/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0) <-x86 Root Partition

 Here you can see that /dev/sdb matches your MMC card specification.

STEP 3: Partition the MMC/SD card and install the Ubuntu image

sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdb --uboot beagle

Version	--uboot option
BeagleBoard Bx	--uboot beagle_bx
BeagleBoard Cx, xM, A/B/C	--uboot beagle
Panda Board	--uboot panda

STEP 4: Insert the MMC/SD card in SD card slot at BeagleBoard, connect the monitor and boot it. Use these login details:

Username: ubuntu 

Password: temppwd

STEP 5: Connect to Internet and install GUI and other necessary packages

sudo dhclient eth0

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

sudo apt-get install xfce4 gdm xubuntu-gdm-theme xubuntu-artwork 

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-omap3 network-manager

We also used ‘sudo apt-get upgrade’ in this step 5. It took several hours and resulted into non graphical interface. Therefore, there is no need to do that here. 

STEP 6: Restart the BeagleBoard.

PandaBoard- All thanks to Texas Instruments

Yes!!! Now we have with us the power of PandaBoard and all thanks to Texas Instruments for providing us the board for our project and guess what..it's sponsored by them.

After half an hour long conference with Vikas Joshi representing TI, he sent to us PandaBoard which will give a special edge to our project. We have already installed Ubuntu OS image on it and we are heading towards our next step to complete Phase I of the project.

Thank You Texas Instruments!!!

Kinectised the BeagleBoard

Finally, we have "Kinectised" the beagleboard. After working for more than a week to install OpenNI and Kinect sensor on the beagleboard things have finally worked out for us.

OpenNI though initially  showed some errors while installing but it was done in a couple of days.

Then we tried the methods given on N number of sites on the internet, still we were not able to install Kinect Sensor. Ultimately, we had to use our brain and employ some tricks to get that working. For this we understood it first by installing it on Linux installed on our laptop and then going through the files and the functions handled by them. Then we moved on to beagle board to resolve the error. Detailed process will be posted after we complete the next phase.

So, now the game is ON and we are just waiting for the delivery of Logic level converters and vibrations motors which we have ordered from Sparkfun. Stay tuned for the next updates!!

A new ray of hope amidst Diwali festivities

Huh! After days of searching for the PandaBoard, we finally have found a ray of hope. As mentioned in the previous post we had planned to buy PandaBoard for the project. However, non-availability of it in the market gave us a setback. In order to meet the deadlines we had to start our project with BeagleBoard till the time we found a PandaBoard for our project. We were sure that the unmatched feature set and ease of usage of the PandaBoard would help us in developing a good product quickly. Due to these reasons we kept searching for all the possibilities of getting a chance to work on the PandaBoard. Hurray! We finally have got a new hope from Texas Instruments who have given a positive signal for lending a PandaBoard to us atleast till the end of our ELM. We are excited to try our hands on the same. We wish Diwali brings good news from across the corners for you all too. Happy Diwali Guys and Gals :-) .

Serially the way out

In order to transmit the data from BeagleBoard to Mbed microcontroller to actuate the vibration motors we need to transmit data serially. Hence we successfully tested serially full duplex communication from Linux (x86 processor) to other PC terminal. Next target is running the Kinect and OpenNi on Ubuntu (we have already succesfully checked the same on Windows7).

Down to the basics

Next, we succesfully tested serial transmission and reception from mbed(through 9th & 10th serial port pins). 

For testing data transmission, we made use of ebox (as we didn't had PC) that was already available with us. To convert the voltages( ttl to RS-232), we had to make use of MAX 232. The circuit looked as follows:

It must be noted that the PCB shown in the diagram on the right is used only for the usage of MAX232 IC in that circuit(since we didn't have spare IC).

Parallel Action on mbed

While other stuff was being done, we registered mbed online and started exploring it using its online available compiler. We tried simple LED programs and PWM and they worked without any problem.

Getting to the technicalities

As mentioned in the previous post, we faced certain issues with Ubuntu. We had different concerns for Natty and Maverick. In case of Natty, our main concern was the extra amount of space being taken up by the OS that we had to eventually buy another 8GB SD Card. Thus, as we figured out the main problem with installing Natty is the space constraint.

In case of Maverick, even after strictly following the steps given in the wiki link:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/OMAPMaverickInstall

We were not able to successfully install it. We were following the installing procedures for BeagleBoard xM ver A3 and later. However, later we discovered that although the procedure for all other versions of BeagleBoard xM after A3 is same, ver C is an expection to it. We figured out that since our BeagleBoard xM was Rev C, we had to adopt different procedure instead of the normal procedure (also mentioned in above link) as an exception.

Time to explore :-)

Since we had worked on Windows CE7 before, we thought of exploring other Operating Systems. Spending some time on this process was necessary as we want to test the pros and cons of various OS before choosing one.

We tried installing and booting the OS on BeagleBoard for testing purposes.

1. Angstorm: : We started with Angstorm with worked perfectly fine without creating any issues.

2. Ubuntu Flavors: Next we applied the same procedure of testing the image on Natty and Maverick separately. We came up with certain difficulties in this (discussed in the next post). However, we were able to resolve them soon.

3. Android: Considering the Android revolution going on at present with high graphic capabilities, we thought it also try our hands on it. This would help us later in integrating our product with State of the Art application, features.

Thus, we were finally able to successfully test install all main OS on BeagleBoard. During this process we learned that for an OS to successfully boot this process is needed-

1. Partitioning the SD card into two parts-

             SD card            : /dev/sdb  [4 GB]
______________________________________________
     Name                     Path              Space                 Type
______________________________________________
boot partition    |       /dev/sdb1     |    74 MB         |   FAT32
rootfs partition  |       /dev/sdb2     | Rest Space      |   EXT3
______________________________________________

2. Copying appropriate files into these partitions-

__________________________________________________
     Name                     Path                           Files
__________________________________________________
boot partition    |       /dev/sdb1     |   MLO, u-boot.bin.ift, uImage
rootfs partition  |       /dev/sdb2     |   vmlinuz
__________________________________________________


These four files are the main files for BB-xm we need 'boot.scr' too.