My wife broke my megadrum, please help

[Synthex]

I tried booting with left key pressed, but I don't get a bootloader screen, just a blank lcd.

Your Atmega is not working well.

[Ruiner46]

Dmitri,
Thanks for the links and information. I don't understand how the Atmega could have been damaged. My megadrum was working well for 2 weeks now.

Synthex,
I may go buy a new blank Atmega today. Is it possible to load the bootloader onto the Atmega while it is inserted into its socket on the v2.8 PCB? Do you have some instructions to accomplish this? I see there is a connector labeled ICSP Atmega, so I need to build a cable to connect to this?

[dmitri]

Dmitri,
Thanks for the links and information. I don't understand how the Atmega could have been damaged. My megadrum was working well for 2 weeks now.

Synthex,
I may go buy a new blank Atmega today. Is it possible to load the bootloader onto the Atmega while it is inserted into its socket on the v2.8 PCB? Do you have some instructions to accomplish this? I see there is a connector labeled ICSP Atmega, so I need to build a cable to connect to this?

Did you check for loose soldering points/connections/breaks? As I said, Atmega should not fail for no apparent reason. It should even survive drops. Atmega may only fail if it had reverse or excessive voltage applied, has shorts on its pins or due to static electricity (which should not happen if it's already sitting in the board and covered with a case).

[Ken Forgettable]

Dmitri,

Will your wife find out if you question this gentlemans' wife?

[Ruiner46]

Well, I can't find a new Atmega locally. The only thing I can think of is that somehow my power supply shorted 5V to ground or vice versa on the usb connector. However, it seems strange that only the Atmega would be damaged. I'm going to go over the board for shorts or breaks. I talked to my wife some more and she thinks that the screen went blank while it was operating. She said something about only being able to see part of the screen while in the megadrum menu, and then it all went blank.

[dmitri]

Well, I can't find a new Atmega locally. The only thing I can think of is that somehow my power supply shorted 5V to ground or vice versa on the usb connector. However, it seems strange that only the Atmega would be damaged. I'm going to go over the board for shorts or breaks. I talked to my wife some more and she thinks that the screen went blank while it was operating. She said something about only being able to see part of the screen while in the megadrum menu, and then it all went blank.

She's not telling the truth, improve your torturing technique
Now seriously. Shorted 5V might have damaged the USB port but should have not damaged Atmega.

somehow my power supply shorted 5V to ground or vice versa on the usb connector

How is your MegaDrum powered? Do you use an external power supply? Could it be that you messed up power wires and you accidentally routed more than +6V to the board? In such a case there is a possibility that some MCU's survive (like your PIC, but it may now be partially broken, e.g. some pins may not work) and others die.
Follow the links I posted above and try to find short/breaks/incorrect voltages and so on.

[Ruiner46]

There is no way that the board received more than 6V. My power supply was a cell phone brick that had a mini-usb connector on the end and I soldered a female type A usb connector on it to power from the usb cable. I checked the 16MHz crystal and it is oscillating at 16MHz. I probed some pins on the keyboard connector and found many logic high signals, but none of them were changing or looked like data. I think the Atmega died somehow.

[daddy4life85]

Maybe her playing was just that terrible and the Atmega couldn't handle anymore torture?

[dmitri]

There is no way that the board received more than 6V. My power supply was a cell phone brick that had a mini-usb connector on the end and I soldered a female type A usb connector on it to power from the usb cable.

Did you measure voltage on the power supply?

I checked the 16MHz crystal and it is oscillating at 16MHz.

How did you check it?

I probed some pins on the keyboard connector and found many logic high signals, but none of them were changing or looked like data.

All keyboard related pins always stay high unless buttons are pressed.

I think the Atmega died somehow.

[Ken Forgettable]

I tried to load firmware without being able to see the lcd, but MCT gives sysex error message when I try.

It's a bit of a catchall but what was the error message?

PS. There's a recent post here for a 16MHz build which should work with a functioning bootloader - if your lucky:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=608&start=40