Thursday, April 17, 2014

BeagleBone Black Console Cable

I recently got a BeagleBone Black from Adafruit. Immediate access was easy using the USB interface:
sudo screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200
To disconnect, press [Ctrl][A], followed by [k], and respond [y].

I wanted to watch boot sequence, but the USB does not come online until the end of the init process. I had purchased a USB to serial adapter, but did not find an obvious path between the "Prolific Technology PL2303" converter, and the serial header on the BeagleBone. The lack of documentation should not have been a surprise: most people have no interest in this feature.

To make matters more interesting, the picture on the Adafruit website was off by one pin. Luckily, Google Images was able to find the blog of Christophe Blaess, who had posted a picture of the correct pin-out:
The blog is written in French, which I don't speak, but a picture is worth a thousand words.