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Cables

USB Cables

A microUSB cable will normally be supplied with the BeagleBone Black. For other beaglebone boards like PocketBeagle, BeagleBone AI, BeagleBone AI-64 you’ll have to procure your own USB cable.

Table 148 USB ports on BeagleBone hardware

Board

USB type

BeagleBone Play

USB-C

BeagleBone Black

miniUSB

PocketBeagle

microUSB

BeagleBone AI

USB-C

BeagleBone AI-64

USB-C

BeagleBone Blue

microUSB

BeagleBone Black Wireless

microUSB

BeagleBone xM

miniUSB

BeagleBone X15

microUSB

Serial Debug Cables

The default serial port settings for the board are:

Table 149 UART settings

Setting

Value

Baud

115,200

Bits

8

Parity

N

Stop Bits

1

Handshake

None

JST-SH serial cables

These cables are not active (only wries and connector) and provide interface between serial cables listed below and serial debug ports on new BeagleBone boards like BeagleBone AI and BeagleBone AI-64. You can purchase these cables from different sources including:

  1. Farnell

  2. DigiKey

Standard FTDI Cable

The debug cable is a standard FTDI to TTL cable. Make sure you get the 3.3V version. It can purchased from several different sources including but not limited to:

FTDI Cable

Pin 1 on the cable is the black wire and connects to pin 1 on the board. (the pin with the white dot next to it)

Adafruit 4 Pin Cable (CP2102)

Adafruit 4-pin serial cable (Originally this is a Prolific chipset based cable, as of Dec. 21, 2016 we will be shipping cables with SiLabs CP2012 chipset instead of Prolific.)

4 pin serial cable
Table 150 Adafruit 4 pin serial cable connection to BeagleBone Black

Board

Wire

Pin 1 (GND)

Black (GND)

Pin 4 (RX)

Green (TX)

Pin 5 (TX)

White (RX)

Note

The naming of the signals reflect those of the cable. The swapping of TX and RX takes place on the board.

You will also find an extra RED wire on this cable that supplies 5V @ 500mA which could power the board if connected to one of the VDD_5V pins (P9_05, P9_06). Just leave it unconnected.

FTDI 3 Pin Cable

You can purchase the another version direct from FTDI This cable only has three wires for connection. You can find the datasheet and a picture at Cable

Board

Wire

Pin 1 (GND)

Black (GND)

Pin 4 (RX)

Orange (TX)

Pin 5 (TX)

Yellow (RX)

JTAG debug Cables

TagConnect (JTAG)

Boards like BeagleConnect Freedom and BeaglePlay use the TagConnect interface which allows you to perform firmware updates and JTAG hardware debugging. To use the interface, the the parts below from tag-connect are required.

  1. 10pin TagConnect (no legs) ribbon cable.

  2. TagConnect retaining clip.

HDMI Cables

Working HDMI Cables

The BeagleBone Black uses a microHDMI cable.

MicroHDMI to HDMI cable

microHDMI to VGA

Cable Matters Micro HDMI to VGA Adapter

miniDP to HDMI

Working miniDP to HDMI

Note

BeagleBone-AI64 requires an ACTIVE Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable or adaptor to work, a passive miniDP to HDMI setup will not work at all.

Examples of “Bad” MiniDP to HDMI