bbb user instructions - victronenergy/venus GitHub Wiki

Intro

This page explains how to install the Venus image on the Victron Venus GX, BeagleBone Enhanced and BeagleBone Black.

Note that this procedure is only for do-it-your-self software developers. Its not at all necessary for normal installers and users; for normal use, refer to the Venus GX user manual.

Tested bones are BeagleBone Black (BBB) and the BeagleBone Enhanced (BBE). The latter is also what is in the Venus GX which is also running the exact same firmware available for download below.

The BeagleBone Venus image can for sure be used on a Venus GX (thats what we do in our factory), and it can (probably) also be used on a BBB and BEE. Why do we wrote probably you might think? Thats Because we only test and develop for the Venus GX.

For any questions or issues, contact us on the venus dev mailing list. Note that doing this is outside normal use and warranty of Victron products: do not contact our service department or sales managers with question about it.

For more background info, see the home#venus-gx-beaglebone.

Getting started:

Remember: this is for a new install; not for a software update. This procedure wipes all there is on your device.

  1. download the latest installer image from the feed.

  2. unzip it, or use Etcher: it will unzip it for you.

  3. get an sdcard, put it in your computer

  4. burn the image file (something.img) on an sdcard. On windows, use Etcher or win32diskimager. Note that this will reduce the usable size of the sdcard. Especially on Windows it is not so easy to get it back to its original format and size.

  5. insert the sdcard in the beaglebone

  6. hold down one of the BOOT buttons while applying power to the device:

    • on the Venus GX this is the push botton on the right side of the long green connector.
    • on the beaglebone itself it is the one closest to the sdcard slot.

  7. release the button once you see blinking LEDs

  8. wait until the install progress is completed. This can be seen by the LEDs.

    Red/green LED on the Cape:

    • off, no image found
    • red blinking, busy
    • green on, done
    • red on, error

    Four LEDs on the BBE, not visible from outside the Venus GX enclosure:

    after a few seconds of random flashing, the four LEDs are a progress bar. A flashing LED means it is running. Each LED corresponds to a stage of the installation, and the process is finished when all four are solid, LED 1: Partition, format /data and /scratch LED 2: Install rootfs1 LED 3: Install rootfs2 LED 4: Install boot loader

  9. After programming is completed, remove the sdcard.

  10. Power cycle the device.

Installation is done. Note that the procedure to update to a new version is different than above.

How to continue from here is written down in the public documentation:

Wiring the cape:

See the images in this powerpoint for the different connections.

No cape? Skip this chapter and read below to learn about connecting via USB.

Note, if you do use some soft of cape, make sure to power the whole device: powering the beaglebone via its usb connector won't work well.

Connecting to the console (developer feature)

The console on the beaglebone enhanced is available via the three-pin header on the back of the ethernet socket. Its possible to connect to it while the cape is in place. For below picture, we use the [ADA Fruit serial console]cable(https://www.adafruit.com/product/954). Make sure not to connect the red wire.

From left to right in below photo:

  • White: TX of the Beaglebone - connect to RX on your cable
  • Black: ground
  • Green: RX of the Beaglebone - connect to TX on your cable

image