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Cinebot Nano (Flair Lite) — Tilta Lens Motor Setup

CONFIRMED CINEBOT NANO FLAIR LITE

This covers mounting and configuring a Tilta lens motor in Flair Lite (the Nano's simplified interface). For the equivalent procedure on Cinebot Mini/Max under full Flair 7, see 8 - Setting up the Tilta Lens Motor — the mechanical mounting steps below are broadly the same across both, but the in-software calibration screens differ.

Firmware Prerequisite

If you supplied your own Tilta motor rather than one from MRMC, it needs MRMC's own firmware flashed onto it before Flair can talk to it. Motors supplied by MRMC already have this firmware installed.

Mechanical Mounting

  1. If using 15 mm matte bars, confirm the motor's mounting clip has the correct inserts fitted (they should be pre-installed, but check) — these adapt the clip from 19 mm down to 15 mm bars.
  2. When fitting the split-ring insert, make sure the split orientation runs across the bar gap, not along it, or the clip won't close properly.
  3. Some very wide lenses don't leave enough clearance between the lens barrel and the near matte bar for the motor gear to engage — an offset adapter is available to push the second matte bar further out for clearance.
  4. The clip is not self-supporting while loose — hold the motor while tightening the clip, or it can slide off the bar and drop.

Powering and Channel-Matching

  1. Connect power to the motor. Some motors auto-power-on as soon as power is applied; others (like the one in the reference video) need their own power button pressed.
  2. Note the channel/range shown on the motor (e.g. H11 = channel 11, high range). The controller must be set to the same channel and range, or the motor won't respond to it — if a motor isn't responding at all, this is the first thing to check.
  3. Do not drive the motor from the hand controller before calibrating it — until calibration runs, the motor doesn't know where its end stops are, and driving it can run it straight into a hard stop.
  4. Press the motor's Calibrate button (or enable auto-calibrate-on-power, if you prefer it to happen automatically every time). It sweeps end to end to find its limits, then is safe to drive normally.

Lens Calibration in Flair Lite

Both a lens setting and a camera mount setting need to be configured — camera mount is generally a one-time setup as long as you keep using the same camera body; lens setup is done per lens.

  1. Create a new lens, give it a name.
  2. Before calibrating, it helps to right-click the focus readout and set it to Independent — this shows the motor's raw 0–1 value instead of a real-world distance unit, which makes the next check much clearer.
  3. With the axis disabled, manually move the lens to each physical extreme and note the raw value: it should read 0 at one end and 1 at the other, with infinity at 0 and minimum focus at 1. If it's the wrong way around (infinity reads 1, minimum focus reads 0), reverse the motor direction — either physically (remount it flipped) or in software via Focus Axis Setup > Reverse.
  4. Once direction is confirmed correct, calibrate at minimum two points: move to infinity, store; move to the lens's closest focus distance, store.
  5. For a lens that doesn't track distance perfectly linearly (common on cheaper lenses, especially near close focus), add extra calibration points in between — pick a handful of distances spread across the range, weighted toward close focus if that's where the lens is least accurate, and store each one. Keep units consistent (don't mix feet and cm within the same lens).
  6. Calibrate Focus, then Complete Calibration, Apply, Save.
  7. Set the lens's nodal offset handling: rather than entering offsets manually for every lens, you can select a saved lens mount preset so new lenses inherit the mount's known offsets automatically.
YouTube Flair Lite: Tilta Lens Setup Flair Lite

▶ Full mechanical mount, channel matching, and lens calibration walkthrough on Cinebot Nano

Source: MRMC video tutorial "Flair Lite: Tilta Lens Setup" (Flair Lite & Nano Tutorials playlist)