PC Client Software
The PC Client software comes in many forms. The out-of-the-box Client is written in Python and has a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI is well suited for beginners, but can only support a single Radio and a single Crazyflie at a time. The easiest way to start out is with the Bitcraze Virtual Machine (VM), which comes with all the files and dependencies pre-installed and can run on any computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.).
For more advanced users who want to use the swarm capabilities of our platform will have to use the Swarm Client we developed in C and C++.
Bitcraze VM
(Note: The VM is updated frequently so the information below may be different than the current VM)
The Bitcraze wiki has a tutorial on installing the VM. Along with another tutorial on how to get started using the VM.
These are both very simple starting guides that will help you become familiar with the VM.
Crazyflie Client GUI
On the VM you can find the Crazyflie Client Graphical User Interface (GUI). To run the Client you want to open a terminal and navigate to projects/'FIND PATH' and then run the command sudo ./bin/cfclient
(Alternatively, you can use the desktop to navigate to the folder and open a terminal there)
Once you do that you should see something similar to this:
This is the main screen of the Client GUI and there are many tabs and features that you can access directly from this screen.
The most important parts of this screen are the following:
- Connect Button
- Bootloader (Crazyflie Drop Down -> Bootloader)
- Plotter Tab
- Log Blocks Tab
- Parameters Tab
Connect Button
This is where you will scan for Crazyflies that are powered ON. All Crazyflies not already connected will show up in the popup
So we can see here that we got a return on Radio 0, from a Crazyflie on Channel 45 and a data rate of 2Mbps.
Swarm Client
The swarm Client is a re-creation of the Original Client but programmed in C and C++.