OK, so I am fighting the bumblebee which has an Omnibus F3 clone in it. I went to put it in the air to get blackbox per an old thread that I needed to come back to. 

When I powered the quad up ESC/Motor beeps didn't go all the way... "beep beep beep...." silence. So I started thinking, the one thing I haven't swapped yet is the FC... might be time to put a F4 clone that I got but never used for my other build. 

I flashed the F4 and everything worked great! Plus I learned how to flash an omnibus FC which made me think... before I do anything else with swapping maybe I'll try flashing the F3 that's in the quad now... afterall it doesn't hurt but if by magic it fixes the issue that would be nice. 

I got the F3 in DFU mode, flashed the chip, all worked just fine... Then pull out USB, plug back in... no sound from computer recognizing device. 

Try connecting... no luck. 

I can get it to go back into DFU mode but I cant get it to connect normal. 

Did I mess up my firmware? If I did then I'll just swap the thing but if I can avoid a rebuild I'd rather.

also, happy ThxGiving to other Americans!

There is a program called ImpulseRC_Driver_Fixer.exe maybe you already have it.
If not please email at [email protected] and I'll send it to you.

When you plug in the FC normally, what does the device manager populates?

In the past, I had to reinstall the VCP driver again. All of a sudden it didn't connect like you.

(23-Nov-2017, 05:10 AM)jep4755 Wrote: There is a program called ImpulseRC_Driver_Fixer.exe maybe you already have it.
If not please email at  [email protected] and I'll send it to you.

found it on impulseRCs site. Didn't recognize the FC, just kept spinning. 

(23-Nov-2017, 06:24 AM)voodoo614 Wrote: When you plug in the FC normally, what does the device manager populates?

In the past, I had to reinstall the VCP driver again. All of a sudden it didn't connect like you.

When I plug the F4 back in it connects as "USB Serial Device (COM6)... the F3 shows nothing. 

So I tried running the driver fixer with the F4 plugged in... it said it worked... when I plugged the F3 back in still no luck... I think the F3 isn't powering up in the right mode or something... 

In fact something I didn't mention... F3 has solid blue light when plugged in without going into DFU mode.

Edit to add... connected F3 back into DFU... flashed it again... no luck...

Tried putting 3.1.7 back on the board... no luck...

Went all the way back to 3.1.0... (what it had on it when it shipped) still no luck...

It's an F3 board... I should be using the board labeled "OMNIBUS" right?

Hm difficult, i have no personal experience with omnibus boards, but aren't there quite a few variants? Could it be there's more than 1 firmware variant for omnibus f3 boards?

For the F4 which actually show up as COM, I would plug the board in (not dfu). Download current VCP driver, Unzip and note where you put it. Go to device manager, right click, uninstall driver and click delete driver software. Once you delete, it should be in the Port tab anymore. It might show up as other device with a yellow explanation mark. Right click, update driver, browse for the driver (inf file) you downloaded and install. Reboot if it doesn't connect. You should see it back in the Port tab with an assign COM again.

As for the F3, I think you might have the incorrect firmware.

Actually, you probably have the right firmware. Just corrupted.

Try this.

https://www.phaserfpv.com.au/blogs/blog/...controller

You know what guys... I am a total idiot...

it's not any of that stuff... you know what it is...

I forgot that this board is an F4

After reading FFTunes post about different variants I figured I'd look up my build thread to see if there is anything specific called out about the FC beyond just being an F3 board... and there it was... right in the stupid post... "Omnibus F4"...

So was it the wrong firmware? yes... yes it absolutely was... I feel like such a goof

In the end, when I got the original psudo-F3 board updated with the right firmware it wasn't powering up via the battery. When I took everything apart I couldn't find anything wrong with the solder joints or continuity with the power so I swapped it out for the new board. 

So I guess I went through all of that just to learn a lesson: When you're FC doesn't flash right... check your build thread on IntoFPV!