www.megadrum.info

Hello every body,
(and thank you for having clicked on my "problem" )

I 've just recieved my megadrum v2.7 from the hand of an electronician who soldered it all (i don't too much trust in my soldering talent). And when i got home and pluged it via USB in my computer (with vista), 2 things happened:

The led falshed once right away.
The computer showed a message saying something like "driver installed successfully. midi device ok"

then the little problem is that there is no third thing...

You can see a picture of the megadrum at the bottom of this message.

I hope the problem is coming from the LCD (on wich nothing ever appeared right now). I've search the web about that and found out that there is a lot of compatibility problem with lcd screens.
Mine is a ECM1602A-FL-YBW
and this is what i have found about ECM1602A-FL-YBS/SP (wich i suppose is almost the same)

Specifications:

* Alphanumeric dot matrix.
* Standard Parallel data interface.
* On-board Hitachi controllers HD44780.
* Yellow-Green LED backlighting (5V DC)
* PCB dimensions: 80x36x13,5 mm
* Viewable area: 64x13,8 mm

The thing is that i don't know wether HD44780 is the same thing with H44780 (wich is the one we all need here), or if the "D" matters in some way.
the other thing is that i don't know if the backlighting has to be enabled or not (there is 2 holes on the right side waiting to be soldered on something).

Thank you very much for having read me until here.

Great day to every one.

This LCD should work without a problem. If, for some reason, it's not initialized properly you still should be able to see black squares on the screen.

thank you very much for this fast answer .
You have divided the world of possibilities i am facing into two zones. The one i could have deal with(the LCD), and a dark wide one wich only reflects the size of my ignorance (not the LCD) .

I know how this project is DIY oriented, and i do respect this ethic. It actually provides nice tools (unavailable on the market) to free every bodie's imagination (imaginations wich may be freely shared afterward ...).

So please forgive the following question:
"any idea about the problem"

davidcaudron wrote:thank you very much for this fast answer .
You have divided the world of possibilities i am facing into two zones. The one i could have deal with(the LCD), and a dark wide one wich only reflects the size of my ignorance (not the LCD) .

I know how this project is DIY oriented, and i do respect this ethic. It actually provides nice tools (unavailable on the market) to free every bodie's imagination (imaginations wich may be freely shared afterward ...).

So please forgive the following question:
"any idea about the problem"

Did You adjust the contrast potmeter ??

No i didn't. There is no pot mounted on the lcd actually. Do i have to solder a pot on the LCD ?

davidcaudron wrote:No i didn't. There is no pot mounted on the lcd actually. Do i have to solder a pot on the LCD ?

The trim potmeter on the board is for LCD contrast.

Thank you very much. I try it right now!!!!!

Thank you very much Efbe.
I've just seen the "Hello" Dimitri wrote to the world.
But, then, only something like this:
----------------
----------------
(2*16)
and i know we are suppose to see something like that:
-----------I
-----------I
(2*11 with a vertical bar at the end)

When i press right or left, nothing happens. When i press up or down it's the same.

I have to confess that i haven't pluged any piezo yet.
Can we navigate only when sensors are pluged?

Thank you for your answers (it helped a lot).

davidcaudron wrote:Thank you very much Efbe.
I've just seen the "Hello" Dimitri wrote to the world.
But, then, only something like this:
----------------
----------------
(2*16)
and i know we are suppose to see something like that:
-----------I
-----------I
(2*11 with a vertical bar at the end)

When i press right or left, nothing happens. When i press up or down it's the same.

I have to confess that i haven't pluged any piezo yet.
Can we navigate only when sensors are pluged?

Thank you for your answers (it helped a lot).

If You have the Synthex Board You will see this

----------------
----------------

representing the 32 VU meters, when You activate a piezo, You will see them move.

You should be able to use the buttons.

davidcaudron wrote:Thank you very much Efbe.
I've just seen the "Hello" Dimitri wrote to the world.
But, then, only something like this:
----------------
----------------
(2*16)

This is how it looks like with 32 inputs

and i know we are suppose to see something like that:
-----------I
-----------I
(2*11 with a vertical bar at the end)

This is how it looks like with 22 inputs.

When i press right or left, nothing happens. When i press up or down it's the same.

Check voltages on pins 6,7,8 of Atmega32. They all should be close to +5 when no keys are pressed. When you press LEFT it should read 0 on pin 8, when you press DOWN - 0 on pin 7, when you press UP - 0 on pin 6, when you press RIGHT - 0 on both pins 6 and 7.