Jetson TK1 Promo Offer

I am not an employee of NVIDIA or Make. :) But I am using this promo as an opportunity to see if anyone has made progress on getting the Jetson TK1 airborne.

https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/makejtk1

The Jetson was released over a year ago. The community support has developed nicely since then. A custom kernel provided by users, and 'JetPack' (by NVIDIA) help to accelerate the setup process. I was able to get Jetson and Pixhawk talking via MAVLink by following the "Communicating with ODroid via MAVLink" wiki entry, without too many issues.

http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/odroid-via-mavlink/

I have not yet flown with the Jetson. This development board is a bit bulky: approximately twice as big and heavy as the Odroid XU4 (XU3 and Jetson pictured). However, it offers top-notch performance for computational intensive tasks such as vision processing.

Jetson/XU4 Weight: 120g / 60g

Jetson/XU4 Dimensions: 127x127mm / 82x58mm

*Percepto's Indiegogo campaign proposed TK1-based hardware that is more down-to-size.

It is worth mentioning that DJI has recently released a companion computer based on the Jetson for their development copter. 'Manifold' is approximately the same size/weight as the Jetson development board, but with different I/O.

https://developer.dji.com/manifold/

(image source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/dji-tempts-developers-with-new-ubuntu-computer-for-drones/)

Here is a reply from an NVIDIA rep, regarding TX1:

TX1 Customized Carrier Board Design:

If you check here (https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/downloads), currently we have posted the complete design files and schematics for the Jetson TX1 carrier board. Very shortly we will be uploading the comprehensive "Carrier Design Guide" which contains every detail about signal routing & signal integrity for the different interfaces. Today, the module databook from the link above contains much of the pin-out info.

Ideally an off-the-shelf vendor will design a miniaturized carrier for resale in the community. Two gold stars and lots of potential volume to whoever designs a mini carrier (and possibly an enclosure) first!

TX1 Module Sales (to individuals):

... starting in early January, anyone will be able to purchase the Jetson TX1 module through distributors worldwide.

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Comments

Patrick Poirier November 12, 2015 at 7:29pm

Thomas
Looking at NVIDIA Developper's site , I found on this partner
http://coloradoengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TK1-SOM-N...

These guys have the expertise to build what were are looking for
Developer

Randy November 12, 2015 at 6:56pm

Ok, I've created a repo under diydrones.com called "companion". It's empty but I'm happy to accept any PRs to start adding value. I think we should structure it so that the top level is OS / board. i.e. Ubuntu / TK1.

Probably one of the first things we need are setup scripts to install all the packages that are commonly needed (MAVProxy, dronekit, etc).

If people have images for common platforms we can put those into the wiki downloads area.
Thomas Stone November 12, 2015 at 6:02pm

... Minor Update: the 1-off TX1 module price is confirmed to be $299 (in early 2016).
c j g November 12, 2015 at 2:28pm

Just for the records, a picture of the thermal transfer plate

http://devblogs.nvidia.com/parallelforall/wp-content/uploads/sites/...
Thomas Stone November 12, 2015 at 12:58pm

@Glenn @Patrick

This sounds great. Unfortunately, I am not an expert PCB designer. So we will need to find somebody with that sort of experience in order to produce a quality design..... I would be happy to handle small-batch assembly/reflow and distribution (from the US) if we had the right design.
Glenn Gregory November 12, 2015 at 12:38pm

@Thomas Thanks for the TK1 promo link. I have one on the way.

I also would be interested in collaborating on a TX1 carrier board for UAV applications.
Patrick Poirier November 12, 2015 at 12:17pm

Thanks Thomas for the developer's link ,there are extremely valuable information on this.

If you are planning a build request for the UAV Carrier Board, let me know.

This is the kind of device I am really looking for... especially sinc @c j g confirmed the price for the ADAS development board... (10k$)
Thomas Stone November 12, 2015 at 11:41am

@c j g

Based on the docs, it looks like the TX1 module includes a thermal transfer plate (TTP: 87x50x6mm). And a heat sink/fan can be screwed onto this thermal transfer plate.

The docs list a "calculated mass" (whatever that means) of the TX1 module w/ TTP as 45 grams. I guess the TPP has some serious weight .... Ultimately, somebody should just weigh the thing. :)
c j g November 12, 2015 at 11:22am

@Thomas. Do you have some information about the weight with cooler (and fan) included?
Thomas Stone November 12, 2015 at 11:00am

Here is a reply from an NVIDIA rep, regarding TX1:

TX1 Customized Carrier Board Design:

If you check here (https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/downloads), currently we have posted the complete design files and schematics for the Jetson TX1 carrier board. Very shortly we will be uploading the comprehensive "Carrier Design Guide" which contains every detail about signal routing & signal integrity for the different interfaces. Today, the module databook from the link above contains much of the pin-out info.

Ideally an off-the-shelf vendor will design a miniaturized carrier for resale in the community. Two gold stars and lots of potential volume to whoever designs a mini carrier (and possibly an enclosure) first!

TX1 Module Sales (to individuals):

... starting in early January, anyone will be able to purchase the Jetson TX1 module through distributors worldwide.

Jetson Download Center

Get downloadable documentation, software, and other resources for the NVIDIA Jetson ecosystem.

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