[Alan Anderson]

What you describe sounds like what happens when you connect the motor to the Talon's power inputs and the power to the Talon's motor outputs. If they re connected properly now, maybe someone has wired them in reverse in the past and fried them.

The orange/red blinking LED usually indicates low voltage, high temperature, or a shorted FET. It's supposed to stay disabled if it's in that fault state, but if a transistor is shorted there's no guarantee that it won't provide power to the motor.