It should be possible to move to the Pocketbeagle. I moved a moderately complex application from the black to the pocketbeagle. I use GPIO, both SPIs, I2C and USB. Here's what I found (4.14-based beaglebone debian distro):
1. SPI and I2C devices should be ok providing you are using the standard device files for access. I am using the SPI busses for a LCD and touchscreen. In that case since I am using a specific driver for each device I had to make new device tree files for the pocketbeagle to tell the drivers how to talk to the hardware. And I had to change /boot/uEnv.txt to include the new device tree files. I am using the PRUs so also had to make pocketbeagle-specific device tree files for the pins they used as well. 2. Not sure about UART4 but if a device file shows up for it then I imagine it will work. The pocketbeagle seems to have a good default hardware configuration. 3. The pocketbeagle has a different power distribution. Like the Black it's still using the same PMIC but the external wiring is different. I encourage you to download and look at the schematic and read-up on the PMIC operation. On the PB, the USB power from the micro-USB connector is connected directly (through a ferrite inductor) to P1.7 with a fairly fat trace. If you power your hub from P1.7 then the number of devices will be based on the capability of the power supply you connect to the micro-USB connector (and the USB cable wiring, connector limits, etc). You could have an external 5V power supply that powers both the Pocketbeagle and USB Hub. It would connect to P1.7 (or, alternatively, VIN, on P1.1) and also the Hub input. However, if you power the pocketbeagle via VIN (P1.1) then you will see nothing coming out of P1.7. In that case you have to also connect the USB Hub power input directly to the supply. 4. See above I was a little surprised that you powered the Black via P9.7/P9.8. It works I guess but I wouldn't think this is good practice since you are connecting to the output of the PMIC (and back-feeding it). I think the Black with USB peripherals is intended to be powered with a high-current 5V supply through the barrel jack input since this is the high-current path through the PMIC. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard/724ff7f2-b667-499a-b7f6-f609fe93e0a5%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
