So I’ve been using the jetson nano devkit for a while and built several projects. But my question is - how to take the next step. How to build something for production use.
The devkits are at a great price point but production carrier boards are hugely expensive in comparison. Typically they are around the $1,000 dollar mark (in AUD) for a production carrier board, nano and case.
This simply rules out using these products for consumer applications - the costs are far too high.
For industrial applications it’s fine I guess.
What do others on this forum think? Anyone created production systems with jetson nano? How? Did you design and build your own carrier board?
This is the missing link in the jetson product range.
Thanks @kayccc . Designing and building your own massively increases the effort to get a product to market of course. Using the 3rd party HW partners is great but a pretty expensive option (as I was mentioning above) - it rules out being able to use a jetson nano (or any jetson hardware) for consumer type applications when your base board (and case) cost is around $1000 (aud).
Looks to me like this is really an area where NVIDIA need to offer a production version that can be used out of the box for startups and so on if they really want this to take off…
Hi @jasonpgf2a, the cost for production systems typically varies based on the IP-rating and I/O. For example, a sealed IP-67 conduction-cooled system is going to be more expensive than a simple metal enclosure with a fan.
I recommend that you also check out this page with enclosures/systems available with Jetson Nano: Jetson Nano - eLinux.org
For example, a few of the fanless options on that list I found are <$500 USD:
It’s possible there are other industrial-grade options available in that price range as well, those were just the ones with online shops and their prices listed online.
Of course, if you don’t need industrial-grade or fanless conduction-cooled, there are a bunch of air-cooled metal enclosures available at a fraction of the price.
Dusty forgot to mention Connect Tech! We are NVIDIA Jetson’s largest hardware partner, and we have multiple production options that may suit your needs. There are a few options for a production Nano application that come in below the $1000 AUD mark. For example, we have our Quark carrier board that can be bundled with the Nano module and thermal solution that comes pre-integrated and flashed and cost well below the $1000 AUD mark.
I’d be happy to walk you through some options and help suggest some solutions for you. You can email me directly at sgill@connecttech.com.
Thanks @dusty_nv, if you look at the fine print on these they’ve aren’t really under 500. The hazmat one is 499 excluding the nano production module for example.
But they do have one that’s 499 inclusive of the devkit which is not suitable for commercial purposes.
What I’m trying to say is that current production nano offerings are too expensive to create products for the consumer market and are really more suited to commercial and industrial applications where it doesn’t matter if a carrier board and nano module are around $1000.
To target the consumer market we’d need a production system under 500 all inclusive I think.
My use case is more around the security industry but I think it applies more widely.
The other ones that I listed above I believe do already include the Jetson Nano production module. Regardless, these IP-rated enclosures are mostly intended for commercial and industrial applications.
That said, there are plenty of designers deploying consumer-level end-devices with Nano - typically these are highly-integrated devices intended for volume production with a Nano slot in the ‘motherboard’ of their device. Other folks work directly with ecosystem design partners (like ConnectTech) to create a customized solution that fits their individual needs. A fully sealed conduction-cooled IP-rated enclosure may be overkill for consumer applications at the price point you are targeting, hence you may want to remove some of those environmental qualifications.
NVIDIA ourselves don’t produce the production end systems, as there are too many variations in end-product requirements to make it viable for us at scale. Instead the ecosystem partners and third-party market have created many off-the-shelf options in addition to being able to create custom designs for you.