Making your own Cape Overlay for BeagleBone Black

[DarthRay79]

I have been trying for WEEKS to create my own custom cape overlay based on BB-BONE-AUDI-02-00A0.dtbo.

I've only tested this on Bone Debian 8.7 lxgt, not the latest (I think is 9.5). I had an issue getting the cape to be loaded by bone_capemgr. Even rebuilding using the "make" in /opt/source/bb.org-overlays. I'm sure further digging in the forum would have given me the answer eventually. Here's the steps REQUIRED, and I'll explain the piece I was missing:

1. Connect to your Beaglebone Black (Obviously).

2. Create your .dts file and put it at /opt/source/bb.org-overlays/src/arm      {Phew, long path. I know}

3. Change directory: 

               $ cd /opt/source/bb.org-overlays/

4. Run the following in Terminal:

               $ sudo make -d src/arm/<name of new cape overlay>.dtbo

                                IF you get clock skew, run: $ sudo touch src/arm/*             Redo the make.

               $ ./install.sh              (THIS IS THE PART I MISSED FOR WEEKS, it is required as it adds all the capes .dtbo to: /boot/initrd.img4.4.54-ti-r93, that have to match the cape being used at boot by the bone_capemgr)

5. Make changes in /boot/uEnv.txt, specifically cape_enable=bone_capemgr.enable_partno=<your cape name here w/no .dtbo>           example: BB-BONE-AUDI-02               Full file name is: BB-BONE-AUDI-02-00A0.dtbo

6. Reboot and see if changes are implemented. Here's some helpers:

     $ dmesg                          (shows bootup with overlay info and any issues)

     $ i2cdetect -r <i2c bus>   (shows all addresses on that bus. i2c bus = 0, 1, or 2)

     $ i2cdetect -l                    (Shows all i2c busses loaded)

     $ ls /dev/                          (will show all devices and comms  like SPI, I2C, USB that are active)

     $ sudo /opt/scripts/tools/version.sh    (shows overlays and capes active with additional info)

I'm going to try and perform the same thing on Bone Debian 9.5 and see if I can get it working. I may have to update the script to change 4.4.54 to 4.14.xx.

Please feel free to chime in or ask any questions. I just wanted to share my findings so far.