This post is using Crazyflie 2.0. It’s a kick start to build a small drone and control it autonmously from the computer, so you will need also Crazyradio PA to connect your python program to the drone through. You will need also at least python-pip and git

Building and configuring the drone

1. Build the drone

First thing after getting the drone in a box, you will need to build it, so you can follow walk through to assemble the hardware.

2. Install the client (and the driver)

Then, install the client on your computer (and the driver if you’re using windows). This will be helpful to test your connection, update the firmware and change the configuration.

(Optional) You can install the android or the iOS client and fly it manually. You can also use the mobile client to upgrade it’s firmware.

3. Configure upgrade the firmware

Final setup, open the client and update the firmware [here] or using the mobile client.(https://www.bitcraze.io/getting-started-with-the-crazyflie-2-0/#update-fw). Then navigate to connect, select the configure 2.0 option and change the bandwidth from 250k to 2M.

Getting started

Clone this repo.

git clone https://github.com/mikecentral/Crazyflie-Drone

Then install cflib using python pip as follows:

pip install cflib

Run the program

Now we will run autonomousSequence.py, but before you run the code, you need to make sure you have enough space in your room to fly the drone in 1.5 meters in each direction, or you can set SIDE constant to a smaller value, e.g. 0.5.

Another practical tip: You can add the emergency landing callback. That will send a landing command to the drone if you decided to exit the program immediatly for any reason. Add this code to the main function:

import sys
import signal

def signal_handler(sig, frame):
    print(f"EMERGENCY LANDING BY USER!")
    scf.cf.commander.send_setpoint(0, 0, 0, 0)
    sys.exit(0)

Now you are ready to run the program:

python autonomousSequence.py

First Crazyflie flying experiment in the living room