[talk] RTC on Beaglebone?

[jpb]

On Tue, May 21, 2019 at 10:02:50AM -0400, Isaac (.ike) Levy wrote:
>    Hi All,
> 
>    FreeBSD or OpenBSD on ARM/embedded question:
> 
>    Iâve got a timer project, and was wondering if anyone had experience
>    with RTC and BeagleBone boards?
> 
>    I donât need a battery-backed RTC, I just need to keep good wall-clock
>    time when the machine is on.  (I think the beaglebone SOC has an RTC in
>    there somewhere?)
> 
>    Iâve found *one* post from someone tinkering with a BeagleBone and RTC
>    on FreeBSD,
> 
>    https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/rtc-on-beaglebone.64802/
> 
>    â-
> 
>    Last project I did like this, I used a PcEngines APU, because the
>    on-board RTC/battery works without any fuss.  For this project, I need
>    to power this from a battery so a PcEngines board is way too much of a
>    power hog...
> 
>    Thoughts?
> 
>    --
> 
>    Anyone have experience with other hardware/boards?
> 
>    Thee project Iâm doing needs:
> 
>    - needs to run FreeBSD or OpenBSD
> 
>    - needs to keep decent wall-clock time
> 
>    - needs to have wifi (can do cheap/slow/weak USB plug type)
> 
>    - needs to be powerful enough to run a *very basic* webserver and some
>    light CGI (older beaglebone or rPi is totally punchy enough here)
> 
>    - needs to have power specs similar to a beaglebone or RaspPi
> 
>    - needs to have at least a hand full of GPIO pins
> 
>    - Bonus: one or more i2c headers
> 
>    - Bonus: hardware GPIO interrupts would be nice
> 
>    I think a beaglebone is my best bet, but there are so many cool little
>    boards out there (?)...
> 
>    Best,
> 
>    .ike


Hey Ike,

I did a BB Black project using FreeBSD 11.x  a couple years ago using GPIO,
and used NTP for keeping time.  Worked great.  The BB board was coupled
to an external system that controlled water flow that had to be turned
on and off at specific times.  GPIO pins controlled the external board
that controlled water flow.

Used the onboard ethernet controller, not wifi, but I could have used
that if needed (I have a bunch of mini usb wireless adapters).

Hit me up offlist if you want more info.

Cheers,
Jim B.