Hardware

I just purchased a Bittle for research/education a few months ago and have played with it only a few times (maybe 5-6 times). I just handed it to a mechanical engineering graduate student the other day and the battery won't charge for her. She was connecting it to her laptop USB port so I asked her to plug it into a wall. Neither is working. When I short press the button, it gives me a series of quick red flashes. When I long press the button it does nothing. We only have 3 weeks left to class and she and her group need this functional for their final project. Any immediate help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.