www.megadrum.info

Hi all,
I need some help troubleshooting my megadrum. I had a functional megadrum based on Synthex's v2.8 kit. All was working well until my wife tried to play rockband with the drums while I was at work. Now when I plug in the usb cable (powered from usb), all I get on the LCD screen is the backlight, with nothing appearing on the screen. I've tried adjusting contrast, I'm not getting anything. When I plug megadrum into my computer, it identifies correctly as a usb audio device, but I can't get any MIDI output from megadrum whatsoever. The MIDI light never flashes, it is just dead in the water. What can I test?

Oh, and btw, I tried powering up with right button held with no luck. There's no telling how many buttons my wife pressed. How do I tell if the firmware was erased?

Tested power all over the place and it is fine at 3.3V. Can't find any shorts, breaks, or anything out of the ordinary. I made sure that the R lcd measured the correct value at the lcd connector. I will check the crystals tomorrow when I have access to a scope. The usb power supply that I was using is kind of suspect, and could possibly have shorted USB power to ground. I'm thinking that the Atmega could be dead. I tried to load firmware without being able to see the lcd, but MCT gives sysex error message when I try.

Questions:
If my wife, in her fury, booted up the megadrum holding the left button and then pressed a combination of other buttons, could she:
erase the firmware?
erase the bootloader?
make the Atmega unresponsive by somehow changing the expected clock frequency or something?

Is there any way to definitively tell if any of these IC's are damaged?

Sounds like she could have adjusted the contrast down

Try when it's booted up press right once and then hold the up button.

It's a long shot but hey why not?

Believe me, I must have tried that 20 times by now.

Hmm darn... haha

She might have booted it with the key LEFT pressed, entering bootloader, and then pressing DOWN thus erasing MegaDrum firmware.
Just load the firmware again via the bootloader.

I have tried using MCT and it is not working. How can I be sure that the Atmega is still communicating? I still get a blank lcd when I try to enter the bootloader menu.

Could someone post step by step instructions using MIDI-Ox? I tried to send firmware sysex using MIDI-Ox, but I'm not sure that I'm doing it correctly. When I try to send the sysex, it seems like it hangs for a long time, and then nothing happens. Should megadrum send back any kind of confirmation?

I tried booting with left key pressed, but I don't get a bootloader screen, just a blank lcd. Since I still get usb audio device when I plug into my computer, that means the PIC is still working correct? How can I test the Atmega to see if it is still alive?

Your PIC is all right.
Instructions for firmware update using MIDI-OX are in this thread: http://www.megadrum.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=111
But if you cannot enter bootloader, you won't be able to update the firmware. Check for all cable connections and that Atmega sits properly. Atmega should not fail for no apparent reason.
Also see:
http://www.megadrum.info/forums/viewtop ... 569&p=6727
http://www.megadrum.info/forums/viewtop ... 6331#p6331

Torture your wife to reveal what she did to the module!