[Mark V >5 minute boot up]

My MK V came today -- same behavior as OP with the amber "searching" LED. I tried both reformatting FAT, adding md5 files with hash, and downloading upgrade.bin (renamed from versioned filename) on the original uSD card and another I had. Still the same issue. Also tried FAT32 from W8.1. Next step? The MK V is right out of the box, so I haven't even had a chance to try to brick it yet, but is the unbricking procedure next or is there something else to try?

TIA,

d

[Pineapple Mark V Gallery Show Off: Dec 13 2013 - Updated main post!]

Does anyone know a good pelican case thats cheap around the size of my setup?

Check out Duratool cases -- highly regarded on AdvRider forums where they get serious abuse... Might need to look around for smaller sizes.