Medhi, I recently purchased a BBB Rev C from Element14 and it works fine. Only difference I can see so far is that the white card that comes with it references www.element14.com/element14_BBB instead of http://circuitco.com/support/BeagleBoneBlack which now actually redirects to http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack. I have used Newark/Element14 before and had no problems.
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 9:36:31 AM UTC-4, Mehdi Yedes wrote: > > Hello everyone :) > In fact I've been looking for a Beaglebone Black but apparently it's not > available yet.. I just wanted to ask about the Embest (Element14) clone. Is > it safe to use? I mean are there major differences when it comes to the > quality of hardware? Because I really need to buy one and I wanted to make > sure because it's so expensive for us here in Tunisia. > Thank you in advance > > Le lundi 14 avril 2014 00:07:00 UTC+1, Jason Kridner a écrit : >> >> Just about to post this to http://beagleboard.org/blog, but it >> wouldn't hurt to get a bit of community feedback before pushing this >> out there.... >> >> Dude, where's my BeagleBone Black? I hear that question a LOT. No, we >> weren't sleeping, but sometimes it takes a minute for a plan to come >> together. And don't you love it when a plan comes together? >> >> Your BeagleBone Black is on the way and below are the whys and hows. >> >> Buying a BeagleBone Black back around October last year was easy---and >> then suddenly they were gone. Having a big launch and then slowing >> down to a more steady pace of production is what is normally expected. >> Demand was strong, but distributors were showing a small amount of >> stock and people were getting their boards on demand. Based on the >> status, distributors had requested CircuitCo (the Richardson, Texas >> based manufacturer of all official BeagleBoard.org boards) to provide >> boards at a certain pace, and production dropped from about 6,000 a >> week at launch to around 3,000 a week. >> >> Then came Radio Shack, filling their stores with Make's Getting >> Started with BeagleBone kit. Then the Christmas rush. Then the Georgia >> Tech massively open online course on control of mobile robots hosted >> on Coursera. We had a couple of small production boosts, but haven't >> been able to make any dent in the demand. Everyone is starting to find >> out what BeagleBone Black can do, using it in their classes, hobbies, >> prototypes---and products. >> >> When it comes to those people using a BeagleBone Black in an end >> product, well, the BeagleBoard.org terms and conditions clearly say we >> aren't responsible for the quality in those cases. Nevertheless, the >> quality speaks for itself and many people are choosing to simply drop >> them into things beyond just a few prototype units. In practice, we'll >> never know unless you try to return a bunch of boards at once for >> repairs. Our desire is that people using the boards in products work >> directly with a contract manufacturer or distributor to enable boards >> builds to be planned out in time and with terms and conditions that >> won't hurt BeagleBoard.org's ability to supply classrooms, hobbyists >> and professionals building prototypes. Still, if distributors show >> stock, I expect people building products to continue to chew up some >> of the board supply. >> >> While these people building products are certainly sucking up a lot of >> boards, it is clear they aren't the only source of the high demand. >> Some of our distribution partners, most notably Adafruit and Special >> Computing, put quantity limits of one board per customer on their >> orders to help keep supply going to individual makers. I took a look >> at Adafruit's website while they were showing some sock and observed >> board disappearing at the rate of about 2-3 PER MINUTE. One tweet from >> me and they were sold out again. >> >> This all leads to the obvious conclusion: we need more capacity. To >> accomplish this, we are taking a multiple prong approach of increasing >> capacity at CircuitCo as well as bringing on an additional >> manufacturer. These two prongs are summarized below. >> >> Prong #1 - Ramping up production at CircuitCo >> >> Ramping up production costs money. More test equipment is needed. >> Orders on various parts must be accelerated. Additional staff must be >> hired to run additional shifts. CircuitCo has been fantastic at taking >> the risk for us, but the margins for BeagleBone Black aren't the >> friendliest for them to take on these additional costs. At initial >> launch, it is a benefit for them to get exposed to more customers for >> their core business, complex circuit assembly and engineering >> services, but shipping more of the exact same board isn't going to >> give them a lot more exposure. >> >> We're really close to shifting the distribution shipped on our boards >> from Angstrom Distribution to Debian. Feedback from different people, >> especially Adafruit, tells us this will improve usability in the >> largest segments of our community. Angstrom Distribution is much more >> customizable and is very friendly to professional developers looking >> to tweak the most out of the system, but for many novices it >> introduces a barrier to learning. Debian is the basis for Ubuntu, >> includes ARM Cortex-A8 support in their mainline and is very familiar >> to a huge population of developers. It also takes a bit more space on >> the flash storage to provide the best user experience. >> >> To provide the best experience of using Debian on BeagleBone Black, we >> are connecting the switch-over to an increase in the on-board eMMC >> flash storage from 2GB to 4GB, leaving more free room in which you can >> work. The eMMC is faster and more reliable than micro-SD cards, so >> this is adding a lot of value---and a little bit of cost. >> >> These BeagleBone Blacks with Debian and 4GB eMMC will be called Rev C >> and they will likely cost a bit more at most distributors. This extra >> money is helping CircuitCo pay for the additional expense of the eMMC, >> but also to cover costs for ramping production to higher-than-ever >> rates. >> >> With the additional capacity CircuitCo is bringing on, we expect to be >> able to fill all end-user back-orders for the Rev B boards by early >> May and shift all production to Rev C. With around 150,000 boards on >> *distributor* back-orders, we'll be working with distributors to >> quickly accept board shipments such that CircuitCo isn't sitting on >> any units. >> >> Come mid-May, you should be able to easily get your hands on a Rev C >> board. Some distributors are already taking back-orders for them now. >> We'll continue to try to push as many boards as we can through >> distributors *not* taking back-orders as well to make sure there is a >> continuity of supply. >> >> Prong #2 - Enabling production of the BeagleBoard Compliant Element14 >> BeagleBone Black >> >> We've launched a BeagleBoard Compliant logo program, >> http://beagleboard.org/logo. Element14 is currently the exclusive >> licensee of this logo program and has agreed to pay a small royalty to >> the BeagleBoard.org Foundation as part of this license. It means that >> we've verified they can produce quality clones of BeagleBone Black. It >> will be up to them to maintain the quality. As with everything going >> on around BeagleBoard.org, we'll be closely monitoring the public >> BeagleBoard mailing list, http://beagleboard.org/discuss, for any and >> all feedback. >> >> Element14 is the parent company for Embest, who has been making >> BeagleBone Black replicas for the China market since the initial >> launch back in April of last year, so they have some experience >> already. This move takes them beyond just China and will keep them in >> more lock-step with software and hardware revisions coming from >> BeagleBoard.org. To satisfy demand, they initially offered some of the >> Embest-branded boards in the US market, but you'll see the future >> BealgeBoard Compliant boards will be branded as "element14 BeagleBone >> Black". >> >> Element14 has a world-wide reach and a notable production capacity. >> With all of the growing demand for BeagleBone Black, they will need >> it. I consider this a huge win for open hardware! >> >> --Jason >> > -- For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
