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Cinebot Mini/Max — Payload Calibration Wizard Not Available in Flair 7

RESOLVED CONFIRMED CINEBOT MINI CINEBOT MAX FLAIR 7

Summary

On early Cinebot Mini and Cinebot Max units, the Calculate Payload wizard is either missing from the Flair 7 menus or fails to run. This is not a Flair bug — the control program running on the robot arm controller is an older version that does not support the payload wizard. The fix is a one-time controller upgrade.

Symptoms

  • System → Calculate Payload is not present in Flair 7
  • The Calculate Payload wizard starts but errors out or stalls before completing
  • Flair shows a message indicating the robot control program needs updating
  • You are running Flair 7.4.0 Beta 31 or later but the wizard still doesn't work

Who Is Affected

Units delivered before approximately May 2024. MRMC began installing the updated control program before shipping from Flair 7.4.0 Beta 31 onward — earlier deliveries did not receive this update.

The Polyscope and FlairControl versions on these units predate the payload wizard feature and cannot support it without the upgrade.

Why It Matters

Without the payload calibration wizard, you are either:

  • Running with no payload values set — the arm doesn't compensate for the weight of the camera at all, leading to less accurate motion
  • Estimating payload manually by entering a rough weight in Flair's kinematics setup — better than nothing, but not as accurate as the measured result

The Calculate Payload wizard guides you through four robot poses, physically measures the load on each axis, and calculates precise weight and centre-of-gravity values. It takes about 5 minutes and makes a meaningful difference to move accuracy, particularly for PushMoco, high-speed work, and precision CGI shots.

In plain terms, payload calibration is what makes Free Drive safe to use: Free Drive lets you push the arm around by hand and let go of it. If the payload value is wrong, the arm will either try to power up and lift itself (if it thinks the camera is heavier than it really is) or fail to hold its own weight and drop (if it thinks the camera is lighter than it really is).

Where this used to live

Payload calibration used to be done through the robot controller's own software (the UR arm's own interface) rather than Flair. On current controllers, the whole sequence — including making the result permanent — is done from within Flair via System → Calculate Payload.

Resolution

Apply the CinebotMiniMax-ControllerUpgrade package from MRMC. It contains:

  • FlairControl — the updated MRMC control program (enables the payload wizard)
  • Polyscope 5.24 — the UR arm OS update (also recommended; fixes interface errors in earlier versions)
  • VNC — remote access software for the Polyscope interface
  • CinebotMini-MaxUpgradeProcedure-v1.4.pdf — the official step-by-step guide

Download CinebotMiniMax-ControllerUpgrade.zip

The zip contains the FlairControl program, Polyscope 5.24, VNC, and the procedure PDF. Open CinebotMini-MaxUpgradeProcedure-v1.4.pdf inside the zip first and follow it in sequence.

After the Upgrade

Once the upgrade is applied, run the full payload calibration from Flair:

  1. Go to System → Calculate Payload (there's also a shortcut button for this on the side menu, in addition to the System menu).
  2. Store the first position — it can be anywhere; this is pose 1 of 4.
  3. Using the last three robot axes (tilt, pan, roll), move the arm to a pose that's clearly different from the last stored one, then store it. Flair displays an on-screen message if the new pose isn't far enough away from the previous one — the message clears once you've moved enough, which is your cue that it's safe to store. Repeat until four distinct poses are stored. Watch your cable routing and camera clearance as you move between poses — nothing in the sequence stops you driving the camera into something.
  4. Once all four poses are stored, Flair calculates the payload weight and centre of gravity and applies them to the robot controller automatically.
  5. Test carefully before trusting it: turn on Free Drive and move the arm through a few poses, holding it steady as you let go each time, to confirm it doesn't suddenly drift up or fall before relying on the new calibration.
  6. Make it permanent — this is a separate step from calculating it. Either store the result in Program → Setups → Kinematic Setups (save/apply from there) or save it into the robot controller program directly. If you skip this step, the newly-calculated payload does not persist. The same Kinematic Setups screen lets you edit the payload/offset values manually if needed, but the wizard's measured values — especially the centre-of-gravity offsets — are more accurate than a manual estimate.

Redo the calibration whenever you change camera bodies, lenses, or significantly alter your build weight.

YouTube 5 - Payload Calibration in Flair 7 Flair 7

▶ 00:00 — Why payload calibration matters: it's what makes Free Drive safe to use ▶ 00:44 — Calculating payload through the Flair 7 wizard — what it should look like when the wizard is present ▶ 03:13 — Storing the payload/CoG config once calculated ▶ 04:08 — Payload menu shortcut on the side menu

Source: Flair changelog v7.4.0 Beta 31 (2024-05-13); talk.mrmoco.com topic 1912 (@gordon_admin, 2026-02-16)