The Beaglebone Black 4Gb version is only $55.00 now! WoW! That's probably one of the cheapest Linux Computers you'll ever see. Here they are @ Mouser but you can find them all over the place just do a search for them.
They're really being widely supported by a lot of companies including Texas Instruments. A lot of other companies are making addition breakout boards for things like WiFi, Serial Ports, etc...You can stack up for 4 of those add-on board to one BBB. That really makes for a fairly powerful little computer. Little in size, not capabilities!
I've been wanting to pick up a bunch of these units, but have been preoccupied by other stuff. One of the things I'd like to attempt with them is to create a 10-node Hadoop Cluster :-) (google "Apache Hadoop" sometime when you have the time to read) Hadoop clusters have the ability to scale over HUGE amounts of data. Which is something I do professionally so this is just a little pet side project idea non-ham-radio related really.
Anyway, I'm half thinking about using the new HackRf with the BeagleBone Black to play around with some SDR ideas I have. Like implementing a multi-band Beacon that can do WSPR, CW, and Chirp-Radar. But this is just some hi-fal-oot-in dreaming at this point. Just some idea's I've been kicking around at trying to make a reality.
Another SDR Idea I've had is to add GPS tracking, using one of the very cool miniture GPS devices that will click onto the BB. And at the same time connect the HackRF to the BB, and be able to do DRIVE AROUND - Power Line Noise sensing with very accurate GPS locations. This would only require some fairly simple coding I think, the BeagleBone, the HackRF, and the 'click' type GPS add-on (more about the 'click-boards' soon). Then it would just be a matter of taking noise readings every second while I drive around. NO LAPTOP REQUIRED.
After the drive-around, I'd download the data gathered on the BB's storage card, and MAP IT! VERY COOL IDEA I think!
Anyway, I just wanted to share these little magical servers with you. I'll post updates when all the stuff arrives, and I've actually done something with them.
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