What you need to build the encoder

These are the parts the encoder is tested with. Start with the USB route: there’s no wiring, and it’s what most home-made builds use.

The essentials

Part	What it has to be
Board	NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit 4 GB with the B01 carrier (the one with two camera connectors)
Video capture	A USB capture card (Elgato Cam Link 4K, or cards with an MS2130 or MS2109 chip) or a USB camera. You can also use the HDMI board below
Screen	Touch, HDMI, 1024×600, plugged into the board’s HDMI. The first-boot wizard and its setup code show up there
Power	5 V and 4 A through the barrel jack, with the J48 jumper fitted and a short cable
Card	microSD of 16 GB or more. Better: 32 GB and high endurance

Not just any Jetson

The 2 GB Jetson Nano, the A02 carrier (the one with a single camera connector) and the module with eMMC don’t work: they use a different board and the image doesn’t boot on them. Neither does the Orin Nano, which has no hardware video encoder. The Jetson Nano is no longer made: look for a second-hand one.

Power, no exceptions

With a 2 A supply, or a long cable, the voltage drops while streaming and the board reboots in the middle of your stream, above all when capture cards or modems wake up. Use 5 V 4 A with the J48 jumper.

Video capture

USB route (recommended). An Elgato Cam Link 4K goes up to 1080p60. Capture cards with an MS2130 or MS2109 chip and USB cameras work too. You can plug and unplug them while the encoder is running, and several fit at once.

HDMI route through the board (advanced). An HDMI-to-CSI board with the Toshiba TC358743 chip on the CAM1 connector, with its 15-pin flat cable. It goes up to 1080p50 or 720p60: 1080p60 doesn’t fit through that connector. For the HDMI audio you need four wires from the board’s I2S to pins 12, 35, 38 and 39 of the 40-pin header. The full diagram is in the technical manual on GitHub.

Besides both routes, the encoder takes phones and cameras over the network (RTMP or SRT), so you can use Moblin or Larix as one more source.

For bonding and the network

Extra	What for
Intel Wireless-AC 8265 Wi-Fi card (the board’s M.2 slot) and its two antennas	The encoder’s own Wi-Fi, which phones and cameras join, and joining another Wi-Fi as one more connection
USB 4G/5G modems	One more connection each, to spread the stream
An iPhone by cable	It shares its data and counts as another connection
Network cable	The steadiest connection whenever you have one

Also helps

• A fan on the heatsink: the encoder controls it by itself.
• Headphones on the screen’s jack, to listen to the program.

Next step

• Writing the image and booting.
• The EnhancedIRL Encoder: what it does and what EnhancedIRL adds.