Installation of JetPack on NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano - Walkthrough

Hi Friends, today we are going to bring up the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano to working level by installing JetPack 6. This needs a few specific steps that needed to be carried out. I am providing all the necessary steps to bring it to the operation level in simple steps.

?? WARNING: PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY. INCORRECT CONNECTIONS MIGHT DAMAGE YOUR NVIDIA JETSON ORIN NANO...

??Introduction

I am using the following website to install Jetpack on NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano. At the time of writing this document, I am using Jetpack 6.x version. Please note that depending on the firmware that the Jetson Orin Nano is running, you might need to install the Jetpack 5.1.3 and then upgrade to Jetpack 6.x

??Connecting the Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano

There are two methods of connecting and installing the Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano SBC and are listed as follows

1. Connecting a Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse - Connecting monitor via Display Port, if you have HDMI only monitor, then you may need to use the Display Port to HDMI Adaptor
2. Connecting via UART - using USB Serial converter - CP210x. (This is the method that is discussed in this article, as I don't have the Display Port to HDMI Converter ??

Following is the image that shows the mechanism of connecting the Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano via UART connection.

In the last image, below fan of NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano, there are UART PINS located at following Pin Numbers

• Pin 3 - RX
• Pin 4 - TX
• Pin 7 - GND

??Booting up Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano via SDCard - Jetpack 5.1.3

Download the Jetpack 5.1.3 image from the following URL

https://developer.nvidia.com/downloads/embedded/l4t/r35_release_v5.0/jp513-orin-nano-sd-card-image.zip

Download and install it into the SD card. If you are on windows use Etcher or in Ubuntu/ Linux use the Disk Writer Utility. I am using 128GB SD Card for this article.

After flashing the Jetpack 5.1.3 on SD card, this is the layout of my SD Card

Insert the SD card onto the Nvidia jetson Orin Nano and boot up the SBC. Following are the boot up messages from the SBC.

Just reboot after the Jetpack 5.1.3 has been booted and the UEFI Firmware should be updated as shown in the image below

Once this is done, we will switch to NVIDIA SDK Manager to download and install the latest version of the Jetpack on Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano

??Nvidia SDK Manager

After updating the firmware in the previous step, we will use the NVIDIA SDK Manager to update the JetPack.

Visit the following URL and download the Nvidia SDK manager after you have logged in via your Nvidia Account.

https://developer.nvidia.com/sdk-manager

After downloading the SDK Manager, use the following command to install the SDK Manager in Ubuntu Host

sudo dpkg -i sdkmanager_2.2.0-12028_amd64.deb        

At the time of writing this article, the SDK manager version is 2.2.0-12028

After installation of SDK Manager, run the application and you will be greeted with the similar output in my system

Go ahead and complete the login process into the SDK manager.

Now let's use the SDK manager to complete the process of installing JetPack

You will see the following screen after the login is completed.

Follow the below mentioned steps to use SDK Manager to update the Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano

1. Connect the USB-C Cable to Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano and to PC
2. Run the NVIDIA SDK Manager
3. Target Hardware should auto detect
4. If the board is not powered on, then short Pin 9 and Pin 10 of the J14 Header of Nvidia Jetson Orin board

If you have done everything correctly then the SDK manager should change as follows

Optional: Select "DeepStream" and "GXF Runtime" as needed

If you reach this screen, then successfully you have installed JetPack onto Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano. Congratulations... ??????????

Verify the installation by confirming on the Serial Console as shown in the screenshots below

??Conclusion

This concludes the article and if you have followed the instructions in this article, you will be having a working Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano. Your SBC is up and running and is now available for you to run AI/ML Applications and develop your wildest imaginations...

All the best for your amazing projects and I will be back with another article to showcase the capabilities of this amazing hardware. Till then happy programming

??References

1. https://www.nvidia.com/en-in/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-orin/nano-super-developer-kit/
2. https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetpack
3. https://www.jetson-ai-lab.com/initial_setup_jon_sdkm.html
4. https://www.jetson-ai-lab.com/initial_setup_jon.html