Custom Carrier Board for Jetson Orin Nano with 3 CSI Camera Connectors

[rohith8]

Hello NVIDIA Community,

I’m designing a custom carrier board based on the Jetson Orin Nano carrier , and I need support for three MIPI CSI camera connectors. I understand the official developer kit exposes only two CSI interfaces (CSI-0 and CSI-2), but the module itself supports additional interfaces like CSI-4 and CSI-6.

My Goal:

To connect three 4-lane MIPI CSI cameras directly to the carrier board.

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Questions:

1. CSI Interface Availability:

   • Can I use CSI-4 or CSI-6 in addition to CSI-0 and CSI-2 for the third camera?

   • Are all four CSI interfaces (CSI-0, CSI-2, CSI-4, CSI-6) simultaneously usable on the Orin Nano?

2. CSI Lane Configuration:

   • According to the Jetson Orin Nano Design Guide, each CSI port supports up to 4 lanes.

   • Is it possible to configure three CSI ports with 4 lanes each without lane conflicts?

   • Are there any lane multiplexing or routing limitations I should be aware of?

3. Pinmux and Device Tree:

   • What are the required changes in the pinmux spreadsheet and device tree to enable CSI-4 or CSI-6?

   • Are there any reference configurations or examples for enabling more than two CSI interfaces?

4. Hardware Design Considerations:

   • Any recommendations for connector types, signal integrity, and clock signal routing?

   • Is lane swapping supported or strictly prohibited?

5. Alternative Approaches:

   • Would using a GMSL2 or FPD-Link III deserializer be a better approach for supporting 3+ cameras?

   • Are there NVIDIA-approved deserializer ICs or reference boards that support multiple cameras over fewer CSI lanes?

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Any guidance, documentation links, or shared experiences from similar projects would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Rohith

[TomNVIDIA]

Hello,

Thanks for visiting the NVIDIA Developer Forums.
To ensure better visibility and support, I’ve moved your post to the Jetson category where it’s more appropriate

Cheers,
Tom

[JerryChang]

hello rohith8,

please check Jetson Orin NX Series and Orin Nano Series Design Guide for [Chapter 10. MIPI CSI Video Input].
let me re-cap as below..

Orin Module brings eight MIPI CSI lanes to the connector. Up-to two quad-lane camera streams or up-to four dual-lane camera streams are supported. Each data lane has a peak bandwidth of up to 2.5 Gbps.

hence..
>> To connect three 4-lane MIPI CSI cameras directly to the carrier board.
unfortunately, it supports up-to two quad-lane camera streams.

>> Can I use CSI-4 or CSI-6
please check the [Orin Module CSI Pin Descriptions], there’s no CSI4, CSI6 pin outs.