Definitive Guide to Using the Jetson TK1/TX1?

[Penchant]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I was looking for a "Getting started with the Jetson TX1 for Dummies" type of guide and came up empty handed. Our unit from FIRST Choice arrived today, and I'm already kind of regretting getting it. I understand what you're supposed to be able to do with it, and it seems like it has a lot of potential, but actually using this thing seems way over my head. Other than Team 900, I haven't really found any accounts of a FIRST team successfully using it. Does anyone have any kind of FIRST-specific easy guide for this thing? If not, maybe someone wants to trade me for something simple that I can figure out, like a bunch of hex shaft collars....

I am no expert with the Jetson TX1 but I do have some experience from last year when the team I was on got one. I will say it certainly requires some time to be put in use but it is quite powerful and as a student on the team at the time I know I learned a lot from it. As to how to set up, use Jetpack with a guide mentioned above in the thread to get OpenCV installed and start small.

We started late due to focusing on other things with programming since we were switching to C++ that year but that was definitely a mistake on not getting started earlier. As well, we looked at going very ambitious right away with it which meant a lot of development time to get something made but starting small and continually ramping up would have been the much better way to go about it to ensure we had something ready in time for our competitions.

Now the above was generic approach advice but that is mostly because other than the resources Marshall already recommended above, there aren't a ton of things I can specifically recommend you look into since I don't really know your knowledge with networking or working with Linux systems. To try to give a little specific help, for networking an option that may be easier for you to integrate would be Network Tables although its not hard to make an argument for pursuing a custom option with TCP or UDP. As well, something I have found advised is using something like the NavX for timestamps so that you know exactly how long it was from when the picture was first taken to when you are about to act on that data so you can account for robot movement in that time.

Now beyond that I would be happy to give answer any specific questions you have about how to get started with the TX1 with my limited experience. If you are more so wondering on how to design your vision program, we did eventually get a successful vision program made so I can certainly give you a general overview of what I would recommend to do on that end as well.

[JamesBrown]

I'm actually about to go pick up our TX1 that came in with our first choice shipment. This is going to be a bit of a pet project for me, with the plan being to use it for the robot this year if practical. We spent time this off season exploring other vision options so this may get delayed if something like pixy cam is sufficient for this year.

I will do my best to document as I go, and I will try to be active on here to discuss and answer questions when I can. I don't think there is a single source for reference at this point, but I am happy to contribute. I don't think there will be a definitive reference for this season, but perhaps the best solution is to have a go to thread for discussion and help, and then in the offseason we can work to compile a guide.

[Poseidon5817]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I was looking for a "Getting started with the Jetson TX1 for Dummies" type of guide and came up empty handed. Our unit from FIRST Choice arrived today, and I'm already kind of regretting getting it. I understand what you're supposed to be able to do with it, and it seems like it has a lot of potential, but actually using this thing seems way over my head. Other than Team 900, I haven't really found any accounts of a FIRST team successfully using it. Does anyone have any kind of FIRST-specific easy guide for this thing? If not, maybe someone wants to trade me for something simple that I can figure out, like a bunch of hex shaft collars....

This is exactly how I feel about it: that it might be a little too complex for some people to figure out without a step by step guide, and I'm definitely in that group.