i made the update and have to say that it was no problem to do it. thanks to the perfect instruction material and (important) a good 2mm hexadriver i was able to do that with no problems. but you really need a good hexadriver! with cheap tools you will destroy the screws...
Do you need to update the Alta firmware to use the new ESC update? Or can you keep running the older firmware?
I posed this question to my ALTA retailer (Quadrocopter) and am waiting for a reply. If anyone has a firm answer please share.
And the technique for undoing the small countersunk black screws that seems to work best is, as Rolf says, use a good quality 2.0mm hex driver (the one FF supplies is good), and then use a double-handed "sudden" undo/counterclockwise motion to break the Loctite seal. If you apply force very slowly there's a risk you will strip the Allen head in the countersunk screws. The plastic cover under the top plate can be a bit fiddly to replace -- you need to ensure that none of the wires that need to be on the outside of the plastic cover (accessible via the close-out panels) end up on the inside of the plastic cover. Once you have replaced the top plate and torqued the screws to 0.8 Nm, be sure to check that the motors are still aligned to +3.0 +/- 0.1 degrees and -3.0 +/- 0.1 degrees (depending on which odd/even boom number) with respect to the top plate. One of the motors on an ALTA I was working on ended up at 2.4 degrees. If you use the Wixey angle gauge, be careful to center it on the motor mount -- if you don't you can vary the reading from 2.9 to 3.2 degrees -- I think the bottom of the gauge might be slightly recessed. And use Loctite 243 very sparingly on the M3 screws when you re-assemble otherwise you'll have problems if you need to do another ESC firmware update. Andy.
why would you not just heat the screws with a hot air gun from your solder station and then unscrew them?
I did. They didn't. Actually, to amplify that, on the first ALTA I worked on, there was an abundance of Loctite. The more recent ALTA I worked on had less. The I tried heating the screws on the first ALTA, but still could not get them to break free. Andy
Alexandre: I've emailed to Freefly to find out whether this update has been officially released -- the problem is that it is the weekend here in the USA, so I don't think I will get an answer until Monday morning Pacific Time. Andy.
It's still a little early (07:34) on Pacific Time, Alexandre. I suspect Freefly doesn't open it's doors (so to speak), until 08:30. Andy.
Have I missed something, do we all have to update the ESC's on our ALTA? or have some had some great variations in temperature which means that they need to update their ESC? I have updated to 3.6.0 firmvare ... Can't find any information regarding this, and haven't heard about a ESC problem....