Freefly offers a Smart Dovetail Isolation Upgrade kit to upgrade your Base Kit cheeseplate isolator to an isolator that is compatible with the Freefly Mapping Payload.
If you buy an Astro Map, this isolator is already installed.
If you buy a Mapping Payload, you will need to upgrade your Astro Base with this Isolator Upgrade.
To install this onto your aircraft, use the provided M3x8mm Button Head screws to install the isolator as follows:
Install the Isolator Upgrade Kit onto the lower chassis so that the cable is facing the rear of the aircraft.
Attach the isolator to the chassis using the 4x M3x8mm BHCS.
Attach the safety lanyard to the lower chassis using 1x M3x4mm BHCS.
Connect the Smart Dovetail connector to the IO panel on the underside of the Astro chassis.
The Astro Map and Mapping Payloads ship with this USB-C flash drive.
We recommend a USB 3.1 drive with a write speed above 50 mb/s.
The USB flash drive included will be formatted to work with Astro. In the event that you encounter issues or would like to use a different USB flash drive with Astro, format using the instructions below.
Open Disk Utilities and click on the flash drive in the sidebar.
Select the Erase option at the top of the window.
In the Format dropdown, select MS-DOS FAT and click Erase.
Once that completes, click the Eject arrow near your flash drive on the sidebar.
Open This PC to show all connected drives.
Locate the USB drive you want to use with Astro, right-click on the image, and select "Format...". A small window should open.
Select ExFat under the File System dropdown and click Start.
Once that completes, right-click on the USB drive in This PC again and select Eject.
Obtain the provided new firmware package. This will be in a .zip folder format.
Extract the .zip folder contents. The file that will be provided will likely be titled with the firmware version like "Mapping Payload Firmware 1.X.X"
Open the extracted folder- the top level folder that you will need to copy onto the gimbal will be called "freefly". Do not copy the folder that states the firmware version.
To upgrade Mapping Payload firmware, connect the gimbal to a laptop using a USB-C cable.
The USB-C connector is located on the Smart Dovetail of the gimbal
Ensure the gimbal is not powered by the aircraft
The gimbal will show up on the computer as an external drive called "FREEFLY"
Open that drive and you will see a folder named "freefly". This is the current firmware file that you need to replace.
Delete this folder and replace it with the new firmware folder "freefly' that you downloaded in Step 1
Remove the USB-C cable from the gimbal and connect the gimbal to an Astro using the Smart Dovetail to power on the gimbal.
Insert 1 SL8 Battery into the aircraft and fully latch the battery, but do not power on the aircraft at this time.
Use a paperclip or small screwdriver to hold down the Firmware Load button on the gimbal- this button must be pressed and held for 10 seconds while powering on the aircraft.
This small button is recessed into the gimbal housing and is located next to the USB-C connector on the Smart Dovetail.
Power on the aircraft by double clicking the button on the SL8 battery.
Ensure that the Firmware Load button is held down during this time for 10 seconds while the new firmware is loaded onto the gimbal.
When firmware is successfully updated, the gimbal should stabilize correctly and video feed will show on the Herelink controller.
Note: Normal usage should not require this process. Reset the camera settings only if the Freefly factory settings have been changed or you are having issues with your Mapping Payload and Freefly customer support has instructed this process.
Note! The camera will not save settings unless you turn off the camera using the switch on the camera and wait 45 seconds for the settings to save before removing power to the gimbal (turning Astro off or removing the gimbal from Astro).
Here's an example video of the camera settings being changed (switching from JPEG to RAW, in this case).
Note! The camera will not save settings unless you turn off the camera using the switch on the camera and wait 45 seconds for the settings to save before removing power to the gimbal (turning Astro off or removing the gimbal from Astro).
With Astro off or with the gimbal removed from the aircraft, connect a USB-C cable between a computer and the USB-C port on the payload side of the dovetail. A drive will mount on your computer. The logs are located under "freefly\movi\logs".
Loosen both fasteners in the camera hotshoe as well as the ¼-20 fastener with the washer so the camera is free to slide forward/backward.
Hold the gimbal by its Pan/Roll arms and ensure the tilt motor can spin freely.
Shift camera forward/backward in its slot until the camera does not tip up or down when it is positioned horizontally and released.
To ensure the camera is very well balanced, test pointing the camera ~30 deg up/down; a well balanced camera will also not move in either of these two positions.
Once the camera balance is correct, tighten the ¼-20 fastener as well as the two fasteners on the hotshoe.
Ensure the lens cap is removed while balancing the payload!
This is a set of example calibration values for the camera and lens system. Each lens is slightly different, but these values are good initial values if the software in use can't solve them directly.
Sony Alpha 7R IVA with Sigma 24 mm lens at F/5.6
| Parameter | Value |
|---|
Focal Length (mm) | 24.351 |
Principle Point X (pixels) | 4714.485 |
Principle Point Y (pixels) | 3172.286 |
R1 | -0.017 |
R2 | 0.071 |
R3 | 0.009 |
T1 | 0.001 |
T2 | 0 |
