Z-probing servo just stopped working...

I have been using the bed probing with auto-leveling feature for a few weeks with no problems, until this morning. I hit print, left the room, and a few moments later I heard some disturbing snapping and popping sounds. It seems that my probe was never deployed, and the servo is no longer responding. I have tried another servo, and that had no effect. All other functions are unaffected. I'm using a RAMPS 1.4 board, a real Italian Arduino, and the latest version of Marlin. I separated the RAMPS shield from the Arduino, but did not see anything obvious like burn marks, scorched traces, or cold solder joints. With just the Arduino plugged into USB, there is 0 voltage at the 5V socket along the bottom of the board. Can anyone tell me what I might have done and, more importantly, how to not do it again? I have another Arduino, but I would rather not hook it up until I understand what I may have done. Thank you in advance for any help!

Is the little regulator on the Arduino burned?

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Waitaki 3D Printer

Not that I could see, but where is it? Would the rest of the Arduino still function just fine, as it does?

Does anyone have any ideas for an alternative setup so that I don't fry the next Ardunio? Do I need to rig up some kind of external 5V supply or beefier voltage regulator to run the servo?

I was told that some people frayed their Arduinos in time due to the current consumption of servo. This is the reason why I choose to get 5V from 12V power supply of Ramps through a 7805. I connected the output of 7805 to 5V pin on Ramps and nothing else was needed to change in the connection of the servo to the Ramps. I mounted also 2 capacitors on input respectively the output of 7805 in order to filter noise on the supply line.

Quote
zoltan
I was told that some people frayed their Arduinos in time due to the current consumption of servo. This is the reason why I choose to get 5V from 12V power supply of Ramps through a 7805. I connected the output of 7805 to 5V pin on Ramps and nothing else was needed to change in the connection of the servo to the Ramps. I mounted also 2 capacitors on input respectively the output of 7805 in order to filter noise on the supply line.

Zoltan,
Thank you for your reply. I can certainly pick up a 7805 and a couple of capacitors... What size did you use? Can I see a picture of your setup?

Issue solved thanks to Zoltan's suggestion. After an $8.00 trip to Radio Shack, I once again have a working Z-probe servo. I used a 0.33uF capacitor on the 12V input side and a 0.1uF cap on the output. I admit that I didn't bother to do any math or science to arrive at these values, but I did follow several other posts, recommendations, and schematics. This was a great solution to resurrect an otherwise fried RAMPS board, and should serve as an excellent preventative measure for those adding 5V servos.