There are many things that can cause that error.
It means that the I2C device is not replying to its address on the buss.
It could be a wiring error, the I2C device is not hooked up correctly.
The BeagleBone has three I2C busses. You could be looking on the wrong bus.
It could mean there are no pull up resistors on the I2C bus.
It could mean that the part is busy. This would mean that it answers some times and not others. It is very common for EEPROMs to not answer when they are busy writing to the internal memory, or parts with data converters to not answer when they are busy doing a conversion. The solution to the busy problem is to wait a few milliseconds, then try again, perhaps a maximum of ten times before giving up.
--- Graham
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