Looking to dive into edge AI without breaking the bank? The Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit is a budget-friendly way to get started.
In this post, I’ll walk you through what comes in the box, the essential accessories you’ll need, and the setup process—from flashing the OS to handling some common firmware pitfalls. Whether you’re just starting out or planning your next AI project, this guide will help you get your Jetson up and running smoothly.
The developer kit
The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit is a compact powerful computer. It delivers up to 67 TOPS of AI performance and cost 249 USD (if you’re lucky enough to get one). The hardware is identical to the Jetson Orin Nano developer kit. „Super“ in this case stands for NVIDIA’s latest software update which enhances Jetson Orin Nano’s AI performance from 40 to 67 AI TOPs and memory bandwidth from 68 to 102 GB/s.
Items included
- Jetson Orin Nano™ 8GB module with heat sink and
- reference carrier board
- DC power supply
- 802.11ac/ab/gn wireless network
- interface controller
- Quick Start Guide
Further details can be found in the datasheet.
Recommended accessories
For setup and development, I recommend the following basic accessories:
- 128 GB microSD card (e.g., SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I 128 GB | ~15 € on Amazon)
— used for the operating system (current version: JetPack 6.2) - 512 GB – 1 TB M.2 SSD (starting at ~35 € on Amazon) – optional but highly recommended for most available tutorials
— used for Docker containers and AI models - SD card reader (e.g., Anker PowerExpand 2-in-1 USB-C SD 4.0 | ~26 € on Amazon)
— required to flash the operating system image onto the microSD card
Depending on your use case, additional accessories may be necessary — for example, a USB camera for vision-based applications.
Initial setup (~1-2 hour)
There are two main setup options: flashing the JetPack image to a microSD card, or using the Jetson SDK Manager (which requires an x86 PC running Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04). I chose the microSD card option for my initial setup.
In my case, the kit came with an older firmware version, which required flashing and booting with an earlier JetPack release (5.1.3) in order to update the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware and QSPI (Quad Serial Peripheral Interface) bootloader of the Jetson. This step is necessary to enable the Jetson to boot with the current JetPack 6.2 or later.
Here is a high level overview of my setup process (flashing the JetPack image to a microSD card).
- Downloading the JetPack 5.1.3 & 6.2 image
- Flashing the JetPack image 5.1.3 to the microSD card
- Booting & complete the initial software setup
- Update firmware & QSPI bootloader
- Flashing the JetPack image 6.2 to the microSD card
- Booting & complete the initial software setup
- Run all software updates on the system
- Setup SSD and docker
The complete setup tutorial, including all details, can be found here: https://www.jetson-ai-lab.com/initial_setup_jon.html
Troubleshooting (L4T launcher to always boot into recovery kernel)
There is the following warning message in the setup tutorial.
Avoid leaving the device in a black screen state for extended periods or attempting to boot repeatedly with an SD card containing an incompatible JetPack version.
There is a chance that accumulated boot failures may trigger the L4T launcher to always boot into recovery kernel.
If this happens, even after switching to the proper JetPack 5.1.3 SD card, it won’t boot from the SD card until we manually change the L4T Launcher setting.
Please follow the steps below to make it boot normally from the SD card.
- Attach your monitor cable and USB keyboard to your Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit
- Insert the DC power plug to the dev kit and keep pressing
ESCkey on your attached keyboard while NVIDIA logo is displayed on the monitor- Use your keyboard arrow keys to navigate to Device Manager and select NVIDIA Configuration → L4T Configuration. Check the value of the L4T Boot Mode, you need to switch to ”ExtLinux“ if not (yours should be currently set to “Recovery Partition”)
- Also check OS chain A status . This should be “Normal”.
- Hit
F10key to save andYto confirm.- Either go back all the way to the top of the UEFI menu and select Continue or simple power cycle the unit
You are now unblocked and should be able to resume the setup tutorial.
Summary
After completing the setup—and hopefully without any troubleshooting—you’re now ready to test your first AI applications on the Jetson. More on that in the next blog post.
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