Prerequisites
This project requires Python 3.10+.
To install on Python 3.13, build tools and Python development headers are required.
There are a few things to sort out on your machine before you can install the client. Please see the appropriate section depending on your environment.
Raspberrypy Bookworm+
On Raspberry bookwork it is required to create a python venv to install the client but the system’s pyqt6 should still be used.
Install dependencies:
sudo apt install -y pipx python3-pyqt6 pyqt6-dev-tools
Then, to install the client:
pipx install --system-site-packages .
The --system-site-packages is the most important there since it allows to use pyqt we installed just above.
The same flag can be passes to python3 -m venv in order to create a python venv that can run the client.
The first time pipx will complain about binaries not being in the path. Rebooting the pie solves the problem and then the client can be launched by typing cfclient in a console.
Permission for USB needs to be set as described below for Debian/Ubuntu
Debian/Ubuntu
From a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 system and up, running the client form source requires git, pip and a lib for the Qt GUI.
sudo apt install git python3-pip libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-cursor0
pip3 install --upgrade pip
For some versions of Ubuntu 20.04 you might need to install more packages like
libxcb-cursor0. Check out QT6 package dependency list.
Setting udev permissions
Using Crazyradio on Linux requires that you set udev permissions. See the cflib installation guide for more information.
Windows
Install Python3 using the official python build from python.org. Make sure to check the “add to path” checkbox during install. Make sure to check if it works by opening a cmd or powershell terminal:
python --version
pip --version
upgrade pip as well:
pip3 install --upgrade pip
Install git from the official git website. Make sure it is in PATH as well, which can be checked also with:
git --version
If you’re using Python 3.13, you need to install Visual Studio. During the installation process, you only need to select the Desktop Development with C++ workload in the Visual Studio Installer.
Install crazyradio drivers
To use Crazyradio you will have to install the drivers
macOS
The Client requires macOS 11 (Big Sur) or more recent. It works both on x86 and Apple-silicon macs.
The client works both with the Apple-provided python3 (as long as it is python >= 3.8), and with python installed with brew.
The client can be installed on command line with pip:
python3 -m pip install cfclient
The client can then be lauched from a console, wither with cfclient or python3 -m cfclient.gui.
Installing from latest release
If you plan to use the client to control the Crazyflie, we highly recommend you to install the latest release using pip, as this is a well tested and stable. Please see next section.
On the other hand, if you intend to do development work on the client and modify the source code, please see Installing from source below.
From Pypi (Windows, Mac, Linux, …, with python3)
Each release of the client is pushed to the pypi repository, so it can be installed with pip:
pip3 install cfclient
Installing from source
If you are planning to do development work with the cfclient, you are at right spot!
The sections below describes how to install the client from source on various platforms.
Make sure to also install the cflib from source as it is common to modify or examine this code as well when working with the client.
When you have installed the client according to the instructions below, you can run the clients with the following commands:
cfclient
cfheadless
cfloader
cfzmq
or with
python3 -m cfclient.gui
It is good to work within a python venv, this way you are not installing dependencies in your main python instance. For those that prefer it, you could also use Anaconda.
Linux
Clone the repository with git
git clone https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-clients-python
cd crazyflie-clients-python
Installing the client
All other dependencies on linux are handled by pip so to install an editable copy simply run:
$ pip3 install -e .
If you plan to do development on the client you should run:
$ pip3 install -e .[dev]
The client can now be run if the local pip bin directory is in the path (it should be in a venv or after a reboot).
Avoid running pip in sudo, this would install dependencies system wide and could cause
compatibility problems with already installed applications. If the pip of python3 -m pip command request
the administrator password, you should run the command with --user
(for example python3 -m pip install --user -e .). This should not be required on modern python distribution
though since the –user flag seems to be the default behavior.
Windows (7/8/10/11)
Assuming git is installed such that you can use it from powershell/cmd, cd to a desired folder and git clone the project:
git clone https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-clients-python
cd crazyflie-clients-python
Install the client from source
pip3 install -e .
or install the client in development mode:
pip install -e .[dev]
macOS
git clone https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-clients-python
cd crazyflie-clients-python
To install the client in edit mode:
pip3 install -e .
Extra
Pre commit hooks (ubuntu)
If you want some extra help with keeping to the mandated python coding style you can install hooks that verify your style at commit time. This is done by running:
$ pip3 install pre-commit
go to crazyflie-lib-python root folder and run
$ pre-commit install
$ pre-commit run --all-files
This will run the lint checkers defined in .pre-commit-config-yaml on your proposed changes and alert you if you need to change anything.
Working with the GUI .ui files
you can edit the .ui files for the GUI with QtCreator. For Windows and Mac you can download the Qt development kit from the Qt website. On linux QtCreator is usually available as package, for example on Ubuntu it can be installed with sudo apt install qtcreator.
Debugging the client from an IDE
It is convenient to be able to set breakpoints, examine variables and so on from an IDE when debugging the client. To get
this to work you need to run the python module cfclient.gui as the debug target in the IDE.
In VSCode for instance, the launch.json should look something like this:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Crazyflie client",
"type": "python",
"request": "launch",
"module": "cfclient.gui"
},
]
}
As noted earlier, it is common that work on the client also involve work in the crazyflie-lib-python.
The launch.json documented here can also be used in the crazyflie lib project to debug lib-related code.