Difference between revisions of "BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2016"

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[[Category: Linux]]
 
[[Category: Linux]]
 
[[Category: OMAP]]
 
[[Category: OMAP]]
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[[Category: BeagleBoard]]
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[[Category: GSoC]]
  
For a quick view of how the BeagleBoard relates to the open source development community, take a listen to Mans and Koen's interview with the Linux Outlaws: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xVbntl-DY.
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__TOC__
  
== Summer code of ideas for 2009 ==
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=Welcome!=
This page collects ideas for [[BeagleBoard]] specific [[BeagleBoard/GSoC|Google Summer of Code 2009]].  Some additional ideas can be found on the [[BeagleBoard/contest| BeagleBoard contest page]] and the [http://beagleboard.org/project BeagleBoard project page].
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BeagleBoard.org hopes to be accepted as a mentoring organization in the [[BeagleBoard/GSoC|Google Summer of Code]] for 2015! Below, we've collected project ideas for the GSoC-2015.
  
Student proposals can create projects from the following ideas, or students are free to propose their own project based on their own ideas.  From reading about previous Summer of Code, the key to success are people passionate about their project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it not on the list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects on irc or the mailing list. Don't worry about the sheer number of ideas we have, we will be glad to match projects to students interest and help scope the proposal to something that can be completed in teh Summer of Code timeframe.
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==Background==
 +
BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware open-source hardware] platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the "maker" community with greater focus on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/C6Run|an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/USBSniffer|a transparent USB packet sniffer]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/XBMC|ARM optimizations for XBMC]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/FFTW|ARM optimizations for FFTs]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/Pulse_Width_Modulation|make-shift pulse-width-modulation]] and [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/OpenCV|RPC optimizations for OpenCV]]. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, [[CircuitCo]], Digi-Key and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with over 100,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution and Linux communities---and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, Debian, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.
  
Also look at http://beagleboard.org/project for some projects that use the Beagle Board. If you are interested in one of these projects, talk with the project members to see if there are any projects they can help you with.
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BeagleBoard was inspiration for Raspberry Pi[http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/features/raspberry-pi-interview-eban-upton-reveals-all] and is available for about $50 through over 30 distributors world-wide (and is even available at Microcenter and Radio Shack in the USA), but is more than a throw-away computer. It is an instance of true open hardware, exposing users to the broader world of electronics, demystifying computers and fostering an environment of clones that have changed the industry for good.
  
The Easy, Medium, and Hard grouping for the ideas is very subjective. What is easy for one person, may be hard for another.
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Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of cross-compiling before being accepted, but support for demonstration is available through the IRC channel that typically has approximately 150 online chatters logged on at any time, most with sufficient experience to explain the process.
  
== Ideas ==
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'''''<span style="color:red">Every accepted student will be sent a BeagleBone Black before the first week of coding for testing their project.</span>'''''
  
=== Easy ===
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Additional hardware will be provided depending on need and value.
  
==== VNC client on Beagle board ====
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For more information, check out http://beagleboard.org and http://beagleboard.org/brief.
  
Enable Virtual Network Computing on Beagle board to allow remote access to desktops. TightVNC (http://www.tightvnc.com/index.html) derived from VNC can be ported to a Embedded Linux distribution.
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==Students looking for ideas==
 +
Student proposals can encompass projects inspired from the following list of ideas or can include personal project ideas. Previous Google Summer of Code projects show that the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it is not on this list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects via [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle-gsoc the BeagleBoard GSoC IRC] or [http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard-gsoc the BeagleBoard-GSoC mailing list]. There are many potential project ideas and we will match students to projects based on their interests and help scope the proposals to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code timeframe.
  
==== BeaglePOD ====
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There are more than 500 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in any of the projects listed on the BeagleBoard.org projects page, contact the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects that can be enhanced to create a GSoC project. There are also several ideas on the [[ECE497_Project_Ideas|ECE497 class project idea list]]. You can also check out [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2014|last year's idea page]].
  
MP3 player based on Beagle Board. This could involve porting Rockbox (www.rockbox.org) - an open source firmware for mp3 players to Beagle Board. Additional effort would involve creating Rockbox plugins to port the audio decoders and encoders to the DSP side. MTP device class support need to be added on USB as well.  
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==Mentors wondering where to help==
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Please start by registering your ideas for student projects below by following the template provided with the existing ideas. Furthermore, scroll down to the bottom and give everyone a bit of information about your expertise and availability by adding yourself to the table. Jason will make final approvals for mentor assignments based on if we first get accepted as a mentoring organization and best matching mentor skill sets with student project ideas deemed valuable to the community.
  
==== BeagleChat ====
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You will also need to register on [https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015 Melange] and request to be a mentor for BeagleBoard.org.
  
Video Chat Client on Beagle Board. Porting Ekiga (www.ekiga.org) - an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. The client should be able to talk to ekiga software running on PC as well as another beagle board. Optimizations would involve porting audio and video codecs on Ekiga to DSP plus supporting video streaming over USB for webcam support.
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==General requirements==
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All projects have the following basic requirements:
 +
# Once accepted, the project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
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# All newly generated materials must be released under an [http://www.opensource.org/licenses open source license].
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# Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
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# Source code generated during the project must be released on github.com (to be cloned to github.com/beagleboard on successful completion).
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# The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone.  Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog-hosting service with known reliability.
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# To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also to help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
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## what was accomplished that week,
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## any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed and
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## your goals for the next week.
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# Students will provide two recorded audio/video presentations uploaded to youtube or vimeo (screencasts are appropriate), one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments.  Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
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# Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and generating a pull request to https://github.com/jadonk/gsoc-application/tree/master/ExampleEntryJasonKridner.  For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group. The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment.  Freely available emulators may be used to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
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# All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what–I-built-over-my-summer-vacation" projects. Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard.org community.
  
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=Ideas=
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==Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces==
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Improving the state of the Linux kernel, especially with regards to embedded devices and interfaces. Includes improved ARM/OMAP/Sitara platform support, simplifying the development of add-on hardware for embedded systems and exchanging hardware connectivity information with userspace.
  
==== Ubuntu Mobile on Beagle MID ====
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===BeagleRT: Real-Time Linux with the BeagleBone Black===
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Assessment of the real-time limitations and capabilities with the BeagleBone Black.
 +
<br>
  
Porting ubuntu mobile version on Beagle board (http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu) and enable support for standard applications used in standard internet tablets/MIDs - media player, browser.
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* vanilla kernel
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* vanilla with PREEMPT option
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* PREEMPT_RT patches
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* Xenomai patches
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* PRUSS
  
=== Medium ===
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''Goal:'' Many applications require a certain degree of real-time response. This project will analyze, test and compare the different approaches for providing Real-Time responses with the BeagleBone Black development board.<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' PRU, PPM, PWM, PRUSS<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' C, C++, Python, Assembly<br>
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''Possible Mentors:'' Víctor Mayoral Vilches, Siddharth Bharat Purohit<br>
 +
''Workload:'' 1 student full time. <br>
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''GitHub:'' https://github.com/BeagleRT/BeagleRT<br>
 +
''References:'' https://www.osadl.org/fileadmin/dam/rtlws/12/Brown.pdf<br>
  
==== NEON Support for FFTW ====
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===Upstreaming Beagleboard.org Kernel Patches===
 +
The BeagleBone currently relies on a number of out-of-tree kernel patches in order to boot. These patches are maintained by Koen Kooi (CircuitCo) and come from many sources, including TI employees and various mailing lists. Getting more of these patches upstream would make it easier to boot a BeagleBone and also make use of a BeagleBone easier for users and kernel developers who need to track upstream kernel changes, or who otherwise need to be closer to the bleeding edge of Linux kernel development. The current patch set is [https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8 maintained at github] and contains scripts to easily patch an upstream kernel. The scripts in this repository are used to build the BeagleBoard.org kernels which ship with the Angstrom SD card images.
 +
<br>
  
[http://www.fftw.org| FFTW] is a library for calculating the [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FastFourierTransform.html| Fast Fourier Transform]. The current implementation of FFTW contains SIMD optimizations for several instructions sets. It should be possible to add optimizations for the NEON SIMD co-processor in the Beagle Board. FFTW is widely used in the open source sommunity and this project would make FFTW far more useful on processors with NEON instructions. The mentor is particularly interested in improving GNU Radio on the OMAP3 and improving FFTW performance would be very useful.
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''Goal:'' Push as many patches as possible to [http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git Linus's mainline kernel tree] via the appropriate [http://git.kernel.org/cgit/ staging kernels] for the subsystems involved.<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git The Mainline Linux Kernel], [http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8 patches needing to be pushed]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals.<br>
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''Software Skills:'' Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation and testing.<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Matt Porter, Matt Ranostay, Koen Kooi, Alan Ott<br>
  
==== Codec Engine (C64x+) implementation of Ogg Theora ====
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===Generic Device Tree Creator===
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Device Tree usage can be a steep learning curve for many. Despite N tutorials for it. Kernel version and naming convention changes cause issues.
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So how about a tool to create the DT file for the Beaglebone Black.
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Select the required options. Need this gpio for pru. Need this adc for tsc. Need this pin.
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And it generated DT bindings for you.
  
There was a Neuros GSoC project to port Ogg Theora to the C64x+ last year, but it was never finished. See the [http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/Summer_of_Code_2008/Ogg_Theora_Codec Neuros project page] to understand the status.
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Ideally it should effectively expand for other embedded development kits. If you load a Beaglebone Black Rev C file. The DT bindings for that are generated.
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If you load a Beaglebone White Rev A file, DT bindings for that are generated etc..
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Similarly, kernel version changes should be easy to incorporate as well.
  
==== Voice recognition integrated into Ubiquity ====
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Getting the whole thing as part of GSoC can get too much unless you are really skilled. So a basic structure should be the aim initially.
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Suggestions for the base platform running the tool are welcome. e.g. A webapp/bonescript can be used. Python perhaps.
  
Integrate Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Ubiquity, and voice recognition on the BeagleBoard with a microphone. Use of a Wiimote could provide additional interactive capabilities.
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''Goal:'' Get a basic device tree creator for BBB (and possibly BBW) working with a structure to allow different board types<br>
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''Existing Project:'' https://github.com/jluebbe/tools is a small bit of a starting point. <br>
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''Hardware Skills:'' Should be able to understand the capes <br>
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''Software Skills:'' Cross-compile the Linux kernel and testing the DT.<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner<br>
  
==== Audio-based translator ====
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===IIO debugging tools===
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Quick background: IIO is the new way of doing sensors but being a newer interface, it lacks tools
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for debugging. This project is to produce sometools to debug drivers.
 +
There are several ways this project can happen:<br>
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1. We can implement userland tools that read IIO data similar to the evtest tool. <br>
 +
2. We can implement a event handler for the IIO driver. This way existing tools and code can be used. There was references from another mailing list (probally LKML) talking about this.<br>
  
Utilizing voice recognition on the BeagleBoard with a microphone, submit text to Google Translator, then perform text-to-speech.
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''Goal:'' Userspace application similar to evtest that captures debug events and instrumented IIO driver code to produce those events.<br>
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''Existing Project:'' [http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel/tree/3.8 patched kernel with IIO driver]<br>
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''Hardware Skills:'' None.<br>
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''Software Skills:''C coding (1), (2) requires kernel coding<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau<br>
  
==== Spectrum analyzer using the DSP ====
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===SYSFS entries for IIO and PWM===
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IIO and PWM provide mechanisms for sampling touch screens, performing general purpose A/D conversions to read sensors, generating voltage levels and driving motors. The Linux kernel SYSFS mechanism provides a simplified mechanism for userspace applications to set parameters and read/write data values.
  
Write a program that uses the DSP to take an alsa input and to all the math and a GUI on the arm that display the realtime spectrum. The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time.
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''Goal:'' Push patches to Linux mainline providing SYSFS entries for IIO and PWM useful for building a demo robot<br>
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''Existing project:'' http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel<br>
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''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
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''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Laine Walker-Avina<br>
  
==== Android integrated into Angstrom ====
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===MMC and DMA Linux performance ===
 +
Improving performance of MMC driver by understanding issues, improving MMC, DMA drivers and eliminating bottlenecks.
  
Utilize Open Embedded to build Android including Android kernel patches and integration of accelerated multimedia.  Add the 'repo' tool to Open Embedded to pull the Android open source code, apply kernel patches, and patch Android to utilize OpenGLES and GStreamer with the GStreamer-TI plugins.  Android file system would co-exist with Angstrom file system.
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''Goal:''
 +
Both MMC and DMA are critical to high performance of I/O intensive workloads on a Beagleboard/ARM platform, even fast system boot up depends on it.
  
=== Hard ===
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A good amount of performance improvement is possible just by identifying what's going on in hot paths and how things can be done more simply, without breaking anything else. Also improvements are possible using innovative techniques such as intelligent buffer allocation and reducing overhead where possible in dependent components such as DMA. Cutting the fat in hot paths is definitely a start.
  
==== USB sniffer ====
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''Existing Project:'' [http://kernel.org Upstream Kernel]<br/>
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''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br/>
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''Software Skills:'' C, Possible use of JTAG, ftrace, perf etc.<br/>
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''Possible mentors:'' Joel Fernandes
  
Come up with a USB sniffer solution. Idea is that the device to be sniffed is connected to the USB host port of the beagle and the beagle itself to the original host. The beagle will pass-trhu all usb data while logging that data. This could be a great help diagnosing USB problems or reengineering USB communication to a device (by logging the behaviour of a device when connected to a PC (software solutions for that exist too (usbsnoop), but a hardware solution could also support replay etc.
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==ARM processor support in open source operating systems and libraries==
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Optimizations to applications and libraries like XBMC to make them run better on resource constrained environments or to take advantage of more specialized processing elements.
  
==== USB device audio support ====
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===Library of Arduino-compatible functions for StarterWare===
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This would be an implementation of Arduino utilizing the BeagleBone Black and the StarterWare O/S independent library for accessing the hardware. Without having to access the hardware through an operating system, developers will be able to fine-tune the system to achieve optimal resource management of the CPU, peripherals and memory.
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The project would also include basic documentation and generation of code samples for various functionality of the library, such as SPI,Serial,Ethernet for starters. This would make the project thorough and ready for use by various developers in the community.
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''Goal:'' Utilize the Energia fork of Arduino to push support for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black<br>
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''Existing Project:'' [https://github.com/energia/Energia Energia], [http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/StarterWare StarterWare]<br>
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''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br>
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''Software Skills:'' C/C++<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner (others can be referred if there are interested students)
  
The Linux USB gadget infrastructure doesn't have audio device class support (but Linux does have [http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x319.html USB host audio] support.  There is some work on a [http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=gadget_midi gadget MIDI audio driver].  Some work has been done over at [http://blackfin.uclinux.org/gf/project/uclinux-dist/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&tracker_item_id=4212 Blackfin], but is reported as not working very well.  Getting USB isochronous endpoint, gadget audio driver connected to audio on BeagleBoard would be beneficial to all OMAP3 isochronous USB needs, better isochronous gadget support in Linux (there are no standard gadgets test for isochronous endpoints), and a prove out a real gadget driver that requires isochronous endpoints.  Anyone wanting to learn about communication protocols, a well designed layered communication implementation, and a chance to work at the driver level will enjoy this project.
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==Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries==
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Enabling usage of DSPs, PRUs, FPGAs, Cortex-M3s, Arduinos, MSP430 launchpads and other attached processing platforms.
  
==== Touchscreen and LCD open hardware design ====
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===PRU upstreaming===
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Remove HWMOD dependency requirement for PRU along with adding device tree bindings so it can be upstreamed into Linus's tree.
  
BeagleBoard rev C has a new connector for attaching an LCD. The Touchscreen and LCD open hardware design project would consist of a schematic, PCB layout, and bill of materials that can be purchased easily over the Internet. On online PCB fab could make the PCBs cheaply. Only a soldering iron should be needed to populate the PCB.  Once built, the user could connect the PCB to their BeagleBoard had have an LCD with touchscreen support.  This project is targeted toward those interested in hardware and shouldn't require any complex software if a well supported touch screen controller chip is selected.
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''Goal'': Push patches to Linux mainline providing support for the AM335x PRU<br>
 +
''Existing project'': https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/<br>
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''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
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''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C, understand existing patches with PRU support, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Start with Jason Kridner and Matt Porter, but we'll get some others involved<br>
  
==== OpenCV DSP acceleration ====
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===PRU firmware loader===
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Allow "firmware" which are really binary PRU applications to be loaded directly on PRU cores and executed using the request_firmware() functionality of the Linux Kernel. This should also be  Cape Manager to load PRU cape specific applications.
  
Research and implement hardware acceleration for OpenCV using the DSP on beagleboard. The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time.
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Ideal workflow:
  
==== Power Aware Computing APIs ====
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* Cape detected that uses the PRU
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** Setup pinmux
 +
* Find the respective firmware file for PRU core (or both cores) /lib/firmware/cape_A020_pru0.bin
 +
* Load onto PRU and begin execution.
  
Power consumption is a major problem in mobile devices. While there are many HW level power management features in processors such as the OMAP35x, SW lacks the ability to manipulate and control those features.  Research those power features and implement kernel APIs to allow applications to manage their power more efficiently.
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''Goal'': Push patches to Linux mainline providing support to loading firmware on PRU cores and executing<br>
 +
''Existing project'': https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/<br>
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''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
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''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation<br>
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''Possible mentors:'' Matt Ranostay, Matt Porter<br>
  
==== OpenGL DSP acceleration ====
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===Program PRU using high-level scripting languages===
 +
Based on Chris Roger's BotSpeak work to provide a virtual machine for typical Arduino functions that can be accessed from LabView, build a virtual machine to enable PRU programming from Bonescript. The virtual machine is a simple interpreter that loops over the commands to perform such as delay, pinMode, analogRead, analogWrite, digitalRead and digitalWrite functions.
  
Research and implement OpenGL ES using the DSP on beagleboard.  The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time.
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A basic design is elaborated upon at http://github.com/jadonk/pruduino
Can take a look at Vincent OpenGL ES open source implementation and add DSP to it
 
  
==== Adding Sense to Beagle ====
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''Goal'': Implement a BotSpeak interpreter that off-loads hard real-time tasks from Bonescript onto the PRU and include that in the BoneScript project<br>
 +
''Existing projects'': [http://github.com/jadonk/pruduino PRUDUINO], http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package, http://github.com/jadonk/bonescript, [https://sites.google.com/site/botspeak/the-language Chris' language definition]<br>
 +
''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
 +
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in JavaScript and assembly<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Chris Rogers, Jason Kridner<br>
  
Sensory aware applications are becoming more mainstream with the release of the Apple iPhone.  This project would combine both HW and SW to add sensory awareness to beagle.  First, additional modules such as GPS, 3-axis accelerometers, Gyroscopes, Temperature Sensors, Humidity Sensors, Pressure Sensors, etc, would be added to beagle to compliment the microphone input in order to allow sensing of the real world environment.  Then SW APIs would need to be layered on top to allow easy access to the sensory data for use by applications.
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==Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages==
 +
Improving the Bonescript JavaScript library, the PyBBIO Python library, Userspace Arduino, web-based interface libraries, examples or alternatives in other languages.
  
==== Port XBMC Media Center to Beagle Board ====
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===Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino===
 +
Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino, especially SPI, I2C, Wire, Serial, Servo, Stepper
  
XBMC is an open-source, cross platform media center that would allow you to display high definition video on your TV that is streamed from your local network or the internet. XBMC on Beagle Board would would be a very low cost, low power platform that would allow the media center to literally be embedded ''in'' the TV.  XBMC could run on an Ubuntu distribution of Linux and would requiring the development of OpenGL ES complaint DirectFBGL drivers. 
+
This would primarily target the Arduino Tre.
  
==== Smart Energy Monitoring Console ====
+
===Making a stable release of Processing's serial libraries for Tre===
  
The ZigBee Smart Energy profile is a wireless standard for utility companies and consumers to securely monitor and manage home energy consumption by communicating directly with smart appliances that report their power usage.  By interfacing the Beagle Board to an MCU and RF transceiver monitoring the energy consumption of a home and it's appliances, the Beagle Board could act as a dedicated terminal to track ''and control'' energy usage of power hungry devices. 
+
===Making a stable release of OpenFrameworks's serial libraries for Tre===
  
==== Wiigle Board (low cost video game platform) ====
+
==Improving initial experience for novice developers==
 +
Improving the methods for communicating how to build projects, improving the out-of-box experience for novices and consolidating support for simplified home manufacturing (CNC, 3D printers, laser cutters, pick-and-place machines, etc.), drones/bots (ROS, IMU, video streaming, etc.) or other common tasks.
  
Develop an open source platform for video game development by generating the drivers to standard interfaces such as wireless accelerometers or game controllers. Off the self microcontrollers can be leverages to handle the I/O and RF interfaces, and the Beagle Board would handle all processing and display. By generating a clean, open standard, the community could port existing games or use this as their preferred platform for video game development. The concept could be extended by porting known console emulators (NES, Genesis, SNES, etc) to run classic games on a unified, low cost platform.
+
===node-webkit based cross-platform getting-started app===
 +
Newbies often have a difficult time following directions that could be replaced by an application. The steps to download and install an application is something that even newbies can typically manage. This avoid issues like having bad browsers or not having typical development tools like 'ssh'. This is a common problem across all embedded Linux platforms and node-webkit provides a good solution for making it cross-platform.
  
==== x86 emulation ====
+
''Features'':
 +
* Provide instructions for getting up-and-running with the board based (incorporate the Getting Started Guide)
 +
* Automatically discover boards on the LAN using mDNS and predetermined IP addresses
 +
* Act as a browser to interact with the board, including performing SSH and SCP
 +
* Discover the latest SD card images from multiple distributions
 +
* Bootload the board with a USB-mass-storage-class application
 +
* Program SD cards through the board or a USB adapter
 +
* Program on-board eMMC
  
Development or tuning the an emulator like qemu to emulate the x86 instruction set at a reasonable speed to run legacy x86 apps developed for another non Linux OS. Possiblities include Windows 9x, 2000, etc. An alternative approach to use qemu to emulate an x86 Linux system and run Wine up top of that. Yet another approach might be to add an emulation engine inside wine. The goals is to be able to run x86 applications. The OS is optional.
+
''Goal:'' Provide a downloadable application for Linux, Windows and Mac that enables unexperienced users to get going enough to start learning about using Linux and the embedded I/O.<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [http://github.com/jadonk/beaglebone-getting-started/tree/node-webkit-app Incomplete node webkit app for the BeagleBone Getting Started guide]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' N/A<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' Able to write software in JavaScript and work with node.js modules<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner<br>
  
 +
===BoneScript web pages with live-running examples and documentation===
 +
{{#ev:youtube|VP0DOheLxQA||right|5 JavaScript Tricks for BeagleBone}}
 +
The BoneScript JavaScript library enables hardware control from web pages using socket.io for remote procedure calls. This provides an excellent environment for teaching how to wire-up sensors and controls and rapidly prototype user interfaces. Numerous examples exist on the web, but consolidation and testing are required to make them usable by novices. Examples include interfacing with potentiometers, light sensors, temperature sensors, motors and LED arrays then visualizing/controlling with Twitter, Facebook, jQuery, Spacebrew and dweet,io.
  
==== MUSB enhancements ====
+
''Goal:'' About 25 web pages with executable script that demonstrate how to connect up sensor and actuator hardware integrated into the bone101 repository and shared on http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript<br>
 +
''Existing Projects:'' [http://makezine.com/2014/01/14/5-easy-javascript-tricks-you-can-teach-your-beaglebone/ 5 easy tricks presentation], http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript, https://github.com/jadonk/bone101, [https://github.com/jadonk/beaglebone-getting-started/blob/add-bone101/Docs/demo_bmp085.html BMP085 Bonescript example], [http://elinux.org/Category:ECE497 ECE497 examples], [http://jsfiddle.net/gh/gist/jquery/1.9.1/9602198/ JSFiddle on GIST example]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Basic knowledge of digital circuits.<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' JavaScript and some familiarity with Linux<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner<br>
  
The MUSB block on the Beagle has a lot of potential but the driver is currently rather buggy. This project will be to fix the driver so the MUSB implementation as paired with the PHY used on the Beagle board can work reliably as a USB OTG device. This means it should be able to at least reliably go back and forth between host and device mode without a reboot by just changing from a A to a B cable AND be able to force host or device mode in software. See the Nokia N8x0 devices for a sample behavior of how software can force this. An initial estimate is code needs to be implemented to force the PHY into host or device mode as requested by SysFS.
+
===Integrate support libraries into Debian===
 +
Many BeagleBone and embedded Linux support libraries in various programming languages exist as projects that aren't included in the distro shipped with BeagleBoard and BeagleBone. These need packaging scripts such that they can be easily downloaded and incorporated into the upcoming shipping Debian distro.
  
==== Android running as a windowed application ====
+
* Python PyBBIO
 +
* Ruby beaglebone-ruby
 +
* Perl bonelib
  
Modify Android to work within an embedded system as a windowed application.
+
''Goal:'' PyBBIO, beaglebone-ruby and bonelib included in the distro shipping with BeagleBone<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [https://github.com/alexanderhiam/PyBBIO PyBBIO], [https://github.com/ryanfaerman/beaglebone-ruby beaglebone-ruby], [http://sourceforge.net/p/bonelib/wiki/Home/ bonelib]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Able to wire up simple hardware, like LEDs<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' Familiarity with Python, Ruby, Perl, embedded Linux and build systems.<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner, Robert Nelson, Rob Rittman<br>
  
== Ideas not worked out ==
+
===Using BeagleBone PRUs to control CNC and 3D printer stepper motor Drivers===
 +
This project is to write code for the PRU (realtime processors on the AM335x used in the Beagle Bone) so that it can generate multiple step and direction outputs based on a queue of commands in real time. This needs to be done in real time so the acceleration and coordination of multiple stepper motors can be controlled and coordinated. A step/dir signal is commonly used in a lot of stepper motor drivers. While it is possible to generate stepper phase information from the PRU, it is also undesireable from a testing stand point. An example of a reason for doing this is controlling the X/Y directions of the head of a 3D printer so that it can generate precise curves. While similar code has been done, it is not done in a real time fashion so it is difficult to add coordination between motors and/or maintain a known acceleration.<p>
  
* Move Firefox to Cairo on OpenVG and minimize memory footprint
+
The result of this code should be something interfaceable to a control system like the non realtime portions of the Linux CNC project (formerly the EMC project). But as a demo, this same code should also demonstrate a node.js functionality such as a "G-code" interpreter. This node.js portion can be considered a second project due to the different skill sets required and ideally this project would be split between two GSoC students. One project would be working mostly on PRU assembly with integration into the Linux kernel. The other project would be working mostly on userspace JavaScript in node.js and C++ code for anything needing optimization or low-level kernel access. Mentors would heavily assist on defining the right interfaces between the two programming environments.
* Implement OpenVG with the C64x and DMAs
+
 
* more codecs on the dsp (e.g. mp3 encoder/decoder, mpeg2 decoder, codecs for IP telephony (with video), ...)
+
''Goal'': create code to use the AM335x PRUs to generate multiple step and direction outputs for reprap and CNC applications<br>
* port LXDE (see www.lxde.org)
+
''Existing projects'': [http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package Pru Documentation], [https://www.kernel.org/doc/htmldocs/uio-howto.html UIO Driver documentation]<br>
* beagle as upnp renderer
+
''Hardware skills:'' Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
* beagle variant of "from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds" make a beagle that starts in < 5 seconds
+
''Software skills:'' Assembly and C coding. Node.js for g-code interpretation<br>
* good text to speech support
+
''Possible mentors:''Jason Kridner, Hunyue Yau, Laine Walker-Avina<br>
* Clean MythTV, Boxee, XBMC, or Miro builds
+
 
* facial recognition with depth analysis using pico projector and webcam
+
===Cross platform USB boot===
* high-speed 3d scanning with pico projector and webcam
+
Boot (and flash) your BeagleBone (Black) from a Windows, Mac or Linux computer without using a microSD card.
* implementing a single pixel camera with beagleboard, pico projector and webcam; accelerate processing using DSP
+
 
* USB class converters (MTP to mass-storage, audio to midi, ...) or invasive sniffer
+
Extend [https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BeagleDroid last year's GSoC project] to boot from an Android device to support Windows, Mac and Linux hosts.
* Wiimote + Pico Projector + 3D art tool
+
 
* Extend Android with extra sensory operations (GPIO/PWM controls, temperature sensors, barometers, etc.)
+
''Goal:'' Download a Linux image from the web and boot a BeagleBone using it over USB<br>
* DSP libraries for Android (both portable C and optimized implementations with C64x+ and/or NEON)
+
''Existing Project:'' https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BeagleDroid, https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs<br>
* Gesture-controlled web browser
+
''Hardware Skills:'' Some knowledge of USB<br>
* Power monitoring (http://www.google.org/powermeter/smarterpower.html)
+
''Software Skills:'' C and familiarity with Mac, Linux and Windows<br>
* Off-line Google App host on an SD card
+
''Possible mentors:'' Vladimir Pantelic, Jason Kridner<br>
* Commodore 64 emulator via S-Video and Bluetooth keyboard
+
 
 +
===Android under Angstrom===
 +
Some people want to play Angry Birds or run other Android apps on their BeagleBoard/BeagleBone.  Of course, you could use the Rowboat Android project as-is, but then you'd have to give up all of their typical Linux/X11 applications available in Angstrom.  This project would use an Android-enabled kernel and a combination of both Angstrom and Android file systems.  The input and display methods required for Android would need to be adjusted to run in on a virtual terminal and chroot/chvt would be used to invoke the various user space windows.
 +
 
 +
This has essentially been done once as part of [https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/beagleboard/ Always Innovating's Super-Jumbo] demo running Ubuntu, Angstrom, ChromeOS and Android simultaneously. The fundamental challenge is getting it reproducible and integrated into the OpenEmbedded build system for Angstrom and then starting to minimize the wasted file space by sharing libraries. Eventually, even making Android applications run in a window is desired.
 +
 
 +
''Goal'': Run Android applications under Angstrom and toggle back-and-forth using CTRL-ALT-Fn key presses.<br>
 +
''Existing projects'': http://arowboat.org, http://www.angstrom-distribution.org<br>
 +
''Hardware skills:'' Minimal<br>
 +
''Software skills:'' Able to write software in C and Java, experience with X11 and Android<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau, Vladimir Pantelic<br>
 +
 
 +
===Documentation for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black===
 +
'''We need to avoid documentation projects for GSoC. Please turn this into a coding project. Providing code examples might be sufficient, but code needs to be the output. The documentation can be a side-effect.'''
 +
Produce HOWTOs and code samples for use of I/O on BeagleBone to be placed in the neutral elinux.org BeagleBone community pages.
 +
 
 +
''Goal:'' The Beagleboard.org community has lacked a canonical source of high quality documentation on how to use peripherals found on AM335x. Peripheral use to be documented will include UARTs, I2C, SPI, PWM, ADC, USB Host/Gadget as well as advanced topics such as software development and optimization for the M3 and PRU coprocessors.<br>
 +
''Existing Project:'' [http://www.elinux.org/BeagleBone_Community elinux.org BeagleBone Community Page]<br>
 +
''Hardware Skills:'' Yes<br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' C<br>
 +
''Possible mentors:'' Hunyue Yau and Matt Porter (others welcome to volunteer)
 +
 
 +
==Previous ideas==
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2014]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2013]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2012]]
 +
 
 +
=Mentors=
 +
{| border="1"
 +
! Name
 +
! IRC nickname
 +
! Melange name
 +
! Native language
 +
! Other languages
 +
! Timezone
 +
! Software help
 +
! Hardware help
 +
! Focus projects
 +
|-
 +
| Jason Kridner
 +
| jkridner
 +
| jkridner
 +
| English
 +
| -
 +
| US Eastern
 +
| JavaScript, C, u-boot
 +
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
 +
| BoneScript development
 +
|-
 +
| Vladimir Pantelic
 +
| av500
 +
| vp7
 +
| German
 +
| English, Serbian
 +
| CET
 +
| Experienced on most areas of Embedded Linux, Multimedia
 +
| Schematic Review + Design
 +
| Embedded Linux, Linux Multimedia, Android
 +
|-
 +
| Matt Ranostay
 +
| mranostay
 +
| mranostay
 +
| English (U.S. Midwestern Dialect)
 +
| None
 +
| US Pacific Time
 +
| Experienced on most areas of Embedded Linux or Systems
 +
| Schematic Review + Design
 +
| ARM/AM335x Kernel Development
 +
|-
 +
| Matt Porter
 +
| mdp
 +
| -
 +
| English (U.S. Midwestern Dialect)
 +
| None
 +
| US Eastern
 +
| Embedded Linux Firmware/Kernel and system level design. Designing Linux drivers to make the best use of existing infrastructure.
 +
| Schematic Review + Design
 +
| ARM/AM335x/OMAP/PRU U-Boot and Kernel/Driver Development
 +
|-
 +
|-
 +
| Vlad Ungureanu
 +
| vvu
 +
| ungureanuvladvictor
 +
| Romanian
 +
| English
 +
| GMT +2
 +
| Linux, C, Android, U-Boot, build-systems, USB
 +
| -
 +
| Cross-Platform USB Boot, Android Based Display
 +
|-
 +
| Hunyue Yau
 +
| ds2
 +
| hygsoc
 +
| English
 +
| -
 +
| US Pacific
 +
| Android, C, Linux, scripting
 +
| Yes
 +
| -
 +
|-
 +
| Tom Rini
 +
| Tartarus
 +
| trini
 +
| English
 +
| -
 +
| US Eastern
 +
| C, u-boot, OpenEmbedded
 +
| -
 +
| U-Boot or OpenEmbedded development
 +
|-
 +
| Luis Gustavo Lira
 +
| lglira
 +
| lglira
 +
| Spanish
 +
| English
 +
| GMT/UTC -5
 +
| Embedded Linux, C, Android
 +
| Design, Debug, Wiring
 +
| Projects on the BeagleBone
 +
|-
 +
| Frans Meulenbroeks
 +
| eFfeM
 +
| effem
 +
| Dutch
 +
| English
 +
| CET
 +
| Linux (including drivers), U-Boot, C, Documentation; Coding Style, QA
 +
| device interfacing (for drivers), review FPGA code
 +
| -
 +
|-
 +
| Pantelis Antoniou
 +
| panto
 +
| panto
 +
| Greek
 +
| English
 +
| GMT+2
 +
| Linux Kernel, S/W Architecture
 +
| -
 +
| Embedded Linux architecture fixes
 +
|-
 +
| Víctor Mayoral Vilches
 +
| vmayoral
 +
| vmayoral
 +
| English, Spanish
 +
|
 +
| CET
 +
| Linux Kernel, C, C++, python
 +
| -
 +
| BeagleRT
 +
|-
 +
| Alexander Hiam
 +
| alexanderhiam
 +
| alexanderhiam
 +
| English
 +
| -
 +
| US Eastern
 +
| Python, C, Linux Kernel
 +
| Prototyping, design, layout, debugging
 +
| PyBBIO
 +
|-
 +
| Samy Kamkar
 +
| samy/samy_
 +
| -
 +
| English
 +
| -
 +
| US Eastern
 +
| Python, C, Linux Kernel
 +
| Privacy and security researcher, computer hacker, whistleblower and entrepreneur
 +
| BeaglePilot
 +
|-
 +
| Joel Fernandes
 +
| joel_
 +
| joelagnel
 +
| English
 +
| -
 +
| US Central
 +
| C, Linux Kernel, Python
 +
| Processor Engineer, Embedded systems Architecture
 +
| Linux kernel improvement (perf and functionality)
 +
|-
 +
| Greg Kroah-Hartman
 +
| gregkh
 +
| gregh
 +
|-
 +
| David Scheltema
 +
| dschelt
 +
| dcschelt
 +
|-
 +
| Charles Steinkuehler
 +
|
 +
| cdstienkuehler
 +
|-
 +
| Steve French
 +
| VoltVisionFrenchy
 +
| voltvisionfrenchy
 +
|}
 +
[[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2012#Mentors|Previous mentors]]

Revision as of 16:50, 30 January 2015


Contents

Welcome!

BeagleBoard.org hopes to be accepted as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code for 2015! Below, we've collected project ideas for the GSoC-2015.

Background

BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on open-source hardware platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the "maker" community with greater focus on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication, a transparent USB packet sniffer, ARM optimizations for XBMC, ARM optimizations for FFTs, make-shift pulse-width-modulation and RPC optimizations for OpenCV. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, CircuitCo, Digi-Key and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with over 100,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution and Linux communities---and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, Debian, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.

BeagleBoard was inspiration for Raspberry Pi[1] and is available for about $50 through over 30 distributors world-wide (and is even available at Microcenter and Radio Shack in the USA), but is more than a throw-away computer. It is an instance of true open hardware, exposing users to the broader world of electronics, demystifying computers and fostering an environment of clones that have changed the industry for good.

Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of cross-compiling before being accepted, but support for demonstration is available through the IRC channel that typically has approximately 150 online chatters logged on at any time, most with sufficient experience to explain the process.

Every accepted student will be sent a BeagleBone Black before the first week of coding for testing their project.

Additional hardware will be provided depending on need and value.

For more information, check out http://beagleboard.org and http://beagleboard.org/brief.

Students looking for ideas

Student proposals can encompass projects inspired from the following list of ideas or can include personal project ideas. Previous Google Summer of Code projects show that the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it is not on this list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects via the BeagleBoard GSoC IRC or the BeagleBoard-GSoC mailing list. There are many potential project ideas and we will match students to projects based on their interests and help scope the proposals to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code timeframe.

There are more than 500 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in any of the projects listed on the BeagleBoard.org projects page, contact the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects that can be enhanced to create a GSoC project. There are also several ideas on the ECE497 class project idea list. You can also check out last year's idea page.

Mentors wondering where to help

Please start by registering your ideas for student projects below by following the template provided with the existing ideas. Furthermore, scroll down to the bottom and give everyone a bit of information about your expertise and availability by adding yourself to the table. Jason will make final approvals for mentor assignments based on if we first get accepted as a mentoring organization and best matching mentor skill sets with student project ideas deemed valuable to the community.

You will also need to register on Melange and request to be a mentor for BeagleBoard.org.

General requirements

All projects have the following basic requirements:

  1. Once accepted, the project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
  2. All newly generated materials must be released under an open source license.
  3. Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
  4. Source code generated during the project must be released on github.com (to be cloned to github.com/beagleboard on successful completion).
  5. The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone. Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog-hosting service with known reliability.
  6. To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also to help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
    1. what was accomplished that week,
    2. any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed and
    3. your goals for the next week.
  7. Students will provide two recorded audio/video presentations uploaded to youtube or vimeo (screencasts are appropriate), one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments. Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
  8. Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and generating a pull request to https://github.com/jadonk/gsoc-application/tree/master/ExampleEntryJasonKridner. For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group. The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment. Freely available emulators may be used to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
  9. All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what–I-built-over-my-summer-vacation" projects. Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard.org community.

Ideas

Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces

Improving the state of the Linux kernel, especially with regards to embedded devices and interfaces. Includes improved ARM/OMAP/Sitara platform support, simplifying the development of add-on hardware for embedded systems and exchanging hardware connectivity information with userspace.

BeagleRT: Real-Time Linux with the BeagleBone Black

Assessment of the real-time limitations and capabilities with the BeagleBone Black.

  • vanilla kernel
  • vanilla with PREEMPT option
  • PREEMPT_RT patches
  • Xenomai patches
  • PRUSS

Goal: Many applications require a certain degree of real-time response. This project will analyze, test and compare the different approaches for providing Real-Time responses with the BeagleBone Black development board.
Hardware Skills: PRU, PPM, PWM, PRUSS
Software Skills: C, C++, Python, Assembly
Possible Mentors: Víctor Mayoral Vilches, Siddharth Bharat Purohit
Workload: 1 student full time.
GitHub: https://github.com/BeagleRT/BeagleRT
References: https://www.osadl.org/fileadmin/dam/rtlws/12/Brown.pdf

Upstreaming Beagleboard.org Kernel Patches

The BeagleBone currently relies on a number of out-of-tree kernel patches in order to boot. These patches are maintained by Koen Kooi (CircuitCo) and come from many sources, including TI employees and various mailing lists. Getting more of these patches upstream would make it easier to boot a BeagleBone and also make use of a BeagleBone easier for users and kernel developers who need to track upstream kernel changes, or who otherwise need to be closer to the bleeding edge of Linux kernel development. The current patch set is maintained at github and contains scripts to easily patch an upstream kernel. The scripts in this repository are used to build the BeagleBoard.org kernels which ship with the Angstrom SD card images.

Goal: Push as many patches as possible to Linus's mainline kernel tree via the appropriate staging kernels for the subsystems involved.
Existing Project: The Mainline Linux Kernel, patches needing to be pushed
Hardware Skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals.
Software Skills: Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation and testing.
Possible mentors: Matt Porter, Matt Ranostay, Koen Kooi, Alan Ott

Generic Device Tree Creator

Device Tree usage can be a steep learning curve for many. Despite N tutorials for it. Kernel version and naming convention changes cause issues. So how about a tool to create the DT file for the Beaglebone Black. Select the required options. Need this gpio for pru. Need this adc for tsc. Need this pin. And it generated DT bindings for you.

Ideally it should effectively expand for other embedded development kits. If you load a Beaglebone Black Rev C file. The DT bindings for that are generated. If you load a Beaglebone White Rev A file, DT bindings for that are generated etc.. Similarly, kernel version changes should be easy to incorporate as well.

Getting the whole thing as part of GSoC can get too much unless you are really skilled. So a basic structure should be the aim initially. Suggestions for the base platform running the tool are welcome. e.g. A webapp/bonescript can be used. Python perhaps.

Goal: Get a basic device tree creator for BBB (and possibly BBW) working with a structure to allow different board types
Existing Project: https://github.com/jluebbe/tools is a small bit of a starting point.
Hardware Skills: Should be able to understand the capes
Software Skills: Cross-compile the Linux kernel and testing the DT.
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner

IIO debugging tools

Quick background: IIO is the new way of doing sensors but being a newer interface, it lacks tools for debugging. This project is to produce sometools to debug drivers. There are several ways this project can happen:
1. We can implement userland tools that read IIO data similar to the evtest tool.
2. We can implement a event handler for the IIO driver. This way existing tools and code can be used. There was references from another mailing list (probally LKML) talking about this.

Goal: Userspace application similar to evtest that captures debug events and instrumented IIO driver code to produce those events.
Existing Project: patched kernel with IIO driver
Hardware Skills: None.
Software Skills:C coding (1), (2) requires kernel coding
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau

SYSFS entries for IIO and PWM

IIO and PWM provide mechanisms for sampling touch screens, performing general purpose A/D conversions to read sensors, generating voltage levels and driving motors. The Linux kernel SYSFS mechanism provides a simplified mechanism for userspace applications to set parameters and read/write data values.

Goal: Push patches to Linux mainline providing SYSFS entries for IIO and PWM useful for building a demo robot
Existing project: http://github.com/beagleboard/kernel
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation
Possible mentors: Laine Walker-Avina

MMC and DMA Linux performance

Improving performance of MMC driver by understanding issues, improving MMC, DMA drivers and eliminating bottlenecks.

Goal: Both MMC and DMA are critical to high performance of I/O intensive workloads on a Beagleboard/ARM platform, even fast system boot up depends on it.

A good amount of performance improvement is possible just by identifying what's going on in hot paths and how things can be done more simply, without breaking anything else. Also improvements are possible using innovative techniques such as intelligent buffer allocation and reducing overhead where possible in dependent components such as DMA. Cutting the fat in hot paths is definitely a start.

Existing Project: Upstream Kernel
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C, Possible use of JTAG, ftrace, perf etc.
Possible mentors: Joel Fernandes

ARM processor support in open source operating systems and libraries

Optimizations to applications and libraries like XBMC to make them run better on resource constrained environments or to take advantage of more specialized processing elements.

Library of Arduino-compatible functions for StarterWare

This would be an implementation of Arduino utilizing the BeagleBone Black and the StarterWare O/S independent library for accessing the hardware. Without having to access the hardware through an operating system, developers will be able to fine-tune the system to achieve optimal resource management of the CPU, peripherals and memory. The project would also include basic documentation and generation of code samples for various functionality of the library, such as SPI,Serial,Ethernet for starters. This would make the project thorough and ready for use by various developers in the community.

Goal: Utilize the Energia fork of Arduino to push support for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black
Existing Project: Energia, StarterWare
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C/C++
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner (others can be referred if there are interested students)

Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries

Enabling usage of DSPs, PRUs, FPGAs, Cortex-M3s, Arduinos, MSP430 launchpads and other attached processing platforms.

PRU upstreaming

Remove HWMOD dependency requirement for PRU along with adding device tree bindings so it can be upstreamed into Linus's tree.

Goal: Push patches to Linux mainline providing support for the AM335x PRU
Existing project: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in C, understand existing patches with PRU support, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation
Possible mentors: Start with Jason Kridner and Matt Porter, but we'll get some others involved

PRU firmware loader

Allow "firmware" which are really binary PRU applications to be loaded directly on PRU cores and executed using the request_firmware() functionality of the Linux Kernel. This should also be Cape Manager to load PRU cape specific applications.

Ideal workflow:

  • Cape detected that uses the PRU
    • Setup pinmux
  • Find the respective firmware file for PRU core (or both cores) /lib/firmware/cape_A020_pru0.bin
  • Load onto PRU and begin execution.

Goal: Push patches to Linux mainline providing support to loading firmware on PRU cores and executing
Existing project: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in C, create patches to the Linux kernel and perform cross-compilation
Possible mentors: Matt Ranostay, Matt Porter

Program PRU using high-level scripting languages

Based on Chris Roger's BotSpeak work to provide a virtual machine for typical Arduino functions that can be accessed from LabView, build a virtual machine to enable PRU programming from Bonescript. The virtual machine is a simple interpreter that loops over the commands to perform such as delay, pinMode, analogRead, analogWrite, digitalRead and digitalWrite functions.

A basic design is elaborated upon at http://github.com/jadonk/pruduino

Goal: Implement a BotSpeak interpreter that off-loads hard real-time tasks from Bonescript onto the PRU and include that in the BoneScript project
Existing projects: PRUDUINO, http://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package, http://github.com/jadonk/bonescript, Chris' language definition
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Able to write software in JavaScript and assembly
Possible mentors: Chris Rogers, Jason Kridner

Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages

Improving the Bonescript JavaScript library, the PyBBIO Python library, Userspace Arduino, web-based interface libraries, examples or alternatives in other languages.

Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino

Implementing and testing core libraries in Userspace Arduino, especially SPI, I2C, Wire, Serial, Servo, Stepper

This would primarily target the Arduino Tre.

Making a stable release of Processing's serial libraries for Tre

Making a stable release of OpenFrameworks's serial libraries for Tre

Improving initial experience for novice developers

Improving the methods for communicating how to build projects, improving the out-of-box experience for novices and consolidating support for simplified home manufacturing (CNC, 3D printers, laser cutters, pick-and-place machines, etc.), drones/bots (ROS, IMU, video streaming, etc.) or other common tasks.

node-webkit based cross-platform getting-started app

Newbies often have a difficult time following directions that could be replaced by an application. The steps to download and install an application is something that even newbies can typically manage. This avoid issues like having bad browsers or not having typical development tools like 'ssh'. This is a common problem across all embedded Linux platforms and node-webkit provides a good solution for making it cross-platform.

Features:

  • Provide instructions for getting up-and-running with the board based (incorporate the Getting Started Guide)
  • Automatically discover boards on the LAN using mDNS and predetermined IP addresses
  • Act as a browser to interact with the board, including performing SSH and SCP
  • Discover the latest SD card images from multiple distributions
  • Bootload the board with a USB-mass-storage-class application
  • Program SD cards through the board or a USB adapter
  • Program on-board eMMC

Goal: Provide a downloadable application for Linux, Windows and Mac that enables unexperienced users to get going enough to start learning about using Linux and the embedded I/O.
Existing Project: Incomplete node webkit app for the BeagleBone Getting Started guide
Hardware Skills: N/A
Software Skills: Able to write software in JavaScript and work with node.js modules
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner

BoneScript web pages with live-running examples and documentation

{{#ev:youtube|VP0DOheLxQA||right|5 JavaScript Tricks for BeagleBone}} The BoneScript JavaScript library enables hardware control from web pages using socket.io for remote procedure calls. This provides an excellent environment for teaching how to wire-up sensors and controls and rapidly prototype user interfaces. Numerous examples exist on the web, but consolidation and testing are required to make them usable by novices. Examples include interfacing with potentiometers, light sensors, temperature sensors, motors and LED arrays then visualizing/controlling with Twitter, Facebook, jQuery, Spacebrew and dweet,io.

Goal: About 25 web pages with executable script that demonstrate how to connect up sensor and actuator hardware integrated into the bone101 repository and shared on http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript
Existing Projects: 5 easy tricks presentation, http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript, https://github.com/jadonk/bone101, BMP085 Bonescript example, ECE497 examples, JSFiddle on GIST example
Hardware Skills: Basic knowledge of digital circuits.
Software Skills: JavaScript and some familiarity with Linux
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner

Integrate support libraries into Debian

Many BeagleBone and embedded Linux support libraries in various programming languages exist as projects that aren't included in the distro shipped with BeagleBoard and BeagleBone. These need packaging scripts such that they can be easily downloaded and incorporated into the upcoming shipping Debian distro.

  • Python PyBBIO
  • Ruby beaglebone-ruby
  • Perl bonelib

Goal: PyBBIO, beaglebone-ruby and bonelib included in the distro shipping with BeagleBone
Existing Project: PyBBIO, beaglebone-ruby, bonelib
Hardware Skills: Able to wire up simple hardware, like LEDs
Software Skills: Familiarity with Python, Ruby, Perl, embedded Linux and build systems.
Possible mentors: Jason Kridner, Robert Nelson, Rob Rittman

Using BeagleBone PRUs to control CNC and 3D printer stepper motor Drivers

This project is to write code for the PRU (realtime processors on the AM335x used in the Beagle Bone) so that it can generate multiple step and direction outputs based on a queue of commands in real time. This needs to be done in real time so the acceleration and coordination of multiple stepper motors can be controlled and coordinated. A step/dir signal is commonly used in a lot of stepper motor drivers. While it is possible to generate stepper phase information from the PRU, it is also undesireable from a testing stand point. An example of a reason for doing this is controlling the X/Y directions of the head of a 3D printer so that it can generate precise curves. While similar code has been done, it is not done in a real time fashion so it is difficult to add coordination between motors and/or maintain a known acceleration.

The result of this code should be something interfaceable to a control system like the non realtime portions of the Linux CNC project (formerly the EMC project). But as a demo, this same code should also demonstrate a node.js functionality such as a "G-code" interpreter. This node.js portion can be considered a second project due to the different skill sets required and ideally this project would be split between two GSoC students. One project would be working mostly on PRU assembly with integration into the Linux kernel. The other project would be working mostly on userspace JavaScript in node.js and C++ code for anything needing optimization or low-level kernel access. Mentors would heavily assist on defining the right interfaces between the two programming environments. Goal: create code to use the AM335x PRUs to generate multiple step and direction outputs for reprap and CNC applications
Existing projects: Pru Documentation, UIO Driver documentation
Hardware skills: Able to read schematics, understand basic digital logic and monitor logic-level digital signals
Software skills: Assembly and C coding. Node.js for g-code interpretation
Possible mentors:Jason Kridner, Hunyue Yau, Laine Walker-Avina

Cross platform USB boot

Boot (and flash) your BeagleBone (Black) from a Windows, Mac or Linux computer without using a microSD card.

Extend last year's GSoC project to boot from an Android device to support Windows, Mac and Linux hosts.

Goal: Download a Linux image from the web and boot a BeagleBone using it over USB
Existing Project: https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BeagleDroid, https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs
Hardware Skills: Some knowledge of USB
Software Skills: C and familiarity with Mac, Linux and Windows
Possible mentors: Vladimir Pantelic, Jason Kridner

Android under Angstrom

Some people want to play Angry Birds or run other Android apps on their BeagleBoard/BeagleBone. Of course, you could use the Rowboat Android project as-is, but then you'd have to give up all of their typical Linux/X11 applications available in Angstrom. This project would use an Android-enabled kernel and a combination of both Angstrom and Android file systems. The input and display methods required for Android would need to be adjusted to run in on a virtual terminal and chroot/chvt would be used to invoke the various user space windows.

This has essentially been done once as part of Always Innovating's Super-Jumbo demo running Ubuntu, Angstrom, ChromeOS and Android simultaneously. The fundamental challenge is getting it reproducible and integrated into the OpenEmbedded build system for Angstrom and then starting to minimize the wasted file space by sharing libraries. Eventually, even making Android applications run in a window is desired.

Goal: Run Android applications under Angstrom and toggle back-and-forth using CTRL-ALT-Fn key presses.
Existing projects: http://arowboat.org, http://www.angstrom-distribution.org
Hardware skills: Minimal
Software skills: Able to write software in C and Java, experience with X11 and Android
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau, Vladimir Pantelic

Documentation for BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black

We need to avoid documentation projects for GSoC. Please turn this into a coding project. Providing code examples might be sufficient, but code needs to be the output. The documentation can be a side-effect. Produce HOWTOs and code samples for use of I/O on BeagleBone to be placed in the neutral elinux.org BeagleBone community pages.

Goal: The Beagleboard.org community has lacked a canonical source of high quality documentation on how to use peripherals found on AM335x. Peripheral use to be documented will include UARTs, I2C, SPI, PWM, ADC, USB Host/Gadget as well as advanced topics such as software development and optimization for the M3 and PRU coprocessors.
Existing Project: elinux.org BeagleBone Community Page
Hardware Skills: Yes
Software Skills: C
Possible mentors: Hunyue Yau and Matt Porter (others welcome to volunteer)

Previous ideas

Mentors

Name IRC nickname Melange name Native language Other languages Timezone Software help Hardware help Focus projects
Jason Kridner jkridner jkridner English - US Eastern JavaScript, C, u-boot wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug BoneScript development
Vladimir Pantelic av500 vp7 German English, Serbian CET Experienced on most areas of Embedded Linux, Multimedia Schematic Review + Design Embedded Linux, Linux Multimedia, Android
Matt Ranostay mranostay mranostay English (U.S. Midwestern Dialect) None US Pacific Time Experienced on most areas of Embedded Linux or Systems Schematic Review + Design ARM/AM335x Kernel Development
Matt Porter mdp - English (U.S. Midwestern Dialect) None US Eastern Embedded Linux Firmware/Kernel and system level design. Designing Linux drivers to make the best use of existing infrastructure. Schematic Review + Design ARM/AM335x/OMAP/PRU U-Boot and Kernel/Driver Development
Vlad Ungureanu vvu ungureanuvladvictor Romanian English GMT +2 Linux, C, Android, U-Boot, build-systems, USB - Cross-Platform USB Boot, Android Based Display
Hunyue Yau ds2 hygsoc English - US Pacific Android, C, Linux, scripting Yes -
Tom Rini Tartarus trini English - US Eastern C, u-boot, OpenEmbedded - U-Boot or OpenEmbedded development
Luis Gustavo Lira lglira lglira Spanish English GMT/UTC -5 Embedded Linux, C, Android Design, Debug, Wiring Projects on the BeagleBone
Frans Meulenbroeks eFfeM effem Dutch English CET Linux (including drivers), U-Boot, C, Documentation; Coding Style, QA device interfacing (for drivers), review FPGA code -
Pantelis Antoniou panto panto Greek English GMT+2 Linux Kernel, S/W Architecture - Embedded Linux architecture fixes
Víctor Mayoral Vilches vmayoral vmayoral English, Spanish CET Linux Kernel, C, C++, python - BeagleRT
Alexander Hiam alexanderhiam alexanderhiam English - US Eastern Python, C, Linux Kernel Prototyping, design, layout, debugging PyBBIO
Samy Kamkar samy/samy_ - English - US Eastern Python, C, Linux Kernel Privacy and security researcher, computer hacker, whistleblower and entrepreneur BeaglePilot
Joel Fernandes joel_ joelagnel English - US Central C, Linux Kernel, Python Processor Engineer, Embedded systems Architecture Linux kernel improvement (perf and functionality)
Greg Kroah-Hartman gregkh gregh
David Scheltema dschelt dcschelt
Charles Steinkuehler cdstienkuehler
Steve French VoltVisionFrenchy voltvisionfrenchy

Previous mentors