I was tinkering with the config, and was done so screwed on the pommel, I noticed the LEDs stopped reacting properly so took the pommel off and saw smoke from BATT+ pad. I cut power, and cut the batt+ wires (led + and battery +cable) back so they weren’t burnt, and resoldered. The battery survived and seemingly so did the board. However. When I plug it into USB it works and can turn on. If I unplug it it stays on too. But when I turn it off, the status led will blink a few times as normal then turn off. Then I can’t re ignite the saber. Have I just killed the board?
It’s a 3.9 proffie
As far as I know, faulty configs never break the board and usually smoke means something is f’ed.
First thought is the hilt (or maybe the pommel?) short circuit something.
The battery likely survived because of the protective pcb inside?
Did you by chance reverse the polarity of the battery accidentally?
Can you check for a short circuit on the battery connection? Remove the battery and use a multimeter on the positive and negative connectors of the battery holder. Measure the resistance. If it’s (near) 0, there might be a short circuit.
After that:
Have you tried flashing again? Maybe go back to the state of the config before your tinkering and re flash.
Also check all the wiring just in case
Edit: with “re ignite the saber”. Do you mean powering the board? Or igniting the blade after powering the board back on?
Edit2: in what way did you turn it off? You mention status leds blinking, but that means the board is still powered? Then I assume you don’t have a kill switch to cut the power? (Or did not remove the battery?)
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say.
If you created a short of some sort, and the board doesn’t work the way it used to, then something has fried. Either in the battery, the board or somewhere in the wiring. Unfortunately, chances are high that it’s something on the board that doesn’t work properly.
It may be easy to fix, or it may be difficult to fix, depending on what it is. From your description, it kind of sounds like a broken D61 diode, but more information would be needed to be sure.
Yeah after some slightly less panicked digging. I make you right on the diode. New board time then! I’ll keep the old one if I ever decide to get a hot air station 
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so what happened is I think a wire got snagged somewhere and as I’ve screwed in the pommel, it’s partially broke a connection, and the proximity to the batt- and gnd has caused me to have an impromptu vape instead of a saber.
Next time I shall protect the batt+ and negative 
Yeah definitely D61.
Annoyingly I have a few of these boards I’ve broken where I’ve been learning. I have now one with a broken D61, and 2 with a broken amp. Would be tempted to get a hot air station and fix them all. But I wonder if it’s worth doing, or how hard it is (probably very if I’m able to break these boards with clumsiness so readily)
Replacing components isn’t overly hard.
It takes some patience, and sometimes you have to do it a few times to get it right, but that is normal.
You’ll need a hot air station, solder paste, tweezers, capton tape (for holding other components in place), magnification and some patience… (And the components of course.) As long as you’re careful and don’t overheat things, you can do the replacements as many times as it takes to get it working again. Be prepared to spend an hour or two on it the first time you do it.
Is it worth it? Up to you. It’s certainly easier to just buy a new board. 
Yeah maybe in the future. For now though there’s another board on the way, and also I seem to have forgotten I’d already ordered an LGT core with a 2.2 in it. Flashed it and it’s like nothing happened
Cheers for everything you do bud