I have a Jetson Orin Nano (bought new from Amazon in August 2025). Since then I have bought 17 of these for instructional purposes. I just started using the GPIO on my Jetson Orin Nano three days ago for the first time (I worked with Jetson Nano GPIO last year in summer before transitioning to Jetson Orin Nano). In my quick tests, I found that while the physical pins 2 and 4 (5V rail) provide 5V measurement on a multimeter (with ground on physical pin 9), in all likelihood that 5V can not drive even any tiny load.
When I connect a 1K (or 10K, 100K resistor across GND and 5V and measure across Gnd and 5V pins, I get 0.06V (or 0.56V, 2.86V, respectively). Also, if I connect one end of a 1K (or 2K, 10K) to ground and place the other end to one probe of a multimeter and other probe of multimeter to 5V, I measure 0.6mA (or 0.6mA to 0.7mA) current. All these tests suggest that the 5V rail is not able to deliver any power whatsoever to light up even an LED. So instead of using 5V from pin2 or pin 4, I am having to use an external 5V supply to toggle LED with PWM32/PWM33. I know I have to use external 5V supply for servos and such, but it is problematic that even LEDs will not light up (LED with 470ohm in series).
Some more info –
I have NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit. The SD Card is on the bottom of the Jetson Orin Nano Core Module. Here is the model number from the original box: P3766. From the box, the part # is: 945-13766-0000-00.
The 5V that I am referring to is from physical pins 2 and 4 on the 40-pin GPIO. I believe one should be able to drive a small LED (in series with 470 Ohm resistor) connected between the 5V (Pin 2 or 4) and Gnd (Pin 9). Once again, these pin numbers refer to physical pin numbers on the 40-pin GPIO. Usually, I should be able to connect an LED like this: Pin 2 of GPIO (5V) connected to one pin of 470 Ohm; other pin of 470 Ohm connected to the Anode of LED; Cathode of LED connected to Collector of 2N222 BJT (all a series connection). Then the Emitter of 2N222 goes to Pin 9 of GPIO (GND). Finally, Base of 2N222 is connected with a 10K resistor to GPIO Pin 32 (or Pin33) configured as PWM. Then under program control the LED can be controlled to brighten and dim. I have similar things done with Jetson Nano (different 5V pin numbers and Gnd pin numbers on 40 pin GPIO, Gnd was Pin 6 and 5V Pin 2). Currently this does not work on Jetson Orin Nano Developer kit, I had to put 5V connection on an external supply and then do common ground with that supply for GPIO Pin 9 of Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit. I saw on forums others complaining of same issue and someone from Tech support indicated that likely a MOSFET that provided the output for GPIO pins 2 and 4 was dead and simply outputting 5v without any way to provide current.
Can someone from Tech Support help or perhaps the board was already in this defective state and can be replaced? Any help will be appreciated. Many thnx.