ECE 434 BeagleCom

Team members: Glody Mutebwa and Angel Rivera

Executive Summary
Communication Network System aka BeagleCom

The objective of the project is to equips the BeagleBone with native communication tools. Included are an irc client which connect to the Freenode server and can communicate with anyone available online via a specific channel. We also have a file sharing system that allows the BeagleBone to share and receive files from continually.

Packaging
Our project consists the LCD display, 2 LEDs (red and green) and the BeagleBone Black.

The two LEDs are connected through P9_11 and P9_12. The LCD display is connected for a setup of SPI1.

Installation Instructions
If you want to install the project onto your own BeagleBone, be sure to go to the Github page and clone the project. The README.md file lists the proper commands in order to run certain parts of the project.

Be sure to also have Python installed on the BeagleBone in order to run certain pieces of code.

User Instructions
bone$ cd BeagleCom/src
 * After you cloned the project into your BeagleBone Black, move to the source folder :

bone$ ./irc_client.py
 * If you want to start the IRC client and start chatting, follow the command line down below. :

The is what your name you want it to be when others see you at the IRC channel, and the is the name of the IRC channel. We set up a channel specifically called #BeagleCom at Freenode. You can test this out by joining the IRC channel through a host computer and see if your BeagleBone joins the IRC channel. You do not need the # when entering the channel name on the command line. Note that this will not work if an IRC channel has a password to enter.

When you receive a message from the IRC channel, the LED linked to the client will flash to signify that you have received it.

bone$ ./receiver.py
 * If you want to start receiving files from another BeagleBone or host computer, run this command line :

Enter port : {insert port # here} Enter host (ex:localhost): {insert host # here} Listening on port {port#}
 * When you run this code, it'll ask for a port and a local host IP :

bone$ ./sendfile.py -i -p -f
 * On the other side (whether through BeagleBone or host PC), run this command to send the file to the receiving BeagleBone :

The should be whatever the IP address of the Linux system that you're using, the was of your choosing (we usually use port 8888), and the is the file that you send to the receiver (we tested using .txt files to speed testing).

Highlights
Our video demo: Youtube

Theory of Operation


The IRC client: Make use of socket to open a connection and connect to an external IRC server. Process received information and format data before displaying it either on the Terminal or on the LCD display.

The receiver: Simply open a connection on a port and continually listen for incoming data on specified port.

The sender: Open a connection and send a specified file to a specific IP address and its specified port.

Our receiver would ideally run in the background before trying to send a file. To make a receiver available globally install NGROK and run ./ngriok tcp.

Future Work/Conclusions
The overall idea was to create our own IRC webpage hosted by a BeagleBone and have the interface of having text and files be sent through that medium, such as a textbox that can be typed up and sent through using the IRC client that we implemented previously. There would be another button that would allow us to pick a file in the Linux system to be sent through, which would be then use the File Transmission Python code to send the file from one BeagleBone to another. This would all be done using Flask as an interface and HTML setup for proper use.

In the end, we were able to have the project fully working, but we'd hope for more that can be more tangible as a product using all of its utilities. Due to problems that crop up at the last minute and not enough time to implement more of our ideas, we ended up with this current project. It's satisfactory but it could've been done better if more time was allotted.