You should setup the CF Headless client (see below) instead of the regular PC client on your Pi, since the UI seems to a bit too heavyweight for the Pi (controlling got very laggy during tests).

For the following installation instructions it is assumed that you are running the popular Raspbian distrubution on your Pi.

In order for the client to be able to access the dongle, you'll have to setup these udev rules.

Execute the following commands as your user of choice (for example the default user pi):

cd
sudo apt-get install mercurial python2.7 python-usb python-pygame python-qt4
hg clone https://bitbucket.org/bitcraze/crazyflie-pc-client
cd crazyflie-pc-client
hg up dev-headless

This installs the necessary dependencies for running the client, checks out the current development version from BitBucket and then switches to the branch containing the headless client.

If you are using an XBox Controller w/ Wireless Gaming Receiver, you might need to also install the userspace driver:

sudo apt-get install xboxdrv

and start it: sudo xboxdrv

Plugin your Crazyradio and your controller, power up the Crazyflie and start the client (via SSH and Ethernet or by using an USB hub to connect Crazyradio, controller and keyboard)¹⁾:

python ~/crazyflie-pc-client/bin/cfheadless -u radio://0/10/250K -i <your input config>

The client should start up, hopefully find your Crazyradio dongle, your Crazyflie and your controller and start accepting commands:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ ~/crazyflie-pc-client/bin/cfheadless -u radio://0/10/250K -i <your input config>
Info: Using config path:  /home/pi/crazyflie-pc-client/lib/../conf
Info: sys.path= ['/home/pi/crazyflie-pc-client/lib', '/home/pi/crazyflie-pc-client/lib/../conf', '/home/pi/crazyflie-pc-client/bin', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0', '/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7']
Disabling standard output for libraries!
INFO:cfclient.utils.config:Dist config read from /home/pi/crazyflie-pc-client/lib/cfclient/configs/config.json
INFO:cfclient.utils.input:Parsing [PS3_Mode_1.json]
INFO:cfclient.utils.input:Parsing [xbox360_mode1.json]
INFO:cfclient.utils.input:Parsing [PS3_Mode_2.json]
INFO:cfclient.utils.input:Parsing [Generic_OS_X.json]
INFO:cfclient.utils.input:Parsing [<your input config>.json]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Adding callback on port [5] to [<bound method Log._new_packet_cb of <cflib.crazyflie.log.Log instance at 0x82ff08>>]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Adding callback on port [0] to [<bound method Console.incoming of <cflib.crazyflie.console.Console instance at 0x90f0f8>>]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Adding callback on port [2] to [<bound method _ParamUpdater._new_packet_cb of <_ParamUpdater(Thread-2, initial daemon)>>]
INFO:cflib.crazyflie:Callback->Connection initialized[radio://0/10/250K]
INFO:cflib.crazyflie:We are connected[radio://0/10/250K], request connection setup
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie.toc:[5]: Start fetching...
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Adding callback on port [5] to [<bound method TocFetcher._new_packet_cb of <cflib.crazyflie.toc.TocFetcher instance at 0x90fad0>>]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Will expect answer on port [5]
Found [Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)]
Will use [Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)] for input
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: No answer on [5], do retry
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Will expect answer on port [5]
WARNING:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: ERROR! Older timer whas running while scheduling new one on [5]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: No answer on [5], do retry
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Will expect answer on port [5]
WARNING:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: ERROR! Older timer whas running while scheduling new one on [5]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: No answer on [5], do retry
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Will expect answer on port [5]
WARNING:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: ERROR! Older timer whas running while scheduling new one on [5]
INFO:cflib.crazyflie:Callback->Connected to [radio://0/10/250K]
ERROR:cflib.crazyflie.toc:Got packet that was not on TOC channel, TOC fetch will probably not succeed
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Got answer back on port [5], cancelling timer
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie.toc:[5]: Got TOC CRC, 9 items and crc=0x892049D2
INFO:cflib.crazyflie.toc:TOC for port [5] found in cache
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Removing callback on port [5] to [<bound method TocFetcher._new_packet_cb of <cflib.crazyflie.toc.TocFetcher instance at 0x90fad0>>]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie.toc:[5]: Done!
INFO:cflib.crazyflie:Log TOC finished updating
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie.toc:[2]: Start fetching...
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Adding callback on port [2] to [<bound method TocFetcher._new_packet_cb of <cflib.crazyflie.toc.TocFetcher instance at 0x926968>>]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Will expect answer on port [2]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:ExpectAnswer: Got answer back on port [2], cancelling timer
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie.toc:[2]: Got TOC CRC, 27 items and crc=0x27A2C4BA
INFO:cflib.crazyflie.toc:TOC for port [2] found in cache
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie:Removing callback on port [2] to [<bound method TocFetcher._new_packet_cb of <cflib.crazyflie.toc.TocFetcher instance at 0x926968>>]
DEBUG:cflib.crazyflie.toc:[2]: Done!
INFO:cflib.crazyflie:Param TOC finished updating
INFO:cflib.crazyflie:Callback->Connection setup finished [radio://0/10/250K]

Note: If you have more than one controller attached, you can select the one to use using the commandline parameter -c. See cfheadless -h for available command line options:

usage: cfheadless [-h] [-u URI] [-i INPUT] [-d] [-c CONTROLLER]
                  [--controllers]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -u URI, --uri URI     URI to use for connection to the Crazyradio dongle,
                        defaults to radio://0/10/250K
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        Input mapping to use for the controller, defaults to
                        PS3_Mode_1
  -d, --debug           Enable debug output
  -c CONTROLLER, --controller CONTROLLER
                        Use controller with specified id, id defaults to 0
  --controllers         Only display available controllers and exit

Note: If you still have an old version of the headless client you'll need to manually change the URI of your Crazyradio from the default 1M to 250K (make sure the K is uppercase). If you want to use a custom configuration (other than PS3_Mode_1) for the controller or mapping of your choice, copy the .json configuration file to ~/crazyflie-pc-client/conf/input and edit the file ~/crazyflie-pc-client/lib/cfheadless.py (at the end of the file) with the corresponding filename:

    app = HeadlessClient(sys.argv,link_uri="radio://0/10/250K",
                         input_config="<your input config>")

You can then startup the client without any command line arguments and it should hopefully work as well: ~/crazyflie-pc-client/bin/cfheadless.

Marcus added the following things to note when using the headless client since it is a very early version:

• Still dependent on QT (the plan is to remove this very soon)
• Not much error handling yet (the plan is to improve this)
• Values are still hardcoded in the script (like mapping and URI for Crazyflie). They can be changed at the bottom in lib/cfheadless.py → Update A pull request adding some command line options for setting the input mapping and radio URI to use has been accepted, update your client to use that.
• The headless client will open the first input-device found (so don't plug more than one) → Update A pull request adding some command line option for selecting the used input device has been accepted, update your client to use that.
• No good way to quit it yet so you will have to kill the process

Starting (and killing) the client automatically upon Crazyradio insertion/removal can be done via udev.

Adjust your Crazyradio udev rule (e.g. /etc/udev/rules.d/99-crazyradio.rules) to look like the following:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1915", ATTRS{idProduct}=="7777", MODE=="0664", GROUP="plugdev", RUN+="/root/bin/cfheadless"

and (as root) create a file /root/bin/cfheadless with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh
if test "$ACTION" = "add"
then
        /usr/bin/sudo -u pi /home/pi/crazyflie-pc-client/bin/cfheadless -u radio://0/10/250K -i <your input config without the .json extension> > /tmp/cfheadless.log 2>&1 &
        echo $! > /tmp/cfheadless.pid
else
        killall -9 cfheadless
        if test -f /tmp/cfheadless.pid
        then
                PID=`cat /tmp/cfheadless.pid`
                kill -9 $PID
        fi
fi

You can only create the cfheadless file above in the /root/bin/ folder by being root–not pi or any other user name. Switch to root by typing: sudo -i and then navigating to the /root/bin/ folder: cd /root/bin/. Create the cfheadless file by typing: touch cfheadless to create the file. Then nano cfheadless to edit the file with the code above (sudo prefix not needed because you're already root). Use the same method for the xbox360 file, if using a xbox360 controller. Don't forget to make your files executable: chmod +x /root/bin/cfheadless and chmod +x /root/bin/xbox360. Once you've created the cfheadless (and xbox360 file, if needed), exit the root mode by typing Ctl + D. This should now take care to startup the headless client when you plug in the dongle and (hopefully ) kill it again when you unplug. If you need any additional setup to get your controller working, you can add a similar udev-rule for that to take care of everything upon plugging in the controller as well. An example for the Microsoft Wireless XBox360 controller for PC can be found in this forums post or as detailed below.

And for the XBox360 Controller (after an “apt-get install xboxdrv”):

Create a udev file /etc/udev/rules.d/99-xbox360.rules with contents (if using a Microsoft wireless gaming receiver):

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="045e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0719", RUN+="/root/bin/xbox360"

and (as root) create a file /root/bin/xbox360 with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh
if test "$ACTION" = "add"
then
        /usr/bin/xboxdrv &
else
        killall -9 xboxdrv
fi

Important Due to the current state of the client, you must make sure to first connect your controller and power up the Crazyflie before connecting the Crazyradio dongle and thus starting the client. If the client can't find either controller or Crazyflie, it will just hang and you'll have to re-plug the dongle again.

Troubleshooting If it still doesn't appear to work, try looking at the logs in the each of the following areas:

• /tmp/cfheadless.log
• /var/log/syslog

If you want to you can make your base station completely portable simply by using a portable USB power supply (e.g. the Anker3 10.000mAh) for powering the Pi. Putting everything into some case and attaching it somewhere on yourself (e.g. your belt) makes you completely mobile while piloting your Crazyflie