My expansion board for BeagleBoard

Using BeagleBoard as development platform means lot of cables as I need:

So by default my BB setup looks like this (here with B7 version so OTG used instead of EHCI):

BeagleBoard in a box
BeagleBoard in a box

I decided that I need to do something with it. The idea was to make simple expansion board which will just gather all components on board connected to BeagleBoard. First sketch was this (without keeping aspect etc — just elements):

BeagleBoard expansion sketch
BeagleBoard expansion sketch

I presented it to few people with better electronic experience then mine and got few nice suggestions.

After few days of collecting elements and soldering/glueing I got first version working:

First version - top view
First version - top view

USB Ethernet dongle is glued to PCB, USB Hub needs mounting and it’s power cable has to be replaced by better solution. But the good thing is that I have power, serial, Ethernet connectors on one side without any special cables:

First version - side view
First version - side view

When BeagleBoard is placed on top all what is needed to get it working is connecting 3 cables: power, serial and EHCI:

All mounted - back view
All mounted - back view

Audio, S-Video and HDMI connectors are on same way as rest so all cables are in one side:

All mounted - side view
All mounted - side view

The problem appears when reversed BeagleBoard has to be mounted on top… I have such one with BeagleBUG extension. Extra distances helps but cables are not so nice then:

All with reversed BeagleBoard - side view
All with reversed BeagleBoard - side view

Notice that SD card in this config is harder to reach.

All with reversed BeagleBoard - other side view
All with reversed BeagleBoard - other side view

Serial cable is twisted but still do job.

Another view
Another view

Audio and video connectors are easy to reach but on other side of board ;(

Ugly mess
Ugly mess

Yes… that hub needs replacing — note ugly way of attaching power to it.

Anyway this works and allows me to have all cables in one place instead of jungle of them.

beagleboard bug