Introduction

The only tricky part of this procedure is that in order for the Beagleboard to be a USB Host, you MUST plug a USB Mini-A Male into the OTG socket on the Beagleboard. Rest assured that it is very highly unlikely that any of your existing cables (even if they have USB Mini-Male connectors on them) are Mini-A connectors. Almost all cables are Mini-B and this will put the Beagleboard into Device mode, not Host Mode.

So to solve that problem, there is a USB Standard-A-Female to USB Mini-A-Male Adapter available from a few sources (www.vernier.com, www.serialio.com) that effectively converts the Mini-A Socket on the Beagleboard into a Standard-A Socket.

Once you have that, your Beagleboard is now just like any other USB Host.

Details

Step 1: Connect your AT/Everex Cable to the Beagle Board.

BE SURE THAT THE RED STRIPE ON THE RIBBON CABLE IS NEAR PIN 1 OF THE CONNECTOR.

This is what the AT/Everex Cable will look like:

The socket end plugs onto the pin header (#10 in the picture below). It's important to have the red stripe on the ribbon cable (marks pin 1) next to the P9 Pin 1 marking on the board (on the left as shown below).

NB: Some of the AT/Everex Cables come with a plug in the hole for pin 10. This is a keying and is actually a good idea (it prevents plugging the cable in backwards). I suggest that you carefully (with a needle nose pliers) break off pin 10 on the board so that the connectors will mate. A few wiggles back and forth and pin 10 should be gone.

Step 2: Connect your Null Modem DB9F to DB9F cable. One end goes to the AT/Everex cable, the other goes to the serial port on the back of your laptop (aka COM1).

Step 3: Connect your LCD Panel's digital port to the Beagleboard.

This will use the HDMI-M to DVI-D M Cable as shown below. The HDMI end connects to connector 3 (as shown in the Beagleboard picture above). Turn on the Monitor.

Step 4: Connect your powered Speakers to the Audio Out port.

The Audio Out port is lableled #14 in the Beagle photo above. Plug in the speakers, and turn them on.

Step 5: (Optional) Connect your TV to the Beagle (via S-Video).

The S-Video port is #15 in the picture above. If you're not planning to use a TV with the Beagle you can skip this step.

Step 6: Connect your USB Hub and periperals.

• Connect the USB Std-A-Female to USB MIni-A-Male Adapter to the OTG socket on the Beagleboard (shown as #12 in the board picture above).

• Connect your USB Hub to the Std-A Female end of the adapter.

• Connect your keyboard and mouse to the USB Hub

Step 7: Power up your Beagle!

Connect your power supply to Connector 11 in the photo above. And wait a few seconds. You should observe the following:

• In your console terminal window you should see:

Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.41                                              
Starting OS Bootloader...                                                    
                                        
U-Boot 1.3.3 (Jul 10 2008 - 16:33:09)   
                                        
OMAP3530-GP rev 2, CPU-OPP2 L3-165MHz   
OMAP3 Beagle Board + LPDDR/NAND         
DRAM:  128 MB                           
NAND:  256 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Audio Tone on Speakers  ... complete
OMAP3 beagleboard.org # 

• From your speakers, you should hear about a two second tone (kind of annoying).

• On your DVI-D Monitor you should see the Beagleboard Logo

• On your TV monitor (if connected), you should see color bars.

IF YOU GET ALL THESE THINGS, THEN YOU ARE READY TO START LOADING SOFTWARE ONTO SD CARDS FOR USE WITH THE BEAGLE.