Pick the right Jetson for the job
Jetson Nano (older 4GB / 2GB) — entry-level, suitable for YOLOv8n at 10-15 FPS on 640px input. Affordable but compute-limited; not the choice for new programs. Orin Nano (8 GB) — the production sweet spot, 30+ FPS on YOLOv11s with FP16 / TensorRT, fanless, runs at 7-15W. Orin NX / AGX — for multi-camera or larger models. For most Indian factory deployments we default to Orin Nano 8GB.
Quantization — FP16 is the right default, INT8 is conditional
FP16 quantization on Jetson is essentially free — small accuracy hit (typically <1% mAP), 2-3x speedup. INT8 quantization is more aggressive — calibration matters, accuracy hit can be 3-5% mAP if calibration set isn't representative. Use INT8 when you need the extra throughput; otherwise stay FP16. Always benchmark on the deployment Jetson with realistic input data, not synthetic.
TensorRT engine builds and the device-specific gotcha
TensorRT engines are compiled for the specific Jetson SoC and JetPack version. An engine built on Orin Nano will not run on Orin AGX, and vice versa. The fix is to build engines on the actual deployment device as part of first-boot setup, or maintain a build per device variant. We script this into the OTA pipeline so the engine compiles automatically on first run.
OTA updates and field maintenance
Most Indian factory Jetsons live behind firewalled networks with intermittent internet. Plan an OTA path that works over 4G dongle or scheduled Wi-Fi windows, with rollback if the new model fails health checks. Sign model artifacts so you can verify integrity. Log telemetry to a central dashboard — failure rates, inference latency, classes detected — so you know when to retrain before the operator team starts complaining.
Watchdogs and fail-safe logic
Cameras disconnect, USB buffers freeze, processes leak memory. Run a watchdog that monitors camera frame timestamps and restarts the inference process if frames stop coming in. Set memory limits with cgroups so a leaking process doesn't OOM the whole system. Build a degrade-gracefully fail mode where the system stops producing detections rather than producing wrong ones. This is the difference between 'works in dev' and 'works for two years'.
Working with Yantrix on Jetson deployment
We deploy YOLO and other vision models on Jetson across Indian factories, robotics platforms, and edge cameras. Engagements include quantization, TensorRT optimization, OTA infrastructure, and the watchdog / monitoring layer that keeps the system running unattended. Send us your model and target Jetson and we'll come back with a benchmark and deployment plan within a business day.
