VMWare "Cannot find a Crazyradio Dongle"

[timcloss]

I want to flash my Crazyflie 2 using the Crazyradio PA (which I've bought very recently).
I'm running a MacBook Pro with OSX El Capitan, developing under VMWare with the standard Bitcraze image.

I can happily edit and compile the Crazyflie firmware image.
But when I come to 'make cload' to deliver the image OTA using the Crazyradio, I get the Python exception: "Cannot find a Crazyradio Dongle".

I've read loads of stuff online about legacy problems with the Crazyradio and USB3 ports - surely these are fixed now?
In any case, I've pulled the latest crazyflie-crazyradio source, rebuilt it, and successfully reflashed the Crazyradio (got the 'Verification succeeded!" message).

But still my VMWare Linux environment can't recognise the Crazyradio.
If I open the VMWare settings, I can see the Crazyradio in the list of USB devices.

However if I type 'lsusb' in a terminal window, I get:

Code: Select all

bitcraze@bitcraze-vm:~/projects/crazyflie-firmware$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 80ee:0021 VirtualBox USB Tablet
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

(Not sure if that is expected).

Have now spent around 3 hours on this... can anyone help?!
Cheers

[timcloss]

Oh wow... I just tried the instructions here:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-F ... 1715.shtml

...and they worked!
The VMWare Linux environment now talks to the Crazyradio PA.

What is the issue here? Can't the VMWare image be shipped with the bitcraze user in the correct group?
Cheers

[chad]

What is the issue here? Can't the VMWare image be shipped with the bitcraze user in the correct group?

I just tried this on El Capitan with VMWare Fusion 7.1.3:

1) I downloaded the Bitcraze 0.6 VM
2) Imported the VM into VMWare Fusion
3) Started up Ubuntu
4) Inserted my Crazyradio PA into a USB port
5) Chose to connect the Crazyradio to Linux when presented with the dialog
6) Opened a Terminal and ran lsusb - Crazyradio shows up (see screenshot).
7) Launched CFclient from the desktop, scanned, found Crazyflie, connected.

This went off without a hitch. I didn't need to do anything else.

Next (without doing any updates or anything else) I did this:

1) cd to ~/projects/crazyflie-firmware
2) make
3) make cload

This also worked just fine without any issue.

Now, all that said, I have had trouble with USB on Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). The culmination of that experience being detailed here.

I do believe the VM ships with the correct groups and that the Crazyradio can be found by default. If this were not so, there'd be ALOT of reports! Maybe something else is amiss here...? Also, are you indeed using VMWare or are you using VirtualBox? I've read that VirtualBox has some issues with USB pass-through (from host to VM).