Peripherals

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Peripherals block diagram

PDF FORMAT

Nvidia Jetson peripherals

This section describes Nvidia Jetson peripherals with their minimal usage examples. For detailed connectors pinouts see Connectors and pinouts section.

GPIOs

Setup rules to be able to control gpios from terminal:

   $ sudo groupadd -f -r gpio
   $ sudo usermod -a -G gpio $USER

You may either need to reboot or reload the udev rules :

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Example code: Set gpio64 logic level to LOW and then to HIGH

cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio

root@ubuntu:/home/user_name# echo 64 > /sys/class/gpio/export
root@ubuntu:/home/user_name# echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio64/direction
root@ubuntu:/home/user_name# echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio64/value
root@ubuntu:/home/user_name# echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio64/value

User controllable GPIOs with their kernel mapping numbers (NANO)

Signal Name	Kernel mapping number	usage
Gpio4	65	5V_AP_SWITCH
Gpio6	64	USB MUX SELECT
Gpio11	200	CAM_MCLK3
Gpio12	194	Free gpio
Gpio13	38	Free gpio
GPIO_EXP1	502	Free gpio
GPIO_EXP2	503	Free gpio
CAM0_PWDN	412	IMU DRDY
CAM1_PWDN	413	AP DRDY

User controllable GPIOs with their kernel mapping numbers (Xavier NX):

Signal Name	Kernel mapping number	usage
Gpio4	265	5V_AP_SWITCH
Gpio6	267	USB MUX SELECT
Gpio11	422	CAM_MCLK3
Gpio12	268	Free gpio
Gpio13	393	Free gpio
GPIO_EXP1	246	Free gpio
GPIO_EXP2	247	Free gpio
CAM0_PWDN		IMU DRDY
CAM1_PWDN		AP DRDY

Serial ports

Nano

• ttyTHS1 = uart to autopilot

• ttyTHS2 = uart to 'GPS_Jetson' connector

• ttyS0 = uart to GPIO pin header

Xavier NX

Example code: link to git

SPI ports

Nano

• spidev0.0 = SPI0 (Jetson) connector

• spidev0.1 = SPI0 (Jetson) connector

• spidev1.0 = accelerometer

• spidev1.1 = gyroscope

• spidev1.2 = barometer

Xavier NX

Example code: link to git

I2C

• common

  • i2c-30 = CSIA connector

  • i2c-32 = CSIB connector

  • i2c-31 = CSIC connector

  • i2c-33 = CSID connector

  • i2c-35 = CSIE connector

  • i2c-34 = CSIF connector

Nano

• i2c-1 = B2B connector (power board)

• i2c-0 = GPS(Jetson) connector

Xavier NX

Example code: link to git

CSI CAMERAS

• CSI cameras natively supported on DroneCore.Pilot board (installed with our provided system image): OV9281, IMX219, IMX477, Arducam Jetson cameras series

• default camera configuration (with provided system image) is IMX477 on CSIB,CSID,CSIF and IMX219 on CSIA, CSIC, CSIE

• for different configuration of supported cameras feel free to contact us

• to support custom camera on CSI port the one needs to develop specific v4l2 camera driver with custom device tree. Instructions to do that: CSI camera customizaton.

SD card

Xavier nx supports addressing larger capacity SD 3.0 or SD-XC cards up to 2 TB. Recommended filesystem format is Ext4. Ext4 formatted SD card is automatically mounted after system boot with Airvolute provided system image.

SD card interface has no hot-plug feature, so SD card must be inserted before system boot.

Instructions how to format SD card to Ext4 on Jetson:

• Create a GPT partition table by issuing:

sudo parted /dev/mmcblk1 --script -- mklabel gpt

• Run the following command to create a EXT4 partition that takes the whole space:

sudo parted /dev/mmcblk1 --script -- mkpart primary ext4 0% 100%

• Format the partition to ext4:

sudo mkfs.ext4 -F /dev/mmcblk1p1

Example output : 
mke2fs 1.44.1 (23-Feb-2022)
/dev/mmcblk1 contains a vfat file system
Creating filesystem with 3777024 4k blocks and 944704 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 72231e0b-ddef-44c9-a35b-20e2fb655b1c
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208

Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (16384 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done 

• Verify it by printing the partition table:

sudo parted /dev/mmcblk1p1 --script print

The Cube peripherals

Signal names of all peripherals related to flight controller corresponds with ardupilot naming conventions. For more information about peripherals usage search on ardupilot wiki page. For detailed connector pinouts see Connectors and pinouts section.

Interconnection Jetson <--> Flight controller unit

Nvidia Jetson is interconnected with flight controller by serial line (UART1(Jetson) <-> SERIAL2(f.c.)) and USB2.0 line. USB2.0 line is by default disabled in USB2.0 switch. The user can toggle USB2.0 switch by controlling "USB MUX SELECT" GPIO pin. If "USB MUX SELECT" GPIO is turned to logical 1, path to flight controller become active.