Trying to update firmware, now my Megadrum is a BRICK

[NolaDrummerBoy]

I have a 32 input megadrum built on Synthex's V2.8 kit with Atmega32 16mhz, PIC18LF2550, and usb only (no 5pin midi ports or dedicated psu).

It worked fine until today. I downloaded elrules' MCT, and when I started it, it prompted me to update the firmware to the latest version. I rebooted while holding the left button, selected 16mhz clock speed, pressed the down button, and clicked OK on MCT. It gave me an error message. I tried it several times with no luck.

Now when I turn the megadrum on, whether I hold the left button or not, I go straight to the update firmware page, but nothing I do works. All the buttons work correctly and I have verified that the left button is not sticking. I tried downloading the firmware directly from this site and uploading it via MidiOx, and no success there.

I read this page:
http://www.megadrum.info/content/programming-mcus
but don't really understand the principle, nor am I sure that I need to do this.

I have tried using MCT on a WinXP machine and Mac OSX 10.4.....the mac won't recognize the megadrum at all, and although the PC will, I can't find any success.

I am very frustrated because I don't get what is going on here and I don't want to become a programmer just to update the firmware. That said, I love my megadrum and don't think I could go back to another TMI, so.......

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP FIX THIS DAMN THING!!!!

thanks in advance.

[kurtus420]

You need to follow the update procedure listed at the bottom of the page from the link that you posted. In midiox make sure you follow those steps to the "T" and you shouldn't have a problem. Whats happened I think is that you have sent the erase firmware command but mct is not able to update as of yet using synthex's kit with the v4 bootloader. You need to configure midiox then send the erasesysex followed by the newest firmware update. Hope this helps. Kurt

[Ken Forgettable]

.....the mac won't recognize the megadrum at all, and although the PC will, I can't find any success.

+ Have you got a resistor on pin 26 of the PIC as discussed here?

+ What bootloader version are you using?

[dizzib3]

Don't know if this helps but when I tried to update to 20090718 megadrum would just sit there after I sent the sysex over midiOX, then my machine would reboot by itself 5 minutes or so afterwards . The weird thing is that it would update to 20090504 just fine using the exact same technique, and this on a machine running Server 2008 x64.

In desperation I tried my Acer Aspire 1 netbook and for some reason it updated just fine using MidiOX in Windows XP. Black magic!

[NolaDrummerBoy]

well I don't know what happened, but it eventually worked. I finally decided I was going have to make up a cable and reprogram the chips, so off I went to Radio Shack for parts. Upon my return I decided to try updating once more through MCT and it suddenly worked....I did not change any settings or anything. I am glad it works, but it feels like a bittersweet victory, I still have no idea why it wouldn't update, or get out of the update screen. Thanks to you guys who chimed in to help, I am sorry that the experience has not added any knowledge to the community.

happy drumming!