So anyway, that's game over. First i had no video and nothing seemed to be working, then the FC blew up (not quite, but a heavy short somewhere that made the cpu overheat and was bad enough to stop the fan in the other usb port). It won't power up at all. I had wires falling off, no video, like it was obviously working, but no picture. Then the FC died. I'm putting it down to these BetaFPV 12A AIO's (and not my soldering, but you decide). Saying that I did have the props spinning at one point, but the video wires that were taped down came loose and tangled.

Hi Pathfinder,

Well, that is a bummer. Sometimes things don't work out quite like
we expected. I refer to that as learning. Oh well, being me, I would
toss the stuff that does not work...then, put in some new electronics
and give it another go.  

So, you are down to a frame, motors, and camera is that correct? Well, that
is still a good base to start with; it just needs a new FC (SPI or external receiver) 
and a VTX. Do you have one of those Darwin 15A FC boards lying around? 
If so, then you might just drop it in just as it is, add a VTX, and away you go.

If you don't have any spare FCs in the parts bin, well...then it will just have to
wait until you get ready to order more parts.

Later, iFly  

That sucks. Is that the second Beta board or the original one with the twitch? And for video wires, they were taped down for bench testing? Probably not a good idea to hold things down by tape to an AIO though even for a bench test.

Yes the second FC, not the one with the twitch. Yeah the video wires were taped for an initial LoS flight test to see if it would hover. I actually think the pads are crap on these boards, they strip too easily. So anyway it's toast.

I am mothballing for now until i sort out the Darwin FC.