Part 3 – building the actual network (software)

First of all, we have to install the software that will be required to communicate with the XBee modules.

Step 1 – installing Oracle's JDK on BeagleBone Black

The software we will be writing requires Java and JavaScript, so the first step is to install Oracle's JDK. Then download the Linux ARM v6/v7 Hard Float ABI Version:

1. Copy jdk-7u40-linux-arm-vfp-*.gz to your BeagleBone Black.

2. Perform tar xzf jdk-7u40-linux-arm-vfp-*.gz to extract the JDK.

3. Perform export PATH=$PATH:/home/root/jdk1.7.0_40/bin to add the JDK to your path.

4. Perform export JAVA_HOME=/home/root/jdk1.7.0_40 to set the JAVA_HOME on your installation.

5. Perform java -version to verify your installation.

Step 2 – installing the Java serial port extension package

To install this package, perform the following commands on your terminal:

apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install nodejs
npm install serialport

Step 3 – enabling serial ports on startup

In the serials.sh file, use the following...