The Bitcraze organization page on github contains some 60+ repositories and if you are looking for a specific piece of code it might be hard to know where to find it. In this blog post we will try to describe how the repositories are organized and hopefully make it easier to understand where to start your search.
The Bitcraze repositories contain code and information related to a wide range of applications and products, some might be of interest to many users, while others have a smaller audience. Examples are software for the Crazyflie and decks, but also things like simulation, tests, hardware and our web site. As we try to be as open as possible most of the content we produce will end up in a repository, which obviously increases the number of available repos over time. For most users there is usually only a handful of repositories that are of interest though so let’s create some order.
The main repositories
There are three repositories that are the hot spots of most functionality, these are usually the first place to look and the only repositories most users will ever use. You can find quick links to these repos in the “Pinned” section on the Bitcraze github start page.
The repositories are:
- crazyflie-firmware – the source code for the STM processor firmware on the Crazyflie. This is where most of the important Crazyflie functionality is implemented, such as controllers, estimators, motor control and communication with decks. If you want to change a behavior in the Crazyflie itself, look here.
- crazyflie-lib-python – the python library used to communicate with the Crazyflie. This is used to control a Crazyflie remotely. Use it if you want to use a script to control a Crazyflie, also contains lots of examples of how to do common tasks.
- crazyflie-clients-python – a the python client that is used to connect to the Crazyflie. The client is simply a GUI that uses the python lib to communicate with the Crazyflie. Everything that is done in the Client can also be done by a script using the python library.
Another source of quick links to common and important repositories can be found on our web, on the Repository overview page. This page also contains short descriptions of the repositories.
Related repositories
Many of our products are implemented as multiple sub-systems, perhaps using different languages or technologies and running in separate hardware, in most cases we separate these sub-systems into their own repositories. The rule of thumb is that these repositories are named in a similar way to indicate that they are related, for instance lighthouse-bootloader and lighthouse-fpga that contain code for the lighthouse-deck. However note that in most cases there will also be related functionality implemented in the main repos as well, in the Lighthouse deck case for instance, most of the actual positioning functionality is in the crazyflie-firmware repo while Lighthouse system management is implemented in the lib and client.
Bootloaders
When powering up a CPU there must be a small piece of code available that sets up the basic configuration of the device to enable it to communicate with other parts of the system, like memories and such. This code is usually called a bootloader. Bootloaders are rarely changed and in most cases written to the device as a part of the factory production process. They have their own repositories and you can find a bunch of them, named XXXXXX-bootloader. Bootloaders are not that interesting and can be ignored by most users.
History
Some repositories might have names that do not make sense in the current context, this is most likely due to historical reasons. We might have given a repository a name that seemed to be descriptive at that time, but as time goes by it might not be as good any more. An example is the range of “LPS-XXXXX” repositories that contains code for the Loco Positioning System. Originally LPS meant “Local Positioning System” as this was the only positioning system we had, but when we also created the Lighthouse system we changed the meaning of LPS to “Loco Positioning System”. A better naming of the repositories would perhaps be “Loco-XXXX”?
A similar transition also exists for the Crazyflie that has evolved from Crazyflie 1 to Crazyflie 2.0 and 2.1. Some repositories (named “crazyflie-XXX”) were created when Crazyflie 1 was released and have evolved to be compatible with Crazyflie 2.X, while some other repositories (named “crazyflie2-XXX”) were created when Crazyflie 2.0 was released. Even though crazyflie-firmware is not compatible with Crazyflie 1 anymore, it still has the old name.
Retired code
Some repositories are obsolete, maybe they contain experimental code that is no longer of interest or perhaps the functionality has been implemented elsewhere. We try to archive these repos and if you are looking for current functionality you can safely ignore any repository that is marked with the “Public archive” flag in github.
Still unclear
There is a short description in each repository that is intended to describe the contents. It is possible (likely) that the description was written a long time ago, with a different context and that it might not be as helpful as intended. If this is the case, just ask us. Drop a question in our discussions forum or send us an email, we try to help as much as we can!