Nvidia Jetson Nano User Guide

Setting up the system

Required hardware

  • AD-FXTOF1-EBZ development kit

  • Nvidia Jetson Nano

  • 5V power supply for Jetson. (Jetson board can be powered up from USB but external 4A 5V supply is recommended)

  • 5V power supply for the interposer.

  • To run the system in standalone mode, besides the accessories that are provided in the AD-FXTOF1-EBZ box you’ll need an additional HDMI cable to connect to a monitor and a USB keyboard and mouse

  • Camera flex cable for connection between Jetson and AD-FXTOF1-EBZ

Prepare SD card

  • Download and flash on a SD card the latest image provided from the following link: aditof_sdk#ad-fxtof1-ebz

  • Download L4T BSP L4T BSP package (Tested release R32.3.1)

  • Extract kernel_src from BSP package

  • ADI ToF camera driver and devicetree should be taken from aditof_sdk

  • Copy paste and replace content of kernel_src folder from L4T BSP with the one downloaded from ADI ToF Repository

  • Build Kernel and devicetree blob following instructions from Building_the_Kernel_from_Source selecting “CONFIG_VIDEO_ADDI9036” and “CONFIG_EEPROM_AT24” using menuconfig

  • Copy generated kernel Image and devicetree to SD card

Power on sequence

  • Plug the SD card into the Nvidia Jetson SD card slot

  • Connect the HDMI cable from the monitor to the Jetson HDMI connector

  • Connect the 25 pins flex cable between the camera and the interposer

  • Connect the 15 pins camera cable between the Jetson Nano and the P1 connector of the interposer. Make sure to use the cable with contacts on opposite sides.

Important

Some of the AD-FXTOF1-EBZ kits are missing the correct 15 pins cable to connect to Raspberry Pi or the Nvidia platforms. If in your box there is only one 15 pins cable having the contacts on the same side, please get a new cable with contacts on opposite sides (e.g. 15 pins cable, contacts on opposite sides)

  • Connect a USB mouse and keyboard to the Jetson

  • Connect the interposer to the power supply

  • connect the 5V power supply to the Jetson Nano. Once power is connected to the Jetson the system will boot the Linux OS from the SD card.

Important

Password for “analog” user is “analog”. This user has sudo rights

image1

Important

One CSI connector board version

image2

Important

Two CSI connectors board version

Power off sequence

  • Open a terminal and type sudo poweroff. This will safely power off and ensure that the SD card is properly unmounted

  • remove the 5V supply from the Nvidia Jetson

  • remove the 5V supply from the interposer

Running the evaluation application

This example demonstrates how to capture data from the TOF system on the Nvidia jetson and display it using OpenCV.

Once Linux boots you’ll see on the HDMI monitor the Linux desktop and on the top left corner a shortcut to the evaluation application. Double clicking on the icon will start the evaluation application. A console window will open to show the application’s status and, after a few seconds, the evaluation application GUI will be displayed.

https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/analogdevicesinc/system-level/main/docs/solutions/reference-designs/ad-fxtof1-ebz/images/aditof_demo.png

When starting the application, a terminal window will open to display status messages (also warning and error messages, in case there are any issues). Shorty the main window will show up.

The evaluation application allows to do live streaming of depth and IR data as well as recording the depth and IR data and playing back from a file. The depth data is displayed as a color map ranging from warm to cold colors as the distance from the camera increases. A point in the middle of the depth image shows the distance in mm to the target.

There are 3 operating modes that determine the range of the system:

  • Near - 25cm to 80cm

  • Medium - 30cm to 3m

When in a certain operating mode the system will measure distances outside of the mode’s range but those will not be accurate. The evaluation application also displays the temperature in deg C of the camera (AFE).

The framerate at which data is acquired from the system is constantly updated on the GUI. The camera board outputs data at 30 frames per second (fps), but due to USB connection limitations, the host PC acquires the frames at a lower rate.

Enabling the point cloud display in aditof-demo

  • The demo application has the capability to display a point cloud image if it detects an OpenCV module called viz.

Unfortunately OpenCV does not provide binaries for this module so a manual build is needed. The steps required to install OpenCV and include it in the project are presented here: Enable Point Cloud Aditof-Demo

  • If aditof-demo finds all the OpenCV required modules a button in the interface will allow you to display the point cloud. By toggling the button a separate window will appear.

aditof-demo

Troubleshooting

  • Linux does not boot

    • The SD card is corrupted and this prevents the system from booting. Reflash the SD card or check generated devicetree or kernel image

  • The demo application hangs after closing the main window

    • Due to some limitations the application always hangs if it is closed using the regular X button from the window top bar (title bar). To avoid this unpleasant hang, we’ve made available a second X button in the top right corner right above the title bar that can be used to safely close the demo application. We hope this to be a temporary workaround.