Devo F12E doesn't boot

Hi Folks,

Brand new to the forum. I just received my F12E and experienced the following. Upon first powering up, It seemed to boot. I got it to pair with my 350Pro and iLook and show me video. When I went to turn it off, it turned off the video, but I noticed the red LED did not turn off. I didn't think much of it - I figured it was just a cap needed to discharge, so I went to bed. The next time I tried it, I noticed that the LED was still on. I tried to turn it on and it did not boot. Also, the batteries were drained. I replaced all the batteries, but still when I plug in the batteries, the LED is off when I first plug them in, but when I turn on the power switch, there is no change to the screen, and only the red LED comes on. When I turn OFF the LED switch, it still does not turn off. I have to pull the battery to get the red LED to go out.

Any ideas or things I should try? I have gotten in touch with the vendor I purchased from just in case it is simply a case of infant mortality.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions,
Alan

I've not heard of it in the F12E specifically but devo's are not known for using super high quality power slider switches or anything and this issue isnt unheard of...

Being new it would probably be best to not open it (tamper label) and have the vendor swap it out for you, other than that I imagine you would find either a bad solder joint or simply a dirty contact in the switch if you wanted to open it and fix it yourself.

I agree with the idea of going back to the vendor. One additional piece of data - I hooked up the USB cable to a computer, which in some of the videos seemed to not require the power switch (I guess because the board gets powered by the USB). The computer did not detect a device being connected at all. This leads me further to the idea that the board has had a failure, rather than just a power switch issue.

Does this make sense?

Computer will NOT detect till its powered on...

Thanks for the ideas. I tried connecting USB but was unsuccessful with it on and with it off.

Also, holding the EXT while power on did not seem to change the behavior.

I also noticed that when I power it on after plugging in a battery, i hear a very faint click (speaker sound) every 3 seconds - not a beep, just a click. This periodic click continues (along with the LED being illuminated) regardless of whether I "turn off" the unit by sliding the power switch back down... and there is never anything showing on the screen.

Any theories what might be the issue? The vendor (hobbywow) suggested I might take it to my "local rc repair store" and see if they could fix it. I might do that - if I had such a store - but I don't. Alternatively they said I could mail it back to them and they would either fix it or send me a new one.

Suggestions welcomed!
Alan

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I think it is the mainboard. The battery is a full 12.6V (8xAA batteries). I also tried it with a fully charged LiPO.

At the prompting of the vendor, I opened it. *gasp* and disconnected all peripherals from the mainboard and it still behaves the same way - no beep when it turns on, and the "off" switch doesn't turn it off. I did test the switch itself, since someone earlier had suggested that the switches were a source of problems. The power switch itself does appear to function as you would expect, so I don't think that is the source of the issue. Interestingly, the power switch does not seem *directly* in-line with the power, so that is a little befuddling to me. i.e. what kind of a power switch is this, that it doesn't interrupt the power source to the rest of the board??

I have sent a few emails - one to the vendor and one to walkera to see if the mainboard itself is obtainable. Otherwise, I will have to resort to exchanging it back at the vendor.

If anyone has any other ideas or things I should test, I'd be happy to try.

Hi. Got same symptoms today. Did you solve the problem?

Unfortunately, I ended up having to send it back to the supplier to be repaired. In the end, I think they ended up determining it was the mainboard inside the device, although I don't really know. Mine was a new unit, so they replaced it. The new one has been working fine since then. (I really like the F12E - the integrated screen and support for OSD is great)