Hi, recently I was working on the hexapod tutorial in order to become familiar with the mini maestro series. I followed all the steps thoroughly. I tested the board before and after attaching the three motors. Everything worked exactly as it should. Then I attached the distance sensors. Upon connecting the board to USB (with no other power connection) the board quickly let out a puff of smoke. I quickly disconnected everything and searched for what I though was most likely a short.
I could not find anything. I reconnected the board (without changing anything) and everything was fine this time. I used a DC Power supply to provide exactly 4.6v and slowly unlimited the current in order to test the servos. Initially the motors were then extremely jittery and almost uncontrollable (this is after the current was fully unlimited by the DC PS). I called tech support and we identified the chip that fried itself as the usb power chip. As of today the board and everything works as described in the hexapod tutorial although the motors are still very jittery and no longer have the smooth motion exhibited when I initially tested them.
My questions is: Has anyone had this happen to them? What could be a possible explanation? (Again my first thought and the most obvious was that I had caused a short, but I could not find one. And the board worked again without changing anything.)
I have provided pictures below of the board as it was exactly after it fried.
I am also requesting consideration for a replacement board. Thank You.