I think I really buggered it up.

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Hello All,

I've had to make some repairs to our Solo and I've got several questions I am hoping you can help me out with.

Background: The WiFi card in the controller died, fortunately while the Solo was on the ground. My coworker, our other remote pilot was out flying some pine plantings and said that he was losing video left and right. Once back in the office we downloaded the logs from the controller to geotag the imagery only to find the logs were missing almost all of the GPS data. Shortly afterwards we lost the ability to connect to the controller at all with any device and noticed that the controller was abnormally hot right over the WiFi card. That's fine, I've been wanting to upgrade to the Mikrotik R11e-2HnD and figured that while we have the Solo open we might as well upgrade the GPS and finally make the jump to Open Solo (we are/were still using stock) and a Green Cube.

So I replaced the WiFi cards, and this is where trouble started. After getting both cards in, I was able to connect the controller to the Solo, and my phone/tablet to the controller, I have yet to do the Green Cube install. Now that I could connect to the Solo again the plan was to get the logs from the UAV so we can geotag our imagery for processing. Except I couldn't get winscp to talk to either the controller or the Solo. I was getting a "host "root" does not exist" error. Also neither Mission Planner nor Q Ground Station could download the logs, they both timed out and QGS was disconnecting and reconnecting periodically. So I take everything apart to make sure I didn't cross the antenna cables and to reseat the cards. I suspect at this point I think flexed the ribbon cable (small IDE looking cable) that goes from the main board to the smaller board one to many times or put too much tension on it. I thought about removing that board just to be safe... it was a good thought, I should have gone along with it. Anyway, I set everything back into place an dplugged in without screwing everything down in in case I need to take it out again (which I will for the Green Cube) and power it up. I hear a sizzling sound, but don't see or smell any smoke or anything burning. I power it off and remove the battery as fast as I can and open her up to see what I have done. All of the solders on the main board side are broken, I think the sizzling was electricity arching as they separated. Nothing seems scorched and still no burning/overheating plastic smell.

At this point I decide to try to salvage the logs buy hooking up to my computer via USB. However, now I am getting what I now know to be the two beeps of "failed to start" and while Mission Planner gives me the option to connect via Com 7 it will not connect.

Background done.

Questions 1: Did I fry my PixHawk, or something else critical?

Question 2: Is there a way to get the logs via USB with the PixHawk not starting? Not the end of the world if those logs are lost, I can fake some geotags in ArcGIS. Its just a tedious process, but has worked in the past and would fly for this project.

Question 3: Is there a way to fix the "failed to start" issue?

Questions 4: What could have caused my inability to connect with winscp?

Tomorrow I guess we will decide whether to try to get a replacement board if one can be found and bought (can't buy used due to University and state policy unless I buy it myself), see if we can find someone with the skill to repair the ribbon cable, or just look into replacement with a Yuneec or something similar.

Any input would be much appreciated.
 
I've got a new question.

The ribbon cable that broke is going to the accessory board. We don't use it and probably never will. I can just remove it completely?
 
Really sounds like the Controller and/or Solo's MicroSD cards got buggered. The kernel is likely either panic'd or has dropped to single-user mode. Which means the SSH server hasn't started. Which is why you can't get scp to cooperate.

Just kinda guessing since the data is somewhat sparse
 
Thanks you for your answers. I got everything working this weekend, and we have been busy flying this week, which is why it took so long to get back. I do however have answers to the questions.

1 - I probably did fry the cube. I could never get it to boot up properly, get the logs via USB, nor could I get it to do a factory reset. I ended up using my computer to flash the Open Solo images to the SD cards for the Green Cube and the controller and installed the Green Cube. If anyone is still in the market for a Green Cube be warned the holes for the screws on ours didn't line up and had to be expand with a cylindrical bur and a dremel. Other than than it worked fine.

2 - There should be, but ours was borked. I did get the logs but dissembling the original black cube, scraping the glue off the SD card, and getting the logs right off the PixHawk SD card.

3 - Replace the cube.

4 - Sill can't connect with winSCP, but I Mission Planner and QGS both can now download the logs.

5 - Yep, just snipped the bundle of 4 wires and hot glued the end so they don't short out on anything. I did leave enough wire on the main board to splice it back together if we ever need the accessory port. Also, I secured the left over cable from the main board so its not rubbing against anything.
 
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