OK gang, one more time,
FYI and any more negative and non supportive post here will not be tolerated, and I will be DONE. I'm relaying this information to HELP others out, not to be berated. I see a lot of the negatives are from those that have no idea to the FACTS of the crash, so here is the final synopsis of the events.
Other flight on-site flights and video captures were performed with no issues 2 days prior to crash. That day: post pre-flight check list completed, spotters in place, and flight performed at ATC allowed time:
1) Solo controller LCD display back-light turned Orange and all data on the Controller LCD display froze just as Solo reached goal altitude with 60% battery remaining. I still had telemetry data coming in on my tablet = thank God
2) Then the tablet data fields and display appeared just what I would describe as abnormal, not located on the display in the usual area's, in other words a 'jumbled desktop'. Video feed was still coming in
3) I immediately hit Home, then held down Fly to 'land now' and even tried Manual to get Solo back down as soon as possible. Nothing works, even though it appeared to my spotters that Solo was performing a RTH, auto or initiated? I'm not sure at this point
4) When I finally recovered all of my Solo's parts; ejected flight battery, GoPro 30 feet away, GoPro SD card(!), GPS cover, prop parts, etc., and shut everything down and went in for a re-charge and status check of Solo. The Controller showed a completely white back-lit display with no data shown on it when I connected to the charger. I contacted 3DR support on-site as I had more video/work to do, trying to fix this mess. Had a weird alarm tone coming from Solo, even though Solo's LED's showed the usual ready to fly pattern. They were helpful indicating the tones were indicating a GPS module failure (I held the phone next to Solo so they could hear it), but had no idea to exactly what the the rest of the issues were at the current time concerning the Controller status, we tried and 3DR support was great (about 10:30pm EST)
5) So, performed a complete visual inspection on Solo. Pulled Gimbal, top motor bell was spinning on shaft, Gimbal video HDMI cable had separated the connector from the Gimbal, front mounting tab for Gimbal on main body was broken off. No-go on trying to get Solo back in the air to get the job completed with the Gimbal, except...:
5) So, I still tried to get back Solo back in the air with the standard GoPro frame mount. Performed another battery pull on the Controller and the LCD flickered some data, then went back to a white LCD/blank display = then I give up, on-site
6) Once home, I pulled the Controller battery out overnight. The next morning, I was able to get data display back on the controller. Kept charger plugged in, however the Controller would not accept a full charge, and to mention all Controller buttons were all lit while on charge which is not normal
7) Tried to perform complete factory reset on Controller = completed; Solo = a no go, solid orange pair light no matter what I did. Solo GPS failure warning tone was still going off, so I fixed that by repairing/re-seating the Solo main board GPS signal cable connector which was bent from the impact (connector shell destroyed), how I missed that on-site, I have no idea
So, everything has been shipped back to 3DR. The only issue was at first they only wanted just the Controller shipped, and why just that item I asked? Well, support and myself worked through it overall after further emails and explanation of the situation, everyghing I have went back to 3DR, chargers and all.
Anyway, I will let you all know the outcome. Hopefully 3DR will come through and I'm sure they will as my ticket and conversations with support have be spot on, 3DR has a great customer support team. When you have a Controller failure that just happened at the absolute wrong time, it's not good over all, period.
I just want my Solo back, I have a LOT of work to do... so wish me luck.
Cheers