Sparkfun esp32 s3 thing plus seems to have stopped working

Development Boards ESP32
1

I’m fairly new to arduino and microcontrollers. I recently got a Sparkfun esp32 s3 thing plus and was starting to experiment and program it. It seemed to be working fine. I was only powering it with usb from the computer. I put everything away one night and the next day when I went to plug the usb cable in it did not work as expected. At first the yellow (charge led?) was flickering but that slowed and stopped. After futzing with it for a while I noticed a chip near the vbatt pin was getting very hot.

At this point the red led does not come on anymore. The yellow charge led sometimes blips when I plug in the usb cable.

Windows 10 computer only recognizes it as a “base system device” (no port number) now and Arduino IDE does not show the port it used to be on and will not connect to it.

I also tried to power it from the jst connector with a 1 cell lipo, but nothing.

I think something on the board has failed, what do you think?

ps. the old Mega 2560 I have still works as expected.

2

At request I am posting a link to a discussion on the Arduino forum.

3

Is this the correct forum for troubleshooting an ESP32 and/or returning it for replacement?

Thanks

4

Yes, sorry this was overlooked

I that thread it looks like the GND was tied the the 2s Lipo’s GND while being powered over usb…was that the case?

5

Yes, all the grounds were connected together.

6

Oh, just to clarify, the positive of the battery only powered the positive lead on the servo.