Eight Years of Farming; Is EveryboArDy Happy?
summary
Eight years of a home board farm grows from 6 boards -> 14 boards on a grounded metal rack, starting with a BeagleBone Black + ACME Cape for 8-channel power control and evolving to custom PCBs (opto-isolator on KiCad, Phoenix DIN-rail terminal blocks, smoke detector) and a tiny‑MCU TNC board for power/measurement and serial control later replaced by an I2C GPIO expander. Supply‑chain limits forced part substitutions; USB endpoint limits were solved by emulating the Moxa‑ort protocol. Remote access uses per‑board SSH accounts and FRAM with rsync, console/power/reset commands and one‑hour locks; mostly reliable, occasional USB drops and oxidized wake pins.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:24Board farm overview
- 3:32Eight years of evolution
- 6:46Power and control upgrades
- 10:00Custom control board design
- 15:00USB endpoint limits
- 16:47Supply chain adjustments
- 19:16Current state and plans
- 22:06Alternatives to board farm
- 24:12Ideal features and setup
- 25:40Remote access challenges
- 28:01Secure remote design
- 31:05Remote access implementation
- 35:00Command configuration
- 36:03Software setup tips
- 38:31Scripted board access
- 39:35Future enhancements
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