> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.altnautica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Supported Hardware

> The 17 board profiles, tier system, and recommended hardware.

# Supported Hardware

The ADOS Drone Agent ships with 17 board profiles. Each profile is a YAML file that tells the agent what SoC it is running on, which buses are available, what video encoders exist, and which features to enable.

<Note>
  **Ready to install?** Use the [Flash Tool in Mission Control](/mission-control/flash-tool). Pick your board from the catalog, then copy the install one-liner for it.
</Note>

## Board profiles

The agent reads `/proc/device-tree/model` at boot and matches it against the patterns in each profile. If no match is found, it falls back to `generic-arm64`.

| Board                         | SoC            | Architecture | Default Tier | Video Encode | NPU      |
| ----------------------------- | -------------- | ------------ | ------------ | ------------ | -------- |
| Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 | BCM2837        | aarch64      | 2            | None         | No       |
| Raspberry Pi CM4              | BCM2711        | aarch64      | 3            | H.264        | No       |
| Raspberry Pi CM5              | BCM2712        | aarch64      | 4            | H.265        | No       |
| Raspberry Pi 3                | BCM2837        | aarch64      | 2            | None         | No       |
| Raspberry Pi 4B               | BCM2711        | aarch64      | 3            | H.264        | No       |
| Raspberry Pi 5                | BCM2712        | aarch64      | 4            | H.265        | No       |
| Radxa ROCK 5C Lite            | RK3582         | aarch64      | 4            | H.264, H.265 | 6 TOPS   |
| Radxa Cubie A7Z               | Allwinner A733 | aarch64      | 2            | H.264        | 3 TOPS   |
| Radxa CM3                     | RK3566         | aarch64      | 3            | H.264, H.265 | 0.8 TOPS |
| RK3566 (reference)            | RK3566         | aarch64      | 3            | H.264, H.265 | 0.8 TOPS |
| Radxa CM4 (RK3588S2)          | RK3588S2       | aarch64      | 4            | H.264, H.265 | 6 TOPS   |
| Rockchip RK3576 (reference)   | RK3576         | aarch64      | 3            | H.264, H.265 | 6 TOPS   |
| Orange Pi 5                   | RK3588S        | aarch64      | 4            | H.264, H.265 | 6 TOPS   |
| NVIDIA Jetson Nano            | Tegra X1       | aarch64      | 3            | H.264, H.265 | GPU      |
| NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano       | Tegra Orin     | aarch64      | 4            | H.264, H.265 | GPU      |
| Rockchip RV1126B              | RV1126B        | armv7l       | 3            | H.264, H.265 | 2 TOPS   |
| Generic ARM64                 | Unknown        | aarch64      | 2            | None         | No       |

Every board installs the agent on top of its stock vendor OS through the Flash Tool's install one-liner. The "Video Encode" column lists hardware encoders; boards with decode-only video acceleration fall back to software encoding. NPU figures are the vendor-stated on-chip accelerator capability where one exists.

## Tier system

Tiers control which agent features are enabled based on available system resources. The agent selects a tier automatically from the board profile, but you can override it in config.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Tier 1 (minimal)">
    The bare minimum: only the MAVLink proxy runs, with no REST API, video, or cloud connectivity. This is a capability floor for ultra-low-memory boards. No board profile currently defaults to Tier 1 (the sub-512 MB boards were retired), but the tier remains as an override.

    **Enabled services:** `ados-mavlink`
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Tier 2 (256-512 MB RAM)">
    Adds the REST API and basic health monitoring. You can query the agent over HTTP and get telemetry. No video pipeline.

    **Enabled services:** `ados-mavlink`, `ados-control`, `ados-api`, `ados-health`, `ados-discovery`

    **Boards:** Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3, Raspberry Pi 3, Radxa Cubie A7Z, generic-arm64
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Tier 3 (1-2 GB RAM)">
    Adds the full video pipeline and cloud relay. This is the minimum tier for a useful companion computer on a real drone.

    **Enabled services:** All Tier 2 services plus `ados-video`, `ados-wfb`, `ados-cloud`, `ados-peripherals`

    **Boards:** Raspberry Pi CM4, Raspberry Pi 4B, Jetson Nano, Radxa CM3, RK3566, RK3576, RV1126B
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Tier 4 (4 GB+ RAM)">
    Full feature set. Everything from Tier 3 plus the vision host, the vision model registry (fetch, download, cache, and select NPU-optimized inference models), and the vision-nav extension for GPS-denied navigation. An NPU or GPU helps with on-device inference.

    **Enabled services:** All Tier 3 services plus `ados-vision` and `ados-plugin-host`, which back the vision model registry and the vision-nav extension

    **Boards:** Raspberry Pi CM5, Raspberry Pi 5, ROCK 5C Lite, Radxa CM4 (RK3588S2), Orange Pi 5, Jetson Orin Nano
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Recommended boards

### For development and testing

**Radxa ROCK 5C Lite (16 GB)**

This is the primary development board used by the ADOS team. The RK3582 SoC has 6 TOPS of NPU compute (RK3588 model zoo compatible), hardware H.264/H.265 encoding via the VPU, and 16 GB of RAM. The GPU is fused off, but that does not matter for a headless drone. Runs at Tier 4 with all features enabled.

<Note>
  The ROCK 5C Lite uses a 31-pin 0.3mm Radxa-proprietary FPC connector for MIPI CSI, not the standard Raspberry Pi ribbon. Check camera compatibility before purchasing.
</Note>

### For ground station use

**Raspberry Pi 4B (4 GB or 8 GB)**

The Pi 4B is the recommended ground station board. It has proven WFB-ng RTL8812EU driver support, a 40-pin GPIO header for the OLED display and menu buttons, USB 2.0 ports for WiFi adapters, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI output for standalone kiosk mode. The board profile includes ground-station-specific GPIO button mappings.

### For production OEM builds

**Rockchip RK3576 (reference design)**

The RK3576 is a production-oriented SoC with 6 TOPS NPU, H.265 4K60 encode, triple MIPI CSI inputs, native Mini-PCIe for 4G modems, and USB 3.0. A single board profile covers both air-unit and ground-station configurations.

### For budget builds

**Rockchip RV1126B**

A good option for cost-sensitive builds. Hardware ISP, H.264/H.265 encode, and 2 TOPS NPU in a small package. Runs at Tier 3 with the MAVLink proxy, REST API, video pipeline, and cloud relay.

## WiFi adapter for WFB-ng

The video link requires a WiFi adapter that supports monitor mode. The recommended chipset is the **RTL8812EU** (also labeled RTL8812AU in some listings).

| Adapter             | Chipset   | TX Power        | Interface | Notes                                  |
| ------------------- | --------- | --------------- | --------- | -------------------------------------- |
| LB-LINK BL-M8812EU2 | RTL8812EU | 29 dBm (800 mW) | USB 2.0   | Recommended. Small form factor (\~25g) |

The adapter runs in monitor mode on the 5.8 GHz band. It does not use standard WiFi. Instead, it broadcasts raw 802.11 frames using the WFB-ng protocol with forward error correction (FEC). This gives you HD video at ranges of 10-50+ km depending on antennas and line of sight.

<Warning>
  The RTL8812EU requires a DKMS kernel driver. The install script handles this automatically on supported boards. If you are building a custom kernel, make sure `CONFIG_RTL8812EU` is enabled or install the out-of-tree driver.
</Warning>

## Adding a new board

If your board is not in the list, the agent falls back to `generic-arm64` (Tier 2). To add full support:

1. Create a YAML file at `src/ados/hal/boards/your-board.yaml`
2. Define `name`, `vendor`, `soc`, `arch`, `model_patterns`, `default_tier`
3. Add bus definitions (UART paths, I2C paths, USB ports)
4. Specify video codec support (`hw_video_codecs`)
5. List GPIO pins if applicable
6. Submit a pull request

See the [HAL and Tiers](/drone-agent/hal-and-tiers) page for the full YAML schema and detailed instructions.