Introduction#

BeaglePlay is an open-source single board computer designed to simplify the process of adding sensors, actuators, indicators, human interfaces, and connectivity to a reliable embedded system. It features a powerful 64-bit, quad-core processor and innovative connectivity options, including WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, sub-GHz wireless, and single-pair Ethernet with power-over-data-line. With compatibility with 1,000s of off-the-shelf add-ons and a customized Debian Linux image, BeaglePlay makes expansion and customization easy. It also includes ribbon-cable connections for cameras and touch-screen displays, and a socket for a battery-backed real-time-clock, making it ideal for human-machine interface designs. With its competitive price and user-friendly design, we expect BeaglePlay to provide you with a positive development experience. Some of the real world applications for BeaglePlay include:

  • Building/industrial automation gateways

  • Digital signage

  • Human Machine Interface (HMI)

  • BeagleConnect sensor gateways

BeaglePlay BeaglePlay

Detailed overview#

BeaglePlay is built around Texas Instruments AM62x Sitara™ Processors which is a Quad-Core Arm® Cortex®-A53 Human-machine-interaction SoC. It comes with 2GB DDR4 RAM, 16GB eMMC storage, Full size HDMI, USB-A host port, USB-C power & connectivity port, serial debug interface, and much more.

Table 7 BeaglePlay features#

Feature

Description

Processor

TI AM6254 (multicore A53s with R5, M4s and PRUs)

PMIC

TPS6521901

Memory

2GB DDR4

Storage

16GB eMMC

WiFi

  • PHY: WL1807MOD (roadmap to next-gen TI CC33XX WiFi 6 & BLE)

  • Antennas: 2.4GHz & 5GHz

BLE/SubG

  • CC1352P7 M4+M0 with BeagleConnect firmware

  • BeagleConnect Wireless enabled

  • Antennas: 2.4GHz & SubG IEEE802.15.4 software defined radio (SDR)

Ethernet

  • PHY: Realtek RTL8211F-VD-CG Gigabit Ethernet phy

  • Connector: integrated magnetics RJ-45

Single-pair Ethernet

  • BeagleConnect Wired enabled

  • PHY: DP83TD510E 10Mbit 10BASE-T1L single-pair Ethernet phy

  • Connector: RJ-11 jack

  • Power (PoDL): Input: N/A (protection to 12V), Output: 5V @ 250mA

USB type-C

  • PD/CC: None, HS shorted to both sides

  • Power: Input: 5V @ 3A, Output: N/A (USB-C DRP Not supported)

HDMI

  • Transmitter: IT66121

  • Connector: full-size

Other connectors

  • microSD

  • USB 2.0 type-A (480Mbit)

  • mikroBUS connector (I2C/UART/SPI/MCAN/MCASP/PWM/GPIO)

  • Grove connector (I2C/UART/ADC/PWM/GPIO)

  • QWIIC connector (I2C)

  • CSI connector compatible with BeagleBone AI-64, Raspberry Pi Zero / CM4 (22-pin)

  • OLDI connector (40-pin)

AM6254 SoC#

The low-cost Texas Instruments AM625 family of application processors are built for Linux® application development. With scalable Arm® Cortex®-A53 performance and embedded features, such as: dual-display support and 3D graphics acceleration, along with an extensive set of peripherals that make the AM62x device well-suited for a broad range of industrial and automotive applications while offering intelligent features and optimized power architecture as well.

Some of the SoC applications include:

  • Industrial HMI

  • EV charging stations

  • Touchless building access

  • Driver monitoring systems

AM625 processors are industrial-grade in the 13 x 13 mm package (ALW) and can meet the AEC-Q100 automotive standard in the 17.2 x 17.2 mm package (AMC). Industrial and Automotive functional safety requirements can be addressed using the integrated Cortex-M4F core and dedicated peripherals, which can all be isolated from the rest of the AM62x processor.

Tip

For more details checkout https://www.ti.com/product/AM625

The 3-port Gigabit Ethernet switch has one internal port and two external ports with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) support. An additional PRU module on the device enables real-time I/O capability for customer’s own use cases. In addition, the extensive set of peripherals included in AM62x enables system-level connectivity, such as: USB, MMC/SD, CSI Camera interface, OSPI, CAN-FD and GPMC for parallel host interface to an external ASIC/FPGA. The AM62x device also employs advanced power management support for portable and power-sensitive applications.

Board components location#