Cleanflight on Mac OSX

If you’re having problems getting cleanflight to recognise your Naze board and you’re on a Mac, do the following:

  1. Using USB to connect to the Naze32 requires the installation of the SiLabs CP2102 VCP Drivers. The drivers are available for download directly from the SiLabs Website
  2. Force the serial connection to be recognized by running the following line at the command terminal: sudo ln -s /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART /dev/tty.usbserial
  3. Fire up Cleanflight!
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Categorized as Drones

20 comments

  1. I wish it worked for me. I have installed the driver, run the command line as provided. The USB seems to show up on my cleanflight, but is still unable to connect. When I restart the mac it is no longer showing up when I look for the USB using Terminal:

    ls /dev/cu.*

    All I get is this:

    ciaranwhelan-mac$ ls /dev/cu.*
    /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem
    Ciarans-MacBook-Pro:~ ciaranwhelan-mac$

  5. This is still failing for me. I install the drivers on El Capitan (OSX 10.11) and the /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART doesn’t get created. Any ideas?

  6. I installed driver

    ran command in terminal

    AND NOTHING

    uninstall cleanflight/reinstall

    (maybe reboot computer)

    IT WORKED !!!!

    On the naze I soldered the boot jumper just to be sure its tripped every attempt. There were so many. And remembered to remove it after flashing. And it connected right away.

  7. I just spent way too long trying to get this little board flashed! Thought I would share what did it for me. Similar to many other posts with one exception.

    1. Installed drivers onto my mac from SiLabs site.
    2. Shut off computer.
    3. Plugged in cable and board.
    4. Restarted computer.
    5. Pulled up cleanflight and for the first time could select the correct port: /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART. All other times only showed me the bluetooth ports and I KNEW it wasn’t the board but the drivers..

    Cable is very important and it is hard to tell which micro USB is data and which is power, but keep trying different cables. Third one worked for me.

  8. First guide that worked in a long time (since updating to el captian). You made my day!

  9. I did the uninstall script in the dmg file first and it worked (OSX 10.11.5)

  10. Anybody have any idea how to get Betaflight Configurator to work on a Macbook running OSX 10.6.8? I have tried everything SAM writes here, the proper serial port show up but not connecting to my Naze32 FC.

  11. I get “ln: /dev/tty.usbserial: Operation not permitted” when I put the command in terminal… 🙁

  12. You probably fixed it by now, but for me it turned out the cable I was using was a CHARGE min USB cable and not a CHARGE/SYNC mini USB cable. Turns out, not all cables are the same…

  13. Thanks, my Cleanflight was open while I installed the SiLabs drivers. After install I was surprised (and maybe lucky after reading the comments) that the Naze was immediately recognized without any other steps required. I suspect it’s because my Mac had already been configured for serial connections from my 3D printers.

  14. did you try using “sudo” in front of the command? sometimes using it still results in that msg, but you did not explicitly state you had tried it so i wanted to mention it just in case.

  15. Installed, ran command, “operation not permitted”.
    Same result after reboot, cleanflight reinstall and pretty much everything else I’ve seen in this thread.

  16. I am getting the “ln: /dev/tty.usbserial: Operation not permitted” with or without sudo

  18. This is just killing me. Wasted sooooo much time on this. Followed all suggestions in the thread so far with no joy.
    – This is on a Macbook Pro
    – Uninstalled CleanFlight from Chrome
    – Plugged in cable and SP Racing F3 v1 Flight Controller board
    – Blue light lit on FC
    – Installed the SiLabs CP2102 VCP Drivers
    – Shut down then started Mac (not just restart)
    – In Terminal ran “sudo ln -s /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART /dev/tty.usbserial” but get error “Operation not permitted”
    – Tried “sudo ln -s /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART” and did not get the error
    – Then tried “sudo ln -s /dev/tty.usbserial” with no error
    – Then tried “sudo ln -s /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART /dev/tty.usbserial” again and got same error
    – Installed CleanFlight in Chrome
    – CleanFlight finds: /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART
    – Click “connect” button and CleanFlight times out

    I’m at my witts end. Should I just get a better FC?
    Is there anything else to try?
    One note: I’m using a USB cable that came with an Android phone. I’ve used it for transferring data to the mac in the past. Usually just use it for charging the kids Androids. Tried a few other cables in the house with no luck. I would think if I can transfer data onto the Android phone it indicates this is a true USB cable and not a charge-only cable…an assumption.

    Could really use some guidance here as this is really frustrating and ruining the experience of the build.

    Thanks in advance!

  19. Holy cow…finally got it working!
    – Unshorted the boot pins (this was the issue)
    – Flashed with no issue
    – Then could run CleanFlight no issue.
    This seems to be the opposite of others, but it worked for my FC.
    So happy!!!

  20. This is getting quite frustrating. I did all of the above and now I have the “/dev/tty.usbserial” option which wasn’t there before. But now when I go and try to connect my Naze32 chip, it says “Failed to open serial port.” But my Naze is plugged in, solid blue and blinking red. Is there a problem with my Naze chip or is the Cleanflight software just not working?

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