Well, today was pretty much an unmitigated disaster.
I was trying to figure out mystery (1), so I hooked replaced the battery with a few leads to the breadboard, hooked up an amp meter and started trying stuff. First I tried the bench supply, and the booster started heating up.
Then I tried the battery, and the same thing happened. At this time I thought maybe the booster is broken, so I removed it and found that the teensy was also eating power like crazy. I thought perhaps I had a busted amp, so I took everything apart, which was a pain in the behind. I tried it again, and still it was eating power like crazy.
At this point I just about gave up and assumed everything was just toast, but then I noticed that I had the polarity backwards! I reversed the polarity, and everything started working just fine again. Gah!
Anyways, I'm taking the opportunity to clean up the ratsnest a bit by using ribbon cables, so the whole thing will be a little neater. But, and I cannot emphasize this enough: Gah!
Anyways, back to your regular scheduled programming, nothing to see here folks.
Oh, and when your stuff doesn't work: Check the polarity people!