PYNQ: PYTHON PRODUCTIVITY

Ubuntu Focal?

Support
#1

Hello Everybody!
I am a little new to PYNQ, so I do not completely understand how the build process works. Having an image for my ultra96 board based on Ubuntu 20.04 would be very helpful. Is it possible to build an image based on newer Ubuntu version?

Thanks

#2

You could try update the build scripts to use 20.04, however it may break no/few/some/lots of things.
There are a lot of (inter)dependencies in the PYNQ image that get tested and updated for each PYNQ release, so bumping the OS version on your own isn’t recommended.
Is there a compelling reason to use 20.04?

Cathal

#3

Hi Cathal
Thanks for the reply!
My master thesis work includes controlling small drones, and using accelerated object detection. I have an Ultra96 board for that.

To control the drone, I intend to use ROS with the Pixhawk flight controller. I’m running into issues with setting up the RTPS bridge for ROS2 and PX4, that’s why MAVROS would be great, but that only works with ROS1. ROS1 Melodic would work fine, but it still uses Python2, and from what I understand PYNQ libs need Python3. ROS1 Noetic uses Python3, but it requires Ubuntu Focal.

I intend to use a PYNQ DNN overlay in one of the ROS nodes to detect the relative position of a specific object.

Given these, I either need to:

  1. Build a Focal based image for the board for ROS Noetic
  2. Build ROS Melodic with Python3 support for the board
  3. Build the ROS2-ROS1 bridge so I can use Melodic (ROS1) for drone control and Eloquent (ROS2) for managing PYNQ calls
  4. Get the RTPS bridge working on the board so I don’t need MAVROS at all

I’ve been trying #4 but it proves to be difficult, partially because of compatibility with aarch64 instead of amd64. I’m looking at other options now.

If I could get a Focal based PYNQ image it would make my life a lot simpler right now.

#4

Can you use docker to run your application?
pynq 2.6 supports docker by default, this may be the easiest solution for you

Mario

#5

can I run python programs that use the pynq libraries with the FPGA from within a Focal docker image?

#6

Yes, please read the last paragraph of the link above.