Tag: Jetson

Running WordPress on a NVIDIA Jetson or Raspberry Pi

As part of an exploration on hosting sites and services with a minimal hardware setup, I wanted to install WordPress on a Raspberry Pi. WordPress is an open-source software system for hosting sites and blogs. I’m trying it out because I thought it would be easy to install and setup and allow someone to manage posts without demanding they be familiar with HTML and other web technologies (though knowing them certainly helps). With the Raspberry Pi being an ARM based Linux computer, I also thought that these instructions might work on a NVIDIA Jetson with little alteration. When I tried it out, I found that these instructions work on the Jetson with no alteration needed at all. In this post I only show how to install WordPress and its dependencies. I’ll cover making the device visible to the Internet in a different post.

To get started, make sure that your Jetson or Raspberry Pi is up to date. Run the following two commands. 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

These commands could take a while to run. Once they have finished, reboot your device.

Not to install the software. I’m connected to my device over SSH. You can run these commands directly through a terminal on the devicealso. But everything that I write is from the perspective of having access only to the terminal. We are going to install the Apache web server, a MySQL database, and a PHP interpreter.

Apache Web Server

To install the Apache Web Server, type the following command. 

sudo apt-get install apache2

After running for a while, Apache should successfully install. You can verify that it is installed by opening a browser to your device’s IP address. From the terminal, you can do this with the following command. 

lynx http://localhost

You should see the default Apache page display. To exit this browser press the ‘Q’ key on your keyboard and answer ‘y’ to the prompt.

Installing PHP

To install PHP on your device, use the following command. 

sudo apt-get install php

With the PHP interpreter in place, we can add a page with some PHP code to see it processed.

Navigate to the folder that contains the Apache HTML content and add a new page named test-page.php

cd /var/www/html
sudo nano test-page.php

The file will have a single line as its content. Type the following. 

<?php echo "Hey!"; ?>

You can now navigate to the page in a browser. 

lynx http://localhost/test-page.php

Installing the Database

Maria Database is a mySQL database. It will contain the content for our site. Install it with the following command. 

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server

The database is installed, but it needs to be configured. To access it, we need to setup a user account and a password. Decide what your user ID and password will be now. Also choose a name for the database. You will need to substitute my instances of USER_PLACEHOLDER, PASSWORD_PLACEHOLDER, and DATABASE_PLACEHOLDER with the names and passwords that you have chosen. 

sudo mysql -uroot

You will be presented with the MariaDB prompt. Type the following commands to create your user account, database, and to give permission to the database. 

CREATE USER 'USER_PLACEHOLDER'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD_PLACEHOLDER';
CREATE DATABASE DATABASE_PLACEHOLDER;
GRANT ALL ON DATABASE_PLACEHOLDER.* to 'USER_PLACEHOLDER'@'localhost';
quit;

We need to make sure that account can access the database. Let’s connect to the database using the account that you just created. 

mysql -u USER_PLACEHOLDER -p

You will be prompted to enter the password that you choose earlier. After you are logged in, type the following to list the databases. 

SHOW DATABASES;

A list of the databases will show, which should include a predefined system database and the one you just created.

We also need to install a package so that PHP and MySQL can interact with each other. 

sudo apt-get install php-mysql

Installing WordPress

The downloadable version of WordPress can be found at wordpress.org/download. To download it directly from the device to the web folder use the following command. 

sudo wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip -O /var/www/html/wordpress.zip

Enter the folder and unzip the archive and grant permissions to Apache for the folder. 

cd /var/www/html
sudo unzip wordpress.zip
sudo chmod 755 wordpress -R
sudo chown www-data wordpress -R

We are about to access our site. It can be accessed through the devices IP address at http://IP_ADDRESS_HERE/wordpress. As a personal preference, I would prefer for the site suffix to be something other than wordpress. I’m changing it to something more generic, “site”.

mv wordpress site

Now let’s restart Apache.

sudo service apache2 restart

From here on I am going to interact with the device from another computer with a desktop browser. I won’t need to do anything in the device terminal. Using a browser on another computer I navigate to my device’s IP address in the /site folder. The IP address of my device is 192.168.50.216. The complete URL that I use is http://192.168.50.216/site. When I navigate there, I get prompted to select a language.

A screenshot of the language selection screen on the Raspberry Pi. This is the first screen that you will encounter when WordPress is served from the Pi for the first time.
Word Press Language Prompt

The next page lets you know the information that you will need to complete the setup. That information includes

  • The database name
  • The database user name
  • The database password
  • The database host
  • The Table name prefix

The first three items should be familiar. The fourth item, the database host, is the name of the machine that has the database. Since we are running the database and WordPress from the same device this entry will be “localhost”. If we were running more than one site from this device to keep the databases separate, the tables for each instance could have a common prefix. I’m going to use the prefix wp_ for all of the tables. All of this information will be saved to a file named wp-config.php. If you need to change anything later your settings can be modified from that file.

These are the default settings for WordPress. The first three fields must be populated with the information that you used earlier.
Default WordPress Settings

Enter your database name, user name, and password that you decided earlier. Leave the host name and the table prefix with their defaults and click on “submit.” If you entered everything correctly, on the next screen you will be prompted with a button to run the installation.

WordPress prompt to run the installation. This shows after successfully configuring it to access the database.

On the next page you must choose some final settings of your Word Press configuration.

Final Setup Screen

After clicking on “Install WordPress” on this screen, you’ve completed the setup. With the instructions as I’ve written them, the site will be in the path /wordpress. The administrative interface will be in the path /wordpress/wp-admin. WordPress is easy to use, but a complete explanation of how it works could be lengthy and won’t be covered here.

GeekPi Raspberry Pi Case
Raspberry Pi Server Rack
Raspberry Pi Computer Module Heatsink and Fan

Waveshare 7600X Jetson Schematic Review

I’ve been using the Waveshare 7600 4G for the Jetson Nano (hereon referred to simply as the 7600). It gives the Jetson a connection for 4G mobile networks, GPS, and the ability to make and receive phone calls and SMS. (If you are looking for information on getting a WiFi connection see this post.) The Waveshare 7600 4G is a board built around the SIMCOM SIM7600X, an integrated circuit for providing communications functionality for a mobile phone. Waveshare makes variations of this device for both the Raspberry Pi and the Jetson Nano. While there is a wide amount of overlap in the usage of both devices, there are differences that are not immediately apparent from the top-level documentation. That said, reading documentation on one gives insight in using the other. The pin assignments used differ, but most of usage and functionality are the same.

When I initially looked at the Waveshare 7600 4G for the Jetson, there were elements of usage that didn’t make sense to me without consulting documentation from the chip maker and the schematic provided by Waveshare.

Pi variant of SIM 7600

You don’t need to be familiar with the electrical schematic for the Waveshare board to use it. But if you would like more insight as to what the board is doing, continue reading.

SIMCOM 7600 Pinout

A quick glance of the pinout for the SIMCOM 7600 integrated circuit gives hints at a number of interfaces the chip supports. There are pins for power control, USB data transfer, interfacing to an SD card, GNSS, Flight mode, I2C, a UART interface, functionality concerning batteries, and analog to digital conversion. While the SIMCOM 7600 supports all of these interfaces, the Waveshare 7600 board built around this supports a subset of these interfaces; some of the lines on the SIMCOM 7600 are not connected to an external interface.

The schmatic that Waveshare provides is available on their Wiki at this URL. In the center of the schematic is the SIM7600.

SIM7600CX

Looking at this part of the diagram alone, you might notice that the pins labeled SCL and SDA are both tied to the positive voltage source instead of to other circuitry. These labels are associated with an I2C interface. Since the Waveshare’s board does not bridge the I2C pins between the Jetson Nano and the SIMCOM 760X, there is no I2C that you can use. Let’s take a look at how Waveshare’s device is connected to the Jetson Nano’s 40 pin header.

Waveshare Jetson Interface

Here you can see that the Waveshare board connects to some voltage and ground lines on the 40-pin interface. The only pins related to functionality used are pins 8 and 10 on the Jetson, which connect the Jetson’s UART to the SIMCOM 7600’s UART, and pins 31 and 33 on the Jetson, which connect to pins labeled D6 and D13 on the Waveshare board. Let’s trace these lines.

The two UART lines don’t connect directly to the SIMCOM 7600X. Instead they pass through a pair of switches and an integrated circuit identified as TXB0108EPWR. According to a datasheet (PDF), this circuit is a level shifter.

This circuit isn’t providing any additional signals. It allows the SIMCOM 7600, which uses 1.8 volt signaling, to communicate with the Jetson Nano over 3.3 volt signaling. The two switches allow the SIMCOM 7600’s UART and Jetson’s UART to be disconnected from each other. It is also possible to connect directly to the 3.3volt side of this circuit through pins exposed on the board.

Waveshare UART switch

There’s a schematic for the USB port. There’s nothing significant in the USB connection that you need to know. When I first got my hands on this board I was wondering why there were interfaces for both USB and a UART. Why are there two connections? This was answered by reading the SIMCOM 7600 documentation. The 7600 can accept AT commands over either interface and perform data transfers over either interface. The USB port is set to suspend if it is not used within some time period. It becomes active again during certain wake events.

In the Waveshare Wiki, developers are instructed to set a pin of the Jetson Nano to high and then low to ensure that the Wavesare device is turned on. The following is a script that can Waveshare provides for doing this.

echo 200 > /sys/class/gpio/export 
echo out > /sys/class/gpio200/direction 
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio200/value 
echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio200/value

There is not an explanation given as to what this is doing. GPIO200 is connected to pin 31 on the Jetson’s 40 pin header. Pin 31 leads to a pin labeled D6 on the board. What does pin D6 do? On the schematic we find that D6 terminates on a jumper.

D6 on Schematic

Layouts on an electrical schematic don’t necessarily map spatially. Looking at the physical connector in question, we can see more of what it does.

Closeup of D6

There is a jumper that can either bridge D6 to PWR, or bridge the 5V supply to power. In the above since PWR and 5V are connected, the PWR line will always be highm and pin 31 on the Jetson Nano is free for other purposes. If D6 and PWR are bridged, then the Jetson controls the power state of the board. The SIMCOM 7600 could go to a lower power mode for a number of reasons. This could include receiving a command instructing the SIMCOM 7600 to go to a lower power state. Pulsing this line will wake the SIMCOM 7600 up. If we look a little deeper at the schematic, we find PWR does not go directly to the SIMCOM 7600. It passes through another circuit.

Circuit for PWR signal

The end of the circuit labeled POWERKEY is connected to the SIMCOM 7600’s line of the same label. According to the SIMCOM 7600 documentation, connecting the power line to ground will power the unit on. (the POWERKEY line is connected to positive 1.8V internally within the SIMCOM 7600). The end result of this circuit could almost be viewed as being like an inverter; the high voltage from D6 or PWR results in the POWERKEY pin connecting to ground (low signal) and powering on. Sending a low signal to PWR causes the POWERKEY to be driven high by it’s internal resistor, which powers the SIMCOM 7600X off.

There is a circuit labeled “Flight Mode” that does something similar. The Flight Mode circuit bridges Pin 33 from the Jetson Nano to a pin on the SIMCOM 7600X labeled “Flight Mode.” As you may have inferred from using a phone, activating Flight Mode disables the radios within the SIMCOM 7600X.

Flight Mode circuit

There are a few other components on the schematic that don’t involve any signaling with the Jetson Nano. Of course, there is also the circuit that connects to the SIM card. Waveshare has also supplied a circuit for interfacing with earphones and a microphone. To use this feature you only need to connect a headset to the jack on the board.

There are three more interfaces on the schematic for the antennas. Two of these antennas are self-explanatory. The GNSS connector for a GPS antenna. The Main connector for a cellular antenna. There is a third antenna that is labeled as AUX on the Waveshare board, and DIV Ant on the schematic. While not strictly necessary, connecting an antenna to this connector can enhance the 4G performance of the SIM 7600.

That covers all of the circuits that connect to the Waveshare 7600X 4G.

See other posts on the NVIDIA Jetson.

Twitter: @j2inet
Instagram: @j2inet
Facebook: j2inet
YouTube: j2inet
Telegram: @j2inet

Posts may contain products with affiliate links. When you make purchases using these links, we receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.

SIM 7600 for Raspberry Pi
SIM 7600X 4G
Jetson Nano B01https://amzn.to/3saWJ1K

Setting Up a Jetson Nano Dev Environment

If you’ve followed the directions for writing the OS for the nano you are mostly setup for development. The tools that you must have are already part of the image. But you’ll want to have a code editor.  I chose to use Visual Studio Code on the Nano. While Microosft doesn’t distribute the binary themselves it can be compiled for the ARMs processor.  But I was able to follow the three step instructions available from  code.headmelted.com. To summarize the steps here

  1. Open a termina
  2. Start a sudo session with sudo -s
  3. paste the following into the terminal 
    . <( wget -O - https://code.headmelted.com/installers/chromebook.sh )

A few minutes later visual studio code will be installed and available.

I’m using MAKE file for my project. But the first thing I needed to figure out was what compiler should I use and where on the file system is it.  The CUDA compatible file system of choice is nvcc. It can be found at the following path.

/usr/local/cuda/bin/nvcc

To make sure it worked I made a simple hello world program and saved it using the totally wrong file name of helloWorld.cpp. I say “wrong” because the compiler looks at the file extension and treats the file differently based on that extension. Instead of using cpp I should have used cu. With CPP the compiler doesn’t understand the directives for the CUDA code.

__global__ void cuda_hello()
{
    printf("Hello World from GPU!\n");
}

using namespace std;

int main()
{
        cout << "Hello world!" << endl;
        cuda_hello<<<1,1>>>();
        return 0;
}

 

To compile the code I use the following at the command line.

/usr/local/cuda/bin/nvcc helloWorld.cs -o helloWorld

This produces a binary named  helloWorld.  Upon running it I’m greeted with the text.

Installing Visual Studio Code on Raspberry Pi and NVIDIA Jetson

While it is possible to run Visual Studio Code on a Raspberry Pi or a NVIDIA Jetson, the process previously had a few challenges. With one method, a user could grab the code from Microsoft and compile it for their device. This was time consuming and required that a person perform some steps to be set up for development. An easier method involved acquiring a build from a third party source. The issue there is the user must trust the third party source. Now these are no longer issues because Microsoft provides ARM binaries for Visual Studio Code. The installation can be done on both devices with the same steps.

To install VS code, navigate to VisualStudio.com and click on the Learn More link on the Visual Studio Code box. From there, if you click on Other Platforms you will see all of the downloads that are available for Visual Studio Code. For the Jetson series of hardware you will want to download the ARM64 deb installer. For Raspberry Pi, if you are using the a 64-bit OS installation grab an ARM64 build. Otherwise grab the ARM build.

After the build has downloaded, open a terminal and navigate to the folder where you saved the ARM file. From the terminal type the following command. 

sudo dpkg -i name_of_file.deb

An actual file name should replace name_of_file.deb. After a minute or two the installation completes. You can start VS Code from the command line by typing the command code and pressing Enter. You can also find it within your program files. Videos of the installation are available below.

Video of Installation for Raspberry Pi
Video of Installation for NVIDIA Jetson
Instagram LogoLinked In

8 Gig Pi and New Jetson Board

There have been a couple of SBC updates in the past few weeks that I thought were noteworthy.

undefined


The first is that there is now a 64-bit version of the Raspberry Pi operating system available. Previously if you wanted to run a 64-bit OS on the Pi your primary option was Ubuntu. Raspbian was 32-bit only. That’s not the case any more. The OS has also been rebranded as “Raspberry Pi OS.” Among other things with the updated OS a process can take advantage of more memory.  Speaking of more memory, there is now also an 8 gig version of the Raspberry Pi 4 available for 75.00 USD.

Jetson Xavier NX


Another family of single board computers is seeing an update. The Jetson family of SBCs has a new edition in the form of the Jetson Xavier NX.  At first glance the Xavier NX is easily confused with the Jetson Nano. Unlike the Nano the Xavier NX comes with a WiFi card and a plastic base around the carrier board that houses the antenna. The carrier board is one of the variants that supports 2 Raspberry Pi camera connectors. The underside of the board now has a M.2 Key E connector. While it has a similar formfactor as the Jetson Nano a quick glance at the specs show that it is much more powerful.

FeatureNanoXavier NX
Core Count46
CUDA Core Count128384
Memory4 Gigs8 Gigs

The Jetson Xavier NX is available now for about 400 USD from several suppliers.

Run .NET Core on the Raspberry Pi

Post on the NVIDIA Jetson

Instagram LogoLinked In

Posts may contain products with affiliate links. When you make purchases using these links, we receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.


Jetson Xavier NX

Raspberry Pi 4

NVIDIA Jetson Nano Shopping List

Jetson Nano Packaging

I had made a video posted to YouTube about the Jetson Nano and the additional items that I purchased for it. This is a complete list of those items and some extras (such as memory cards of some other sizes).

 

General Items

Memory Cards

 

Items I Found Helpful

Unboxing and Setting Up the NVIDIA Jetson Nano

I pre-ordered the NVIDIA Jetson Nano and had the opportunity to have my first experiences with it this week. For those that are considering the Nano I give you the gift of my hindsight so that you can have a smoother experience when you get started. My experience wasn’t bad by any measure. But there were some accessories that I would have ordered at the same time as the Jetson so that I would have everything that I needed at the start. I’ve also made a YouTube video covering this same information. You can view it here.

How does the Nano Compare to Other Jetson Devices?

The Jetson line of devices from NVIDIA can be compared across several dimensions. But where the Jetson Nano stands out is the price. It is priced at about 100 USD making it affordable to hobbiest. Compare this to the Jetson TK1 which is available for about 500 USD or the Jetson Xaviar available for about 1,200 USD. Another dimension of interest is the number of CUDA cores that the units have. CUDA cores are hardware units used for parallel execution.

  • TK1 – 192 CUDA Cores
  • TK2 – 256 CUDA cores
  • Nano – 128 CUDA Cores
  • Xavier – 512 CUDA Cores

In addition to the cores the other Jetson kits have support for other interfaces, such as SATA for adding hard drives or a CAN bus for interfacing with automotive systems. For someone getting started with experimentation the Jetson Nano is a good start.

What is In the Box?

Not much. You’ll find the unit, a small paper with the URL of the getting started page, and a cardboard cutout used for supporting the card on the case.

What Else Do I Need

  • SD Card
  • Power Supply
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Monitor (HDMI or Display Port)
  • 40mmx40mm Cooling Fan (optional)
  • WebCam (optional)
  • WiFi adapter or Ethernet cable to router

Most of the things on that list you might already have. For an SD card get one at least 8 gigs or larger.

Power Supply

A power supply! It uses a 5 volt power supply like what is used in a phone. Well, kind of. Don’t expect for any of your 5V power supplies to work. I found the hard way that many power supplies don’t deliver the amount of current that is needed. Even if the power supply is capable a USB cable might not allow the needed amount of current to pass. If this happens the device will just cut off. There’s no warning, no error message, nothing. It just cuts off. I only came to realize what was going on after I used a USB power meter on the device. I used a power meter for USB-A, but the board already has contacts for using a USB-C port. Depending on when you get your board it may have a USB-C port on it (possibly, speculatively).

Web Cam

A Raspberry Pi camera will work. But I used a Microsoft LifeCam. There are a number of off-the-shelf webcams that work. You’ll only need a camera if you plan on performing visual processing. If your going to be processing something non-visual or if your visual data is coming from a stream (file, network location) then of course this won’t be necessary.

WiFi

You have two options for WiFi. One option is a USB WiFi dongle. There are a number of them that are compatible with Linux that will also work here. I am using  the Edimax EW-7811UN. After being connected to one of the USB ports it just works. Another solution is to install a WiFi card into the M.2 adapter. It might not be apparent at first, but there is a M.2 slot on the case. I chose to use this solution. Like the USB solution there’s not much to be done here; inserting the WiFi adapter into the slot, securing it is most of the work. Note that you’ll also need to connect antennas to the wireless card.

Operating System Image

The instructions for writing a new operating system image are almost identical to that of a Raspberry Pi. The difference is the URL from which the OS image is downloaded. Otherwise you download an image, write it to an SD card, and insert it into the Nano. Everything else will be done on first boot. You’ll want to have a keyboard connected to the device so that you can respond to prompts. When everything is done you’ll have an ARMs build of Ubuntu installed.

For writing the OS image I used balenaEtcher. It is available for OS X and Linux. The usage is simple; select an OS image, select a target drive/memory device, and then let it start writing to the card.  The process takes a few minutes. But once it is done put the SD card in the Jetson Nano’s memory card slot.

Case Options

A case may be one of the last things that you need. But if you seriously have interest in having the Jetson Nano I suggest ordering the case at the start. There are no off-the-shelf cases available for purchase for the Nano. But there are a few 3D printable plans for the Jetson Nano. I’ve come across three and have settled on one.

First Place: Nano Mesh

NanoMesh case Image
NanoMesh 3D Printable Case

The case is a bit thick, but it isn’t lacking for ventilation. The case height accommodates a fan. While the design doesn’t include any holes for mounting antennas for WiFi drilling them is easy enough.

Second Place: Nano Box

NanoBox
Nanobox Case for nVidia Jetson Nano

The NanoBox will envelope the Jetson leaving the heat sink almost flush with the case. I’d suggest this one if you plan don’t plan to use a fan on the Jetson.  If you ever change your mind and decide that you want to have a fan it can be added. But it will be on the outside of the case.

Third Place: Nano-Pac

Nano-Pac 3D printable case
Nano-Pac case

There’s not much to say about this case. It fully envelopes the Jetson Nano. But I’ve got questions about the cooling effectiveness of this case.

It’s Assembled and Boots Up. Now What?

Once the Jetson is up and running the next thing to do is to setup a development environment. There is a lot of overlap between targeting the Jetson series and targeting a PC that has an NVIDIA GPU. What I write on this will be applicable to either except for when I state otherwise.