Crazyradio not finding Crazyflie Nano

[botguy]

Hi,

I'm on a Macbook Air with version 10.9.1. I installed CFClient using brew and all of the dependancies appear to be good to go. CFClient came up just fine.

I've assembled the drone and everything powers up. LEDs blink appropriately and blades spin in the correct direction.

When I try to connect to the drone via CFClient with "Connect", I get the below output on the terminal

Code: Select all

INFO:cflib.crtp.radiodriver:v0.52 dongle with serial N/A found

Which to me, that's good! The D3 LED lights up on the board, which I can only guess is transmit. However, the drone doesn't come up in the list. I just get

Code: Select all

debug://0/0 - Debugdriver for UI testing

in the list. Any ideas on why the Crazyflie Nano isn't being detected?

Thanks

[tobias]

When you scan for the Crazyflie does the red led on the Crazyradio blink? Also go to the Help->About->Debug tab in the cfclient and see what the interface status displays? Are you powering the Crazyflie from battery or USB?

[botguy]

The red led does blink on the crazyflie radio when it is searching. I had the drone under battery power. Below is what I get on the Debug tab, so cfclient is definitely seeing the radio.

Code: Select all

Cfclient version: 2013.4.2
System: darwin

Interface status
debug: Ok
serial: Not implemented
radio: Crazyradio version 0.52
udp: Not implemented

I removed the battery and tried connecting to the drone while under power from USB. Same behavior occurs, as in the software doesn't find the drone. I also noticed that the green LED on the drone isn't blinking when cfclient is searching, so I'm guessing that it isn't receiving any packets from the radio.

[tobias]

Does the Crazyflie seem to behave correctly when it is started?

As a last thing can you try to connect to the Crazyflie bootloader. If that doesn't work either I would guess there is a hardware problem. Where did you get the Crazyflie?

[botguy]

Yes, the LEDs blink properly on start up. The Green LED blinks 5 times very quickly and then the Red LED blinks for the heart beat at 1 Hz.

I can give the bootloader a try later tonight.

I got the drone from http://www.makershed.com

[botguy]

I attempted to connect via the bootloader and I was unable to connect.

So I luckily bought a second one of these drones and it was able to connect! Seems like I have a bad board for the first drone A bit of a bummer considering how much these guys cost. Anything else I should try doing to debug what might be going on?

[tobias]

Well it is definitely a hardware problem then and you should contact Seeedstudio support to get a replacement/repair/refund. Even though you bought it at Makershed Seeedstudio is responsible (from what I know).

[botguy]

Thanks for the help! I just wanted to post a follow up. Seeed Studio did offer to do the repair for free. The only issue is that you have to mail it to China for the repairs. For me, just the shipping alone starts to make it more worth it just to buy a new one.

[tobias]

If you are up for it we can try and find the problem. The Crazyflie was programmed using the radio so at one point it has at least worked. If you hold it really close to the Crazyradio antenna can you find it then? Are any of the small components close to the chip antenna (marked AF->) missing or look damaged?

Else, check with Seeedstudio again, I would expect them to take care of the shipping cost.