Herd Your Boards, Become a Farmer
summary
A personal board farm uses a BeagleBone Black management host plus USB hubs, an Ethernet switch and USB‑serial adapters to give remote serial consoles; power uses a single PC PSU with barrier strips, per‑board fuses and ACME jack power probes to measure current. Inputs use optocouplers driven by I²C GPIO expanders to toggle reset/wake lines; pogo pins handle blocked headers. Scripts automate power, serial and measurements; the setup works reliably for a dozen+ boards and reduces desk clutter.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:53About Me (and Linux)
- 1:58Why a Board Farm?
- 4:16Board Farm Requirements
- 5:55Board Farm Building Blocks
- 7:09Power Control
- 9:24Power Measurement
- 11:41Network
- 20:21Management Host
- 20:57Beagle Bone Black Console Bed
- 21:47Board Farm Bird View
- 23:03Power Supplies
- 23:54Board Power Needs
- 25:56Identical and Low Power Needs
- 26:35Single Power Supply
- 28:26PC Power Supply
- 35:54Software Side
- 40:56Advanced Features
- 41:51Final Words
- 48:21Questions?
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