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DEEPX iMX8M Mini AI Kit

Mount adapter and AI accelerator board​

The AI accelerator board and its adapter comes unmounted.

  • Begin with mounting the adapter in the M.2 E-key connector, J33 (1) and secure it with a screw (2).
  • Place the washer on the stand-off (3) and then mount the DEEPX DX-M1 M.2 AI accelerator board in the M.2 M-key connector of the adapter board. Secure it with a screw (3). The mounting order from bottom to top shall be: stand-off, washer, PCB, screw.
  • The final step is to attach the heat-sink on the DEEPX DX-M1 chip (4). In many cases, no heat sink will be needed since the DX-M1 AI Booster has low power consumption. However, you should only run the system without a heatsink after having carefully verified the thermal management situation of the final system with the intended inference usage pattern. Always run the system with a heatsink attached when prototyping and evaluating. Accidentally setting up the DEEPX DX-M1 chip for a very high inference usage pattern (= high power consumption) can damage the chip if no heatsink is attached.

Mount Accelerator

Kit overview​

iMX AI Kit Overview

The photo above provides an overview of the DEEPX iMX8M Mini AI Kit. The highlighted parts are described below.

  1. Power on/off switch
  2. Power supply
  3. Micro-B to A USB cable for downloading Linux images
  4. (Option 1) USB camera. Connect either a USB camera (included in kit) or a MIPI camera (not included).
  5. Micro-B to A USB cable for console connection
  6. HDMI adapter for display
  7. (Option 2) MIPI-CSI camera. Connect either a MIPI camera or a USB camera.
  8. Network cable connected to RJ45 connector
  9. Reset button
  10. ISP enable jumper (OTG boot mode)
  11. Adapter with AI accelerator board

Console​

Connect the micro-B end of the USB cable to the console connector (5 in the overview figure) on the uCOM Carrier board and the other end of the cable to your PC acting as host computer.

iMX AI Kit console connector

One COM port will be automatically configured. If the port is not configured you may need to install FTDI drivers.

You will also need a terminal application. We recommend Tera Term, but you can use the terminal application of your choice. Connect to the virtual COM port using 115200 as baud rate, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity.

Camera​

Connect the USB camera that is included in the kit (4 in the overview figure). There is an option to connect a MIPI camera instead (not included).

HDMI Adapter​

iMX AI Kit HDMI adapter

Connect the MIPI-DSI to HDMI adapter to J20 (6 in the overview figure). Orient the 40 pos flat cable and adapters as illustrated in the picture.

Connect an HDMI cable between the HDMI adapter connector and an HDMI monitor of your choice.

Power supply​

Together with the kit you get a 12V power supply with AC plugs for EU, UK, and US.

Select the plug used in your country and attach it to the power supply. Connect the 2.1mm male barrel jack to the uCOM Carrier board (2 in the overview figure).

iMX AI Kit barrel jack

Set the Power on/off switch (1 in the overview figure) to On state (slider switch towards the 2.1mm barrel jack) and the board will now power up.

Login prompt​

The U-Boot bootloader and Linux kernel has been pre-installed. After the board has been powered the software will boot. You can observe the boot process in the terminal application.

iMX AI Kit Linux prompt

When the boot process is complete you will be presented with a login prompt. Enter the login credentials below to log in.

  • Username: root
  • Password: pass

What to do next​

Now you are up-and-running with your DEEPX iMX8M Mini AI Kit. To get started with the precompiled DEEPX demonstrators, follow the link below.

  • Running DEEPX demonstrators

There is a lot more you can do with the kit. A lot of documentation and general guides are available and a few of them are listed below.

Videos​

Getting started with the uCOM Developer's Kit​

How to download an image using UUU​