Exploring BeagleBone®: Tools and Techniques for Building with Embedded Linux®, Second Edition
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To Sally, Daragh, Eoghan, Aidan, and Sarah
Dr. Derek Molloy is an associate professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing's School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University, Ireland. He lectures at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in object-oriented programming with embedded systems, digital and analog electronics, and connected embedded systems. His research contributions have largely been in the fields of computer and machine vision, embedded systems, 3D graphics/visualization, and e-learning.
Derek produces a popular YouTube video series that has introduced millions of people to embedded Linux and digital electronics topics. In 2013, he launched a personal web/blog site that is visited by thousands of people every day and that integrates his YouTube videos with support materials, source code, and user discussion. In 2015, he published the first edition of this book on the BeagleBone platform, Exploring BeagleBone, and followed up in June 2016 with Exploring Raspberry Pi. Both of these books have received strong acclaim for both their depth of coverage and accessibility.
Derek has received several awards for teaching and learning. He was the winner of the 2012 Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) national award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. The award recognizes his learning-by-doing approach to undergraduate engineering education, which utilizes electronic kits and online video content. In 2012, as a result of fervent nominations from his students and peers, he was also awarded the Dublin City University President's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. This learning-by-doing approach is strongly reflected in his books.
You can learn more about Derek, his work, and his other publications at his personal website, www.derekmolloy.ie
Marcia K. Wilbur is a technical communicator consulting in the semiconductor field, focusing on industrial IoT (IIoT). Marcia holds degrees in computer science, technical communication, and information technology. As the Copper Linux User Group interim president, she is heavily involved in the East Valley maker community, leading regular Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Banana Pi/Pro, and ESP8266 projects, including home automation, gaming consoles, surveillance, network, multimedia and other “pi fun.”
In addition to tinkering, she volunteers to aid disaster-stricken areas in getting access to public domain content to enable students to continue learning. For fun, she serves the community as the lead Debian developer for Linux Respin, a backup and distro customization tool.
Many thanks to everyone at John Wiley & Sons, Inc once again for their exceptional work on this project: to Jim Minatel for encouraging me to take on the revision of this book and for supporting the enhancement of a book that engages in deeper learning; to Devon Lewis for guiding the project forward and for his expert support and help throughout the development of this book; to Adaobi Obi Tulton, the project editor, for driving this project to completion in the most efficient way possible—it was a real pleasure to work with such an accomplished and adept editor for the third time; to Kim Wimpsett, the copy editor, for translating this book into readable U.S. English; to Barath Kumar Rajasekaran, the production editor, for bringing everything together to create a final, polished product. Thanks to the technical editor, Marcia Wilbur, for her careful review and constructive feedback on the technical content in this book. Continued thanks to the technical editors from my previous titles, Tom Betka, Robert Zhu (Microsoft), and Jason Kridner (BeagleBoard.org Foundation), on whose advice this work is based. Thanks also to Cathy Wicks (Texas Instruments) for her advice and support in the development of this book.
Continued thanks to the thousands of people who take the time to comment on my YouTube videos, blog, and website articles. I always appreciate the feedback, advice, and comments—it has really helped in the development of the topics in all of my books.
The School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University is a great place to work, largely because of its esprit de corps and its commitment to rigorous, innovative, and accessible engineering education. Thanks again to all of my colleagues in the school for supporting, encouraging, and tolerating me in the development of this book. Thanks in particular must go to Noel Murphy and Conor Brennan for sharing the workload of the school executive with me while I was once again absorbed in a book. Thanks again to (my brother) David Molloy for his expert software advice and support. Thanks to Jennifer Bruton, Martin Collier, Pascal Landais, Michele Pringle, Robert Sadleir, Ronan Scaife, and John Whelan for their ongoing expertise, support, and advice on the various titles I have written.
The biggest thank-you must of course go to my own family once again. This revision was written over six months, predominantly at night and on weekends. Thanks to my wife, Sally, and our children, Daragh, Eoghan, Aidan, and Sarah for putting up with me (once again) while I was writing this book. Thank you, Mam, Dad, David, and Catriona for your endless lifelong inspiration, support, and encouragement. Finally, thank you to my extended family for your continued support, understanding, and constancy.