Burnout/bricked? Alternative board?

I recharged my NiMHs (five 1.2v enercell batteries, 2500maH each) and plugged them into the servo port on the board. Hexy woke up as usual, but this time there was a small column of smoke rising from the board, then nothing.

Now when I plug in the USB the green LED glows dimly then goes out. There is no red LED.

When I plug the batteries into the logic plug, no LED (green or red) and no response from Hexy at all.

But when I plug in the batteries to the servo port, the servos still seem to be getting power (they whiz and move).

My computer doesn’t recognize the board anymore either (Windows 7 64 bit).

I think I bricked it, but I’m not sure how I did it (1.2 volts times five is still under the servo port’s limit). The store’s closed so I can’t order a replacement; but I’m hesitant to use the Servotor board again if it’s going to burn out on me through regular use. But even so, is there another board I can use to tide me over until I can pick up another Servotor one?

EDIT: FIXED THE ISSUE

I isolated the issue by unplugging the PING sensor. For reasons I don’t fully understand yet I plugged it into the four-prong plug near the center of the board. After unplugging the sensor, Hexy came alive again :smiley:

You don’t happen to have the ultrasonic cable plugged in, do you? That cable plugged in backwards also causes the weird green led problem.

Haha thought so. Yeah, this freaked me out a lot when this happend to be me the first time, too.

That’s exactly what I just figured out. Apparently the smoke was a red herring. So now I just need to get the PING sensor working somehow.