Get Started with ZED X One

If you recently purchased one or more ZED X One cameras, congratulations! This guide aims to help you become acquainted with the ZED X One cameras and to give you the essential information you need to begin utilizing its capabilities to their full potential. How do I connect my ZED X One camera? How do I use the GMSL2 capture card? How can I create and use a stereo pair from 2 ZED X One in the ZED SDK ? If you are currently asking yourself these questions, this guide is here to help you.

About ZED X One #

The ZED X One cameras are a professional-grade camera designed specifically for robotic applications in production environments. Multiple options are available to better fit the usage, such as Global or Rolling Shutter, 4K HDR with unparalleled low light capabilities, wide or narrow field of view lens options. Its high-performance IMU unlocks positional tracking capabilities as well.

Additionally, its secure GMSL2 connection allows for low-latency video transmission without EMI interference, making it ideal to integrate into robotics platforms.

How to use ZED X One #

Monocular Camera #

The ZED X One can be used as a standalone monocular camera. In this configuration, the ZED SDK is not required and the camera can be opened using Gstreamer or Nvargus tools. The only requirement is the installation of the ZED X One driver, please see the section below.

Stereo Camera #

The ZED X One can be used in a stereo camera system with a modular baseline. This mode requires to put 2 ZED X Ones side by side at a fixed distance, rigidly mounted. The distance between the cameras will impact the 3D depth range.

Cameras with a small baseline will be able to see accurately very close, while cameras with a larger baseline will have a longer range but the minimum working distance will increase. The lens option will also impact the effective depth range. More information on setting up a stereo rig can be found here.

In a stereo camera configuration, the system will require a calibration procedure once the system is mechanically set up. The calibration will compute the relative position between the 2 ZED X Ones to be later used for depth computation. More information on this step here.

Once the system is calibrated, the ZED X Ones can be used as a standard input in the ZED SDK, and all its features will be available seamlessly.

Setting up your system for ZED X One #

If you are planning to use the ZED X One cameras, it is essential you have the proper hardware in place to support the camera’s GMSL2 connection. In this section, we will walk through which configurations are compatible with the ZED X One, with instructions on how to set them up.

The ZED X One cameras use a GMSL2 connection, which is not compatible with USB. To process video at high bandwidth and low latency in a reliable manner, specific hardware is required, and therefore the ZED X One are not compatible with all host machines.

ZED X One is compatible with NVIDIA® Jetson platforms and has similar compatibility to the ZED X. You can refer to the hardware and driver setup of the ZED X guides according to your hardware;

Then, please refer here for using the ZED X One in monocular mode or here for using the ZED X One as a stereo system.

* Requires Stereolabs GMSL2 Capture Card

Developing with ZED X One Stereo on a PC #

When working on projects for embedded platforms such as Jetsons, there may be situations where you prefer to perform development tasks on a Desktop machine. The ZED SDK / ZED Media Server Streaming feature enables developers to use ZED X One on their local PC as if it were connected directly to the computer. To set up this capability, follow the guide below to stream ZED X One data to your computer.

• Developing with ZED X One on a PC with ZED SDK Streaming

Troubleshooting #

If you have any issues while setting up your ZED X One, please refer to our Troubleshooting guide.

Advanced topics #

Advanced topics such as using the ZED X One with Docker and using other GMSL cameras can be found on this page.