Did you follow ALL of the instructions in the LEARN section? It talks about the balance charger. It seems you're having quite a lot of trouble with JD, so I think you haven't read everything. There's more to read than just the JD section, there's a load of tutorials (one of which mentions exactly what you're asking)

about that servo - if it's smoking, unplug it. Something happened (a power surge, or it was moved while powered on, etc.) which means it's broken.

B frozen, When the charger is pugged into the wall, the red light turns on. When the is robot is plugged into the charger green light turns on. The green light turns off when charged. Make sure the robot switch is off when charging.

Yea... we did the lessons then put it together. We are having a a lot of trouble.

So far its been a dud.

I'm not sure what your comments have to do with whether the batter is charging though?

Blinking lights on the charger we got that immediately.. as we were charging it before using it as the tutorial kept saying the battery needed to be charged.

So again.. are the lights supposed to be blinking?

And any thoughts on why the camera etc.. would work but not much else is appreciated?

Still hoping for the best but a little disappointed this has been such a huge pain to set up and get working.

Steve, Thanks

When the charger is plugged in the wall its a solid Red light

When the robot is plugged in both lights begin blinking together at the same time almost pulsing each second.

Thanks for the help.

Balance Charger Learn Section

This what I was pointing you to. Make sure that your plug is in a working outlet using the supplied cable and make sure your battery is plugged in the right way. The green light should be steady while charging.

B frozen, The lights on my charger stay solid. If the robot switch is off, try unplugging the robot from the charger and unplugging the charger from the wall. Now plug the charger into the wall first, after a solid red light, then plug the robot into the charger. See if that stops the light from blinking? On a different brand of charger, I had to repeat this several times until it cycled correctly.

@B_frozen, sorry your having such a hard time with JD and getting frustrated. Yes, robotics can get frustrating at times. JD is not really a snap together toy that can be plugged in and played with as soon as you power it up. I see you have finished a few lessons about calibrating JD's servos so you have already found that out. Hang in there and learn more about how this little robot works and what you need to learn to make him do what you want. It's really worth it. Learning this and overcoming problems is really a lot of what building a robot is all about. The satisfaction you'll feel when JD finally walks or waves at you will make it all worth while. Like Sudo mentioned go through all the lessons you can find in the learn section and learn how this platform works and how you can control it. You may have to recalbrate the servos to get them right.

Sadly it sounds like you either burnt out a servo or it came defective. If there was smoke coming out it I'm afraid it may be dead now but keep your fingers crossed. You may need to contact EZ Robot for a replacement.

The Battery Charging lesson says it will take about 3 hours to charge a battery. It also says that the lights should glow and not blink. If your's are blinking this does not sound normal but give it the needed time to see if the battery takes a charge. You could unplug it and then re plug it to see if that helps.

Thanks for the help.