So I had a bit of a surprising event just now. Was going through my normal print cycle, and my printer (a DIY job but roughly analogous to a Wilson) had just finished preheating and had started head movement when it stalled, communication dropped with my computer, and I smelled smoke. I immediately pulled power, let everything cool down for a few minutes, then tried to power things on... no dice, I don't get lights on the RAMPS 1.4 board or communication with the computer. Interestingly enough, I *do* get lights on the Mega itself - the bootloader is running, it's just not communicating.
Investigating the board, there's a bit of a crater in the 1117 power regulator next to the DC jack. Does the RAMPS get its power through that regulator? How about the USB Serial chip on the Mega?
The regulator itself is easy enough to replace, $0.50 part from Digikey, but I don't know if fixing that is likely to completely fix things or if it's likely only one part of a bigger issue. I'm also curious if anyone has an idea what might have suddenly caused this. I've been using this set of electronics for about 2 months with no issues, probably 200 hours total print time. The only thing that has changed recently is a larger, heavier bed - but the power for that should be coming from the ATX power supply rather than through the Mega.
