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LBZF Design Docs

Pre-flash ITBA twin Jetson in CA with full stack before BA flight

Context

Section titled “Context”

The ITBA Buenos Aires research team receives a twin hardware set on 2026-05-15 for parallel CV research replication. Two delivery models were possible:

  1. Ship blank — hand ITBA a factory-fresh Jetson + cameras + switch; ITBA flashes and configures.
  2. Pre-flash in CA — Sophia flashes the Jetson, installs the full software stack, smoke-tests against one camera, then ships the working device.

Decision

Section titled “Decision”

Pre-flash in California with the full Phase I software stack, smoke-test against one camera before the 2026-05-15 flight.

Why:

  • ITBA ramp-up time is unknown. They’ve never seen this stack. If they hit configuration friction on day 1, Sophia is in BA for ~5 days then leaves — debugging support after that is async and 12-hour-shifted.
  • Bench-test verification. Pre-flashing also lets Sophia verify that the v1.9 software stack (JetPack 6.0/6.1, GStreamer + nvv4l2decoder, YOLOv8 + TensorRT, SQLite + Flask) actually works on a Jetson Orin Nano Super before risking it on the LBZF Jetson.
  • Customs profile. A pre-configured “research equipment” item is easier to justify at AEP/EZE customs than a sealed-box electronics import.

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”
  • Sophia’s pre-flight critical path expands. Tasks before 2026-05-15:
    • Flash both Jetsons (LBZF + ITBA twin) with JetPack 6.0/6.1.
    • Migrate root partition from microSD to NVMe via jetsonhacks/bootFromExternalStorage.
    • Build OpenCV with -DWITH_GSTREAMER=ON (or use Q-engineering prebuilt wheel).
    • Compile YOLOv8n TensorRT engine on each Jetson (engines are hardware-bound).
    • Smoke-test the full pipeline against one camera.
  • Tailscale enrollment for ITBA Jetson. Pre-flashed Jetson joins the tailnet under tag tag:itba-dev, separate from the future LBZF Pereira Jetson tag tag:lbzf-pereira. ITBA’s access can be torn down without affecting LBZF.
  • Bilingual customs letters required. Per the established procurement-logistics plan: a letter from Mariana (LBZF) and one from ITBA’s PI (Raul Marino) confirming receipt of research equipment.
  • Single point of human failure. If something on the pre-flashed Jetson breaks in transit (storage corruption, theft), Sophia is the only person who can re-flash quickly. Bring the spare microSD card + restore image on a USB stick.

References

Section titled “References”
  • Memory: “Jetson pre-flashed in California (decided 2026-05-11) with full software stack + smoke-tested against one camera before flight”
  • ADR-005 (Tailscale-only) — the tag:itba-dev scope