Super Newbie first steps toward programming / extending

Discussions and questions about the Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter
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Torsten
Beginner
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2015 10:31 pm

Super Newbie first steps toward programming / extending

Post by Torsten »

hey,

As of today I'm a proud owner of the a crazyflie 2 and i love it Now I want to make the first steps towards programming / extending it.
I've studied computer science but was only focused on software development (web / server ect.). Coding in pyhton would be no problem, but I've zero
knowledge of embedded systems and microprocessors. How should I start? Any books you could recommend?

What do I have to learn to be able to mount a a external sensor (e.g. a gps module) on the crazyflie and to have it communicate?
Or from the other side: How do I get the raw data that the crazyradio receives?
Are there any tutorials for something like that?


Thanks in advance. Hopefully I will be able to contribute something within this year ;-)
chad
Expert
Posts: 555
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:54 am
Location: New York, USA
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Re: Super Newbie first steps toward programming / extending

Post by chad »

Hey! I love Crazyflie too! I have some software development experience but I didn't know anything about embedded systems (and still don't). What I did to get a start in Crazyflie programming (at least for the STM32) is clone the git repository for the crazyflie-firmware and just start picking through it. I did a small project for the CF1 that required work in one file of the firmware stack and it helped me understand some things better. Maybe immersion can help you learn too?

As far as books, there's this PDF about the STM32 chip, you can checkout the docs on FreeRTOS (the "OS" of the Crazyflie) and there's even a guy [url=hhttp://forum.bitcraze.se/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1135]porting MicroPython to the Crazyflie[/url] so maybe you can start doing your embedded programming in Python!!

Also, check out how the systems play together.

Be sure to let us all know about the cool things you do!!
Crazyflier - my CF journal...
4x Crazyflie Nano (1.0) 10-DOF + NeoPixel Ring mod.
3x Crazyflie 2.0 + Qi Charger and LED Decks.
Raspberry Pi Ground Control.
Mac OS X Dev Environment.
Walkera Devo7e, ESky ET6I, PS3 and iOS Controllers.
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