Arduino Board Startup Problems

[Bill]

I am using a Arduino Mega 2560 Board connected to a Windows Vista-64 computer. Everything says it downloaded and installed correctly. When I connect the USB cable there is a Red LED that comes on. It is located just above the reset switch (Button). The L, TX & RX LED's do not light up or blink. When trying to upload the file "Blink", to test the system, I get. what appears to be a freeze in the upload process. A bright flash comes from the red L LED followed by a dim steady light from this LED. The green RX LED blinks about every 10 seconds. The upload never appears to become complete. Any Ideas?

[Rayne Lang]

I would start by checking the 'tools' menu to make sure that you have the right board type selected. I have an Uno and a Mega and when I forget to switch them bad things always happen to me. What version of the Arduino software are you running? 0023 or 1.0?

[Bill]

It says I am running version 1.0.1.   I do have the Mega 2560 board selected.

[Jay Couture]

Bill, does thew W compile (the Play button) ok? And if so, are you closing the Arduino software completely before trying to connect with Pronterface?

[Bill]

Jay, this the example that comes with the Arduino Software. There is no other Software involved.

[Rayne Lang]

Hmmm... I would try redownloading and installing the arduino software and drivers.. They are pretty small files so it should not take long.

On Friday, August 10, 2012 7:44:41 AM UTC-5, Bill wrote:

[Jay Couture]

• Have you looked at the arduino.cc Getting Started and Troublshooting pages?
• http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#toc19

From the Arduino Forum: http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,117820.0.html

[Bill]

I have redownloaded and installed the software. I have read the Troubleshooting pages. Nothing works. It makes me think the board must be defective.

[Joshua Wills]

Bill, after a failed upload, try manually killing the avrdude.exe
process in task manager, and then try to upload again. I've seen
these issues before, and it is almost always to do with the
computer/software side, not hardware. One hardware thing to try is to
remove the RAMPS board from the Mega, and try uploading the firmware.

[Bill]

The RAMPS Board is off of the Arduino Board. I killed the program using task manager, no change. I was just trying to make sure the Arduino Board worked before hocking it up to anything. Uploading "Blink" to the board is the way Arduino suggest to start. The message is sent but there is never a reply. See the message sent by verbose output during upload below.

 

Binary sketch size: 1,632 bytes (of a 258,048 byte maximum)

C:\Users\*user name*\Documents\arduino-1.0.1-windows\arduino-1.0.1\hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -CC:\Users\* user name * \Documents\arduino-1.0.1-windows\arduino-1.0.1\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -v -v -v -patmega2560 -cstk500v2 -P\\.\COM4 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:C:\Users\* user name *~1\AppData\Local\Temp\build1884825788886183305.tmp\Blink.cpp.hex:i

 

avrdude: Version 5.11, compiled on Sep  2 2011 at 19:38:36

         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/

         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

 

         System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\* user name *\Documents\arduino-1.0.1-windows\arduino-1.0.1\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

 

         Using Port                    : \\.\COM4

         Using Programmer              : stk500v2

         Overriding Baud Rate          : 115200

avrdude: Send: . [1b] . [01] . [00] . [01] . [0e] . [01] . [14]

avrdude: Recv:

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: Send: . [1b] . [01] . [00] . [01] . [0e] . [01] . [14]

[Joshua Wills]

If the Mega came from us with a kit, it had firmware on it already,
meaning that I was able to connect to it and upload at least once.

[Bill]

The board came from you in a kit. The package had been cut open. I assume that was from you loading the firmware.

[Joshua Wills]

It was. If you have not been able to upload Blink, the firmware may
still be on there.

[Bill]

It should be, I haven't done anything that should have erased it. I just can not get it to work!!! Any ideas on what is wrong?