Xavier Nx General Info

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Xavier NX
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Hi, I am new in Jetson family and when I look datasheet I didn’t understand some of features , I made searching and I got nothing.
My using purpose of Xavier NX development kit is to make autonomous UAV . In case of the purpose I’ll use HolyBro Durandal, MIPI CSI-2 camera which has to have big pixel size, high fps and so on…
I have a lot of question about it, hope you will respond me in a short time with very basic expression, thanks a lot :)

  1. Do I have to buy developer kit or separately, I know it depends on my project but I am new so what are the pros and cons of developer kit and buying separetly dont have any idea.
  2. In datasheet I saw video encoding and decoding, which points are important in this case, I mean when I am buying camera do I have to look encoding side, or decoding or both? Actually what is the importance of encoding and decoding? (I searched and listed many cameras that is supported from NVIDIA)
  3. I will use LTE USB modem for datas but I don’t find any info about it. Which pins can I use, I found driver of LTE USB but is there any specificaton do I have to do?
  4. do Durandal and Jetson fit each other in any perspective if it, which features do I have to look?
  5. In datasheet I saw something like this: 6 x 1080p @ 60 , I know 60 is fps but what is the meaning of 6 ?
  6. I really don’t get lane. Is it channel or something?
  7. I forgot to put the last one: I am planning to install 20.04 in case of my project I will use ROS2, does it affect in the worse way?
  8. Is there any thing important to mention, I am willing to listen it.

Have a nice day! :)

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I can’t answer all of it, but here is part of the info…

  • A developer kit includes an SD card model of module, plus the developer kit carrier board. The eMMC model is sold only as a module, and you’d have to purchase a separate carrier board from a third party.

  • I don’t know about the modem, but if the modem is supported on a desktop PC without requiring a third party binary driver, then it probably works on a Jetson. Possibly you would have to compile the driver, but if the driver is already in the Linux kernel source, then this is usually not a problem. Also beware that modems tend to also require a firmware download (and firmware is generally architecture independent so probably any firmware downloaded from a manufacturer would work on any system). No guarantees though.

  • Lanes tend to be a modular way to send data traffic. For example, PCIe might have 1 lane, 2 lanes, 4 lanes, or 8 lanes. More lanes means that if the end user of the connection supports more lanes, then it can send more traffic. PCIe is usually what you see people talking about for lanes, but some camera formats also have optional lane count. You’d use whatever amount of lanes is the smaller of the computer or camera lane counts. One can exceed the number of lanes of one device versus another without losing function, although data rate would slow down. Serial cameras (such as USB) don’t use lanes.

  • Right now the flash software uses a host PC with Ubuntu 18.04. It won’t be until approximately the start of 2022 before the host PC uses Ubuntu 20.04. Current releases of Ubuntu on the Jetson itself also runs Ubuntu 18.04, but would transition to 20.04 at the same time the flash software does. The flash software might be referred to as either JetPack or SDK Manager. Even though SDKM is now capable of use with 20.04, this is not correct for when SDKM is used with Jetsons, so stick to 18.04. I don’t know much about ROS, but there are a lot of people here who do know about this and could answer questions on getting ROS2 working.

  • Important point: If you use a monitor, use one with true HDMI, and not a VGA adapter.

  • Important point: Look carefully at the power supply requirements for voltage. Using the barrel jack connector tends to work better since it can supply a bit more power than the micro-B USB connector. The trick though, with either, is that the power supply must have good regulation. There are plenty of cheap power supplies which look good on paper, but fail at times due to temporary current spike requirements. You could create a thread asking about power sources (I don’t have a specific source in mind).

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Thanks a lot I will wait for the other questions :)

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Hello,

  • About the 6 x 1080p @ 60: the 6 means how many parallel video sources the device can process.
  • About ROS2 it should work on the NX, but I would stick to 18.04 on both sides(dev PC and NX). I am working on a Ros2 project and I’m planning to use a ROS2 container with all the packages installed so I don’t have to worry about setting up dependencies.
  • Make sure to get a good battery for your UAV. Specially if you are going to be working using the maximum power of the NX.
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Thanks a lot! I will use 32000mah liPo , so I think it covers all the other processes. I am searching about ROS2 container to run in 18.04 (ROS2 Foxy)