Building an SPI interface circuit

Now that you have an understanding of where SPI devices are connected to the BBB and how the Linux kernel presents an interface to these devices, it is time to connect an SPI device to the BBB.

As we mentioned in Chapter 1, Introduction to Android and the BeagleBone Black, you will be interfacing with a sensor in this chapter. To be specific, we will be using a Bosch Sensortec BMP183 digital pressure sensor. This 7-pin component provides pressure data samples (in 16- to 19-bit resolution) and temperature data samples (in 16-bit resolution) for applications used for navigation, weather forecasting, and to measure changes in vertical elevation and so on.

This particular chip is only available in a land grid array (LGA), which is a surface mount package that can be difficult to work with when building prototype circuits. Luckily for us, the AdaFruit breakout board for the sensor already has the chip mounted, which makes prototyping simple and easy.

The sensor...