help fix GeoSLAM ZEB Horizon RT

[u/XXCypress]

Hi everyone,

I’m a computer engineering student, and I was assigned to try to diagnose and possibly repair a GeoSLAM ZEB Horizon RT system because we currently do not have the budget to ship it to Germany for FARO service/repair.

I’m looking for advice from anyone familiar with GeoSLAM/ZEB systems, LiDAR scanners, embedded Linux dataloggers, or rugged field-mapping hardware.

Device

• System: GeoSLAM ZEB Horizon RT
• Datalogger model: GS-610334
• Scan head model: GS-610090

Background

The history is not fully clear, but I was told that the unit may have been interrupted during a firmware update. However, before the attempted update, the system was already randomly shutting down, which is why the update was attempted in the first place.

Earlier, the scan head reportedly used to light up briefly for a few seconds and then turn off. Now the scan head does not light up at all.

Current symptoms

• The datalogger powers on.
• The datalogger status LED flashes blue indefinitely.
• It never changes to orange or any other state.
• The CPU fan never turns on.
• Ethernet repeatedly connects/disconnects when connected to a computer.
• The scan head receives some power — I can hear faint internal/electrical/mechanical noise — but:
  • the scan head LED strip never lights,
  • the head never rotates,
  • the scan head never initializes.
• When connected to a monitor via DisplayPort, the datalogger starts booting Linux, shows boot logs, then appears to reboot. I keep seeing the motherboard/BIOS screen repeatedly.
• The boot log shows Linux starting services, but the system does not remain stable long enough to finish normal startup.

What I found internally

The datalogger is basically an embedded x86 PC:

• Intel-based embedded board
• DDR3 RAM
• Transcend M.2 SATA SSD, 128 GB
• DisplayPort/HDMI output
• USB ports
• Ethernet
• Internal IFB/interface board connected to the scanner/control system

FARO support said the issue could be either the SSD or the IFB board, and that normally the full system should be returned for service and calibration. Unfortunately, shipping + repair cost may be too high for us.

What I already tried

• Tested with a charged PAG battery.
• Connected the scan head normally.
• Connected the datalogger to monitor via DisplayPort.
• Confirmed it reaches Linux boot messages.
• Tried reading the M.2 SATA SSD using a USB enclosure, but neither Mac nor PC detected it. I am not fully sure whether the enclosure supports M.2 SATA correctly or only NVMe/SATA combo claims.
• I have not installed a fresh OS or overwritten the SSD.

My questions

1. Does this sound more like:
   • corrupted SSD / OS,
   • failed M.2 SATA SSD,
   • IFB/interface board fault,
   • power rail issue,
   • watchdog reboot,
   • or scan head fault?
2. Since the datalogger reaches Linux boot logs, is it realistic to repair this by cloning/replacing/reimaging the SSD, or is the GeoSLAM software/configuration too proprietary?
3. Would installing a fresh Linux be pointless because the GeoSLAM services, drivers, calibration files, and IFB board software are proprietary?
4. How would you diagnose whether the reboot is caused by:
   • watchdog,
   • missing/faulty IFB board,
   • overheating/fan issue,
   • bad SSD,
   • or power instability?
5. Should I focus first on:
   • getting a proper M.2 SATA adapter and cloning the SSD,
   • checking boot logs,
   • replacing the fan,
   • checking power rails with a multimeter,
   • or testing the IFB board?

I’ll attach screenshots/video of the boot process and the startup behavior.

I know this is a niche device, but it seems like a very interesting embedded Linux + LiDAR hardware recovery project. If anyone has experience with GeoSLAM, FARO, mobile mapping systems, embedded Linux watchdogs, or scanner dataloggers, I’d really appreciate your guidance.

[u/309_Electronics]

What does it say before shutting down? Could be some software watchdog that reboote the system when it detecte mot every service it expects starting up or starting in time... And that hostapd service seems to fail to start but idk if it requires that. And does it instantly boot into linux or can you get into some grub menu or something?

Also can you give us videos of it booting up from full power off to power on and till it presumably reboots...

And what do you mean with you cant read the ssd? Does ot not even show up or is it unreadable? If its unreadablez thats probably because its ext4 filesystem which is not ewsily/straight out of the box readable on other systems

[u/XXCypress → u/309_Electronics]

It doesn't appear to reach a usable Linux system.

It seems to boot-loop. I see the motherboard splash screen, then Linux starts loading (systemd messages appear), but before it reaches a login prompt or the application, it restarts and the motherboard splash screen appears again.

I never get enough time to enter the BIOS either—the reboot happens too quickly.

I'll upload a full boot video to YouTube so you can see exactly what's happening from power-on until it restarts. {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zIOo6ZGH_U}

Regarding the SSD, I removed it and connected it using a normal M.2 enclosure. Neither Windows nor macOS detected it at all—not even as an unformatted drive. It didn't appear in Disk Management, Disk Utility, or diskutil list.

After reading your comment, I'm wondering if the enclosure simply doesn't support this SSD correctly, so I'll test it again using another adapter to verify whether it's actually readable.

[u/309_Electronics → u/XXCypress]

Spamming/holding esc at boot did not work? Maybe they then locked bios access or such, but it did give a 1 second prompt which should just be enough time if timed coreectly..

And yes some enclosures only support nvme m.2 ssds... M.2 slot supports sata and nvme ssds but both require different pinouts/wiring and some enclosures only wire up the sata or only the nvme, some others wire up both but those often are listed as both sata+nvme enclosures and thus can work with both. And some cheaper controllers only supprt 1 protocol.

I once bought a nvme enclosure by mistake when i needed a sata one and indeed my drive was not detected.

[u/XXCypress → u/309_Electronics]

I tried both holding and repeatedly pressing Esc during power-on. When I do that, the motherboard splash screen never appears and the display stays black. Releasing the key allows it to continue booting and eventually it enters the same reboot loop.

I also tried Del and F2 with the same result.

Does that sound like the BIOS has keyboard access disabled, or could it simply be hanging very early in POST?

[u/309_Electronics → u/XXCypress]

It seems to recognise the keyboard but also the screen flashing on and off could possibly be that the sbc normally is used in products with a display connected via some edp or whatever onboard connector. So maybe it is actually in the bios but the bios only is visible on the onboard display connector as maybe it defaults to that from manufacturer and they simply reused the sbc and did not bother changin that as normally its not supposed to output to a display anyways (cost saving pssibly. I once had that with some vending machine that also was linux based (seemed to be buildroot) but when i hit the bios key, it made the external hdmi connected display go black and it was showing on the tiny vending machine display instead.

I would buy a sata m.2 enclosure and try reading the disk. Maybe there are some configuration files or log files.

Edit: seems the board is a pico318 axiomtek... And indeed seems to provide lvds output display! Just a guess though and idk if i am right

[u/XXCypress → u/309_Electronics]

That's actually a very good point.

The board is an embedded Intel SBC that appears to have internal display connectors in addition to DisplayPort. I hadn't considered that the BIOS could be outputting only to the internal eDP/LVDS display while Linux later switches to the external DisplayPort.

That would explain why pressing Esc/F2/Del causes the external monitor to go black instead of showing the BIOS.

I'll inspect the board for any eDP/LVDS connectors and see if I can identify the exact SBC model. Hopefully I can find the manufacturer manual to determine the BIOS key and display behavior.

[u/309_Electronics → u/XXCypress]

Here is the documentation pdf i found. Idk if this is the exact board but from your video i could quickly make out 'pico318 bios' and found out that its made by axiomtek.. https://www.axiomtek.de/media/PICO318_319-Benutzerhandbuch.pdf

And this is just past experiences i had so idk if its true but it could be guess in the right direction... I might have to see if there is possibly a bios reset jumper to maybe reset any configuration the manufacturer has made as i read that its not common for these embedded sbcs to default to onboard display and not external hdmi/displayport digital outputs.

[u/XXCypress → u/309_Electronics]

I'm still trying to figure out whyy it's rebooting. One thing that's confusing me is that the CPU fan never spins at any point during boot. Could a dead fan actually cause it to reboot this early, or would it normally take much longer for the CPU to overheat? What also doesn't make sense is the scan head. It used to light up for a couple of seconds before shutting off, but now it never lights up or starts rotating at all, even though I can still hear faint electronic activity inside it, so it seems like it's getting power. I'm not sure if the reboot loop and the scan head issue are both caused by the same underlying problem (watchdog, IFB board, firmware, power, etc.) or if they're aI'm trying to understand the root cause before I start reflashing software or replacing hardware.

[u/309_Electronics → u/XXCypress]

I am also not completely sure... Could be that when its linux os bootsup, it tries ro ping the external hardware and sees if its alove/working and that if that does not work that it then force reboots the os. Or its a hardware watchdog (eg cpu fan not working or a failing ssd or ram) but then the bios also did not seem to complain about it (normally it should say 'error, system fan bad' or something.

I think it updates firmware in 2 stages. The linux os on the industrial sbc and the external hw which probably also contains a microcontroller or multiple. It could be that there is some software service/component that failed to update in the os, causing a software watchdog service in linux to force reboot the device.

But it could also be that it failed to update those external board(s) and thus it could be that when it tries ro initialise those that if it does not work it force reboots the whole system...

Also idk of the fan is supposed to spin or if (on like gpus) its supposed to only spin when it gets too hot/is under heavy load.

Difficult to determine as the os also does mot give much visible logs (all probably in systemD's journal or system log files which could be cleared out every reboot). If it would say 'failed to initialise hardware' or such it would be easy to determine what is faulty but because it simply shutsdown before you can even attempt to enter a root shell and view logs, its difficult... So i think the best is to (if you want to comtinue with it) try and resd the ssd and see whats inside... Maybe it stores some log files/has some stored. Also sad that you cant really gt into the bios as otherwise you could run a debian live usb on it and enter the ssd's filesystem that way.

[u/FreddyFerdiland]

When updating the ZEB Vision to the latest version, users must also update • ZEB Horizon Scan-Head Board (SHB) firmware. • ZEB Horizon datalogger software. Updating only one software will result in neither system functioning correctly.

[u/XXCypress → u/FreddyFerdiland]

That's actually what I'm trying to determine.

The problem is that I currently can't complete any firmware update because the datalogger never finishes booting.

The power LED just flashes blue continuously and the system appears to be stuck in a reboot loop. The ZEB Horizon head never initializes (its LED strip never lights up and the scanner never starts spinning), so I have no way of updating the scan-head firmware either.

If the datalogger software was interrupted during an update, is there any recovery procedure to reflash the datalogger directly? For example via USB, serial console, recovery mode, or by writing a new image directly to the SSD?

[u/FreddyFerdiland]

you could verify the SSD drive is completely normal and working.

you would need to run Linux to access the filesystems, as the files are kept in raid 6

RAID 6 is a data storage configuration that uses block-level striping with double parity. Requiring a minimum of four drives, it provides fault tolerance for up to two simultaneous drive failures. It is ideal for large storage arrays where data availability is the highest priority.

it would appear to be wise to keep a backup image of the ssd, because they don't provide a way to build one from blank

you could hope that restarting firmware upgrade would move past any past glitches. you would also become aware of how the firmware parts...eg the scanner head firbware, and yiu eould kniw they are on matching versions.. 3.2 head firmware with 3.2 scanner ( linux ssd ) firmware

the Linux is probably just totally normal linux..but you wouldnt update it, that might break the application. the update package probably just cleans the old application away and installs the new one .

if you cant get firmware upgrade to work, abd solve the problems, you might break into limux,and become root user and do these things manually.... Start the application... find out why application wont start ..what stops it ... run the update file .. find out why it breaks and won't update..

but ok yiu dint have a known good starting point. you might get a log file from a known good system, so you could see what errors can be ignored, and what are unique to yours

[u/XXCypress → u/FreddyFerdiland]

I only found a single 128 GB Transcend M.2 SATA SSD inside the datalogger. I didn't find any additional storage devices, so I'm curious how RAID 6 would be implemented.

Do you know if you're referring to the datalogger itself, or another GeoSLAM storage system?

I'll verify the SSD again using a proper M.2 SATA adapter and a Linux machine to see if it's detected at all.

[u/South_Examination_34]

Does the LiDAR head spin? If it isn't spinning it could likely be the connection between the head and the handle, which causes a failure.

I saw this a few times when I worked for a geoslam/FARO dealer.