Setting up ZED X on Orin Nano / NX Developer Kits

This tutorial will help you set up and use the ZED X or ZED X Mini cameras with the NVIDIA® Jetson Orin Nano / NX Developer Kits.

Prerequisites #

Make sure that you have the following items before starting this guide:

1x NVIDIA® Jetson Orin Nano / NX Developer Kit flashed with JetPack 5.1.1 (Linux for Tegra 35.3)
1x ZED X or ZED X Mini camera
1x GMSL2 Capture Card for ZED X
1x 1 to 4 GMSL2 Fakra Male to Female cable (included with your GMSL2 Capture Card purchase)
2x MIPI 22-pin 0.5mm to 15pin 1mm Pitch CSI cable (not included)*
12V-19V power input (Jack) to power the GMSL2 capture card (not included)
12V power supply to power the DevKit

* Compared to Xavier NX DevKits, Orin DevKits are now using a 22-pin 0.5mm CSI connector. The 22-pin 0.5mm to 15-pin 1mm cable is the one used in the Raspberry PI Zero to connect camera modules and can be purchased at UCTRONICS.

Note: MIPI cables transmit video signals. If the length increases, the video signal will be noisy. Max length recommended is 15 cm.

If you encounter any issues during the installation process, please refer to the troubleshooting page or contact support@stereolabs.com.

Setting up the hardware #

To ensure reliable, high-bandwidth, and low-latency video processing, the ZED X camera requires specific hardware to be installed. While this hardware is included with the ZED Box Orin NX, it is not included with NVIDIA® Developer Kits.

Those who already own a Jetson device and wish to use the ZED X can use the GMSL2 Capture Card for ZED X, provided by Stereolabs, which allows to connect the camera to the device.

Please make sure the DevKit and the capture card are powered off and not connected to a power source before the installation.

Cabling the GMSL2 Capture Card #

Connect both CSI cables at each MIPI 15-pin port of the capture card. Make sure the correct side is plugged in for each port.

Warning: Inverting the side might damage the carrier board or the capture card.

Both MIPI cables must be connected to have access to 2x ZED X on the capture card.

Cabling the Carrier Board #

Connect the CSI cable to the carrier board 22-pin connector.

Make sure that CAM1 is connected to the centered MIPI port of the GMSL2 capture card.

CAM0 must be connected to the MIPI port close to the edge.

Make sure to respect the side of the MIPI pins, according to the following picture:

Once connected, the setup should look like as in the following picture:

Connect the camera #

Connect the GMSL2 Fakra cable female end to your ZED X. When you hear a click, the cable is securely connected to the camera.

With the capture card still powered off, connect the male end of the cable to the capture card’s GMSL2 input. Again, a click informs you that the cable is secured.

Note: GMSL2 cameras must be ideally plugged before booting up. If it is not the case, you can restart the zed_x_daemon that will be installed by the driver in the next section.

Once the cables are connected, plug the power for the GMSL2 capture card (12V-19V) so that cameras will be powered through the FAKRA cable (PoC).

Then connect the power and an optional HDMI/Keyboard for the J401. Wait for boot up.

Now that the Developer Kit has been correctly set up, we can install the associated software and drivers for the ZED X.

Setting up the software #

Install the ZED SDK #

After setting up your NVIDIA® Jetson device, please follow this guide to Install the ZED SDK on NVIDIA® Jetson.

Install the ZED X driver #

The ZED X requires installing a driver to operate correctly. It is responsible for configuring the GMSL2 device and is dependent on the hardware used, such as the Jetson carrier board, the deserializer card, and other configurations related to GMSL2 cameras.

The drivers can can be downloaded from the ZED X Driver download page.

Note: Please make sure to check the version of the driver available on the ZED X Driver download page. If the website features an updated version, we recommend installing the latest one.

Select the driver corresponding to your configuration and run:

sudo dpkg -i stereolabs-zedx_X.X.X-YYYYYYYY-L4TZZ.Z_arm64.deb

Where:

X.X.X is the driver version
YYYYYYY is the deserializer
L4TZZ.Z is the Jetson Linux version

For example, for L4T 35.3 (JetPack 5.1.1) with the Stereolabs GMSL2 Capture Card, run:

sudo dpkg -i stereolabs-zedx_0.5.1-MAX96712-L4T35.3_arm64.deb

Note: You might need to install libqt5core5a if not already installed. Use the following command:
sudo apt install libqt5core5a

Now, reboot the NVIDIA® Jetson.

You can use the following command to check that the driver is correctly loaded:

sudo dmesg | grep zedx

Please note that GMSL2 cameras have lower flexibility compared to USB cameras. Any modification in the hardware configuration, such as plugging or unplugging a camera, or changing the camera order, requires either rebooting the Jetson, or restarting the installed daemon with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart zed_x_daemon

Updating the driver

If you want to upgrade the driver from a version older than v0.5.x it is required to uninstall the previously installed version:

sudo dpkg -r stereolabs-zedx_X.X.X-YYYYYYYY-L4TZZ.Z_arm64.deb

to retrieve the correct name of the package to remove you can use the command

sudo dpkg -l | grep stereolabs-zedx

Run ZED Depth Viewer #

Now that the ZED X is connected to your device and all the software has been successfully installed, run ZED_Depth_Viewer in order to validate the ZED X is functioning properly.

ZED Depth Viewer displays the depth map and 3D point cloud of your ZED camera. Try different Depth Modes to select the depth quality/performance ratio that suits you best.

ZED Depth Viewer is located in the following folder on NVIDIA® Jetson: /usr/local/zed/tools/.

Developing with ZED X on a PC #

Using the ZED X during development can be challenging as it is only compatible with NVIDIA® Jetson devices. Nevertheless, the ZED SDK Streaming function enables developers to use the ZED X 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 data to your computer.

Developing with ZED X on a PC with ZED SDK Streaming

🎉 Congratulations! You have successfully set up your Stereolabs ZED X camera and started exploring its features. Now that you have the camera up and running, it is time to start experimenting and building your projects.

Whether you are using the camera for robotics, computer vision, or something else entirely, the ZED X camera is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your goals. Happy coding!