It is possible to use the BFVDesktop application to connect to a Bluefly on a Mac using a USB cable, but you will need to do a few things. This article assumes you have a bit of technical knowledge.
First, make sure that you have Java installed. Open up a terminal and type java -version to check that you have Java. If not get it from https://www.java.com/en/download/apple.jsp.
Next, download the BFVDesktop application from the software page. This is packaged as a zip file. You will need to double click the file to unzip it. It will create a folder called distr with the few files needed to run the BFVDesktop application.
Go back to your terminal and navigate to the distr folder using standard terminal commands (like cd .. to navigate up, ls to list files, and cd x to change to folder x). Make sure that when you type ls you can see the BFVDesktop.jar file. To run the application use the command java -cp BFVDesktop.jar:jSerialComm.jar bfv.desktop.BFVDesktop (note that this is the same as the command in run.bat, but has a : instead of a ; as the jar file delimininator). The BFVDeskop application should now run. From BFVDesktop version 0.86 there is also a shell script (run.sh) in the distr folder that calls this command.
However, this might not be enough to actually connect to the Bluefly. You might need to also install the FTDI driver so your Bluefly appears as a USB device. You can get the driver here https://ftdichip.com/drivers/vcp-drivers/. We used the .dmg file for MacOS 11/12 for use with a Apple silicon device running MacOS 13.5.1 Ventura and it worked fine. You open the .dmg file and then drag the .app file to your Applications folder before running it.
Last, you will need the right cable. We tried with a USB-C to USB-C cable and that did not work. We had to use a USB-C (male) – USB-A (female) adapter in the Mac, then plug a USB-A(male) – USB-C (male) cable into the Bluefly.
With all these steps you can see the USB device listed in the dropdown list in the BFVDesktop application and then press Connect to connect to it.
Throughout many of these steps you may be prompted to accept security settings or you might need to right click and manually open programs to bypass the unidentified developer warning.