NVIDIA Jetson Nano

[Robert G.]

My electric bill is out of control.

Between my NVR, 17 cameras & several computers I have running 24/7 they collectively consume $60 a month in power!

Not much I can do about the cameras (cuz I love them), but I am wondering about my LPR setup.

I am using an old i7 computer with an NVIDIA 1060 card. Both the computer & GPU are strictly for processing my two LPR cameras.

I am running the cameras at 1080 @ 30fps. The CPU runs at 40% all the time and the GPU only uses 3% - 4%.

I do not know the power consumption of the computer individually, but a NVIDIA Jetson Nano would certainly consume less power.

Does anyone on here use an NVIDIA Jetson Nano (with OpenALPR/Rekor)? I am wondering if I can use that little guy rather than the big old server.

 

[MikeLud1]

Try setting the Maximum processor state to 99%, I was able to drop my watts 40w with no impact to performance.

 

[Robert G.]

Thanks for the power saving tip. I (like an idiot I guess) have always run with max performance, mostly because I never want the machines to power down.

I just did some tests on 5 computers that I have running 24/7 and what a difference in clock speed.

One example, base clock speed is 2.3 GHz, it would always be running at 2.5 GHZ or 3 GHz. I changed the power saving mode to power saver, set maximum processor state to 99% (per your tip) and set the computer to never sleep.

The CPU is now running at 0.78 GHz. I do not know how that translates into $ but I'm sure it will be saving me some cash for sure.


For those coming here looking for info on NVIDIA Jetson, my research so far says it is probably way underpowered to do my two cameras at 30fps each and be able to process all the frames without dropping a bunch.

 

[MikeLud1]

You can use HWiNFO (Link) to see how many watts your CPU and GPU are using

 

[mat200]

My electric bill is out of control.

Between my NVR, 17 cameras & several computers I have running 24/7 they collectively consume $60 a month in power!

Not much I can do about the cameras (cuz I love them), but I am wondering about my LPR setup.

I am using an old i7 computer with an NVIDIA 1060 card. Both the computer & GPU are strictly for processing my two LPR cameras.

I am running the cameras at 1080 @ 30fps. The CPU runs at 40% all the time and the GPU only uses 3% - 4%.

I do not know the power consumption of the computer individually, but a NVIDIA Jetson Nano would certainly consume less power.

Does anyone on here use an NVIDIA Jetson Nano (with OpenALPR/Rekor)? I am wondering if I can use that little guy rather than the big old server.

Hi @Robert G.

"Between my NVR, 17 cameras & several computers I have running 24/7 they collectively consume $60 a month in power!"

Perhaps a good time to retire the older PCs and GPUs?
( of course this depends on how old the equipment is .. )

 

[Robert G.]

Perhaps a good time to retire the older PCs and GPUs?
( of course this depends on how old the equipment is .. )

I look at it a little differently, it makes me want to cover my roof in solar panels. ;-)

 

[mat200]

I look at it a little differently, it makes me want to cover my roof in solar panels. ;-)

Solar can be very useful .. though normally that will run you a bit more than just swapping out the worst CPU PCs with a newer one ..

 

[Fubduck]

Does anyone on here use an NVIDIA Jetson Nano (with OpenALPR/Rekor)? I am wondering if I can use that little guy rather than the big old server.

For those coming here looking for info on NVIDIA Jetson, my research so far says it is probably way underpowered to do my two cameras at 30fps each and be able to process all the frames without dropping a bunch.

I tried using my 2GB Jetson Nano for OpenALPR but the client wouldn't stay running. I was feeding it 2 cameras -> 1080 @ 30fps. I'm not sure if it was the camera feeds or not. I didn't investigate too much, didn't seem to be worth the effort.

So I now have it doing Deepstack for those 2 cameras.

 

[r160dB]

I tried using my 2GB Jetson Nano for OpenALPR but the client wouldn't stay running. I was feeding it 2 cameras -> 1080 @ 30fps. I'm not sure if it was the camera feeds or not. I didn't investigate too much, didn't seem to be worth the effort.

So I now have it doing Deepstack for those 2 cameras.

I also tried using my 2GB Jetson Nano for OpenALPR, but it was struggling. I was feeding it 1 camera (1080@30fps) and it could only process between 0-7 frames. I drop the single camera down to (720@15fps) and it mostly keeps up. I am seeing 12-15 frames being recorded by the agent. With this configuration it is catching most of the license plates, but I will mostly likely move the rekor scout agent to something more powerful. I want to be able to send the 1080@30fps, as to get the best chance of capturing all the license plates. I will also repurpose the Jetson Nano forDeepstack.

 

[Robert G.]

I was feeding it 1 camera (1080@30fps) and it could only process between 0-7 frames. I drop the single camera down to (720@15fps) and it mostly keeps up. I am seeing 12-15 frames being recorded by the agent.

Thanks for the real-life experience, that was my guess after looking at the details. Simply would not be up to the task I was considering.

Since my electric bill just keeps goin up, I have gotten a couple quotes for solar. I'm looking at 15kW, which is the max the electric company would let me do with 200amp service to the building. Then I can add more cameras ;-)