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Jetson Nano parts list |
If you get a bare Jetson Nano, you'll need some parts to make it a usable, useful computer. Here's a shopping list.
The Nano takes either USB power or power from a DC barrel jack. If you are planning to do things that draw the full power of the system you'll want to go the barrel jack route. Specs are 5V, 4A, 5.5mm by 2.1mm. I found one from JacobsParts, part ADP-5V-C. You can also find this spec'd part from many other vendors, so choose your favorite.
One thing not generally mentioned in the discussion of powering the Nano via barrel jack is the need to set a jumper (J48) to enable that power port. Jumpers are very cheap in any sort of quantity, but if you don't happen to have a supply of them at hand - I didn't - then Adafruit 3525 (10-pack of jumpers with handles) should be on your shopping list. Look for jumpers with a 0.1" (2.54mm) spacing.
A good detailed read from the Jetson forums is Power supply considerations.
The operating system image for the Nano comes out to a little more than 5G compressed, and 15G uncompressed. You'll want to get an SD card to boot from with enough additional storage to handle any projects you want to take on. I went with a 64G Samsung Evo, part MB-MC64GA/AM. The recommendation would be to get two of them, one for everyday use, and a second to do experiments on that you're always willing to reflash. I ordered mine direct from Samsung. SD cards are available from many sources at many prices, but there are also counterfeits in the marketplace, so buyer beware for any price that looks too good.
If your computer doesn't have a slot for the SD card, you'll need to get an adapter to attach it to your machine. There are many versions of these as well, some for USB-A, others for USB-C, and many that accept a wide variety of card formats. Look for something like the Anker 2-in-1 USB C to SD/Micro SD Card Reader A38700A1 with more than one card reader slot to make it easier to duplicate cards.
To flash the software for the system, you'll want to use something way more
friendly than Linux's dd command. dd will do the job, but its nickname
is not "disk destroyer" for nothing, since a typo can wipe out your main system
drive. A faster and much preferred alternative is
balenaEtcher, which puts a hard-to-get-wrong
user interface on the process and helpfully verifies your file copies so
that you get something that works the first time.
The Nano has two sets of pins that can be connected to provide a serial console for the device. This is super helpful when bringing the system up from scratch, since it lets you see what's going on at boot time, and gives you a terminal shell. One set of UART pins is on the Raspberry Pi style header, and a second is on a 6-pin UART header.
My favorite console cable is the Adafruit 954, which has a USB to serial chip in the cable housing and brings out 4 pins (RX, TX, power and ground) on separate plugs for maximum flexiblity. Follow the Jetson Nano Serial Console instructions and video from Jetson Hacks and you'll be in good shape.
You may need drivers for the serial chip inside the USB. I never remember running into any issues on the Mac; on Windows, check out Zadig which is designed for USB driver installation.
Once the cable is connected and suitable drivers set up, you'll want a terminal
program to make the connection. On Linux or the Mac I find that screen works
great. Locate the console port in your /dev directory - it varies, but usually
has the string "USB" in it - and then connect with something like
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200.
Thanks for this - very helpful!