"I'm concerned about hooking up any additional power along with the USB as I've read: that can cause an issue with the MPU. Do you suggest pulling the USB apart and removing the 5v line and connecting that to another source?"
"As I understand: the Mini apm does not have 3.3v. It's 5V only. That kind of narrows it down!! I'm disappointed that my unit wasn't tested prior to shipping. I doubt it was fried by only hooking up the USB cable. I guess I'll be out of order…"
Just received my mini APM 3.1 board and loaded the latest copter V3.2.1 without incident. upon connection, however all versions hang in the parameters section. Usually RC4_REV. This occurs in all versions of firmware until I get to 2.9.1B.…