To perform this setup procedure, you will need :
- A Jetson Nano development kit
- A keyboard, mouse and HDMI monitor
- A high-performance micro SD Card
- A USB power adapter capable of delivering at least 5V at 2.5A
- A decent internet connection
- A whole day
The procedure is storage-intensive : use the fastest SD card possible and, ideally, a high-endurance card. I recommend the same card I recommended in my Raspberry headless setup page, with the same disclaimer :
Disclaimer : I’m not getting paid to recommend any product. Remember, this is my personal website and I’m merely nice enough to let you read it and learn from my experience. In the end, you do you.
It’s cheap, and way faster than it has any right to be. There are larger capacities if you need it. As for the endurance claim… well I haven’t managed to wear one out yet. Make of that what you will.
Don’t insert the SD card in the Jetson Nano yet, we’ll need to copy an operating system to it first. But this is a good time to plug in everything else : mouse, keyboard, display, and ideally an Ethernet cable to a LAN with internet access.
Regarding the power supply, any 5 V Micro-USB adapter fit for a Raspberry Pi 3 should work just fine with the Jetson Nano. Or you can supply 5 V through the barrel jack socket. Whatever option you choose, don’t apply power for now. The Jetson Nano is setup by default to turn on when power is applied. Before we do that, it’s best to have some code on the SD card.
Let’s take care of that next.