Arduino Dead but Ramps Alive?

I've finished the structural completion of my first Prusa Mendel and have encountered a problem with the electronics that I have been unable to solve or find information regarding.

Initially I was able to connect/upload to Arduino MEGA 2560 w/ Ramp 1.4 attached with all stepper motors installed. I had played around with the Arduino IDE software to upload the blink example script successfully. After attaching motor and steppers I then upload the Ramps 1.4 test script which then activated everything but x axis motor. I examined the board and determined that the X controller was installed opposite orientation of the other controllers on the board. I removed it, inspected the pin-out determined I had received it installed in reverse and thus reversed it. I re-attached power and usb. USB/Arduino failed to recognize. All motors activated accept x-axis. At this point the Arduino connectivity would appear as an unknown usb device as opposed to the serial port/com device that it should. I detached usb and power, counted to ten, reattached USB THEN powered on DC power. Voila X-axis begins to dance along with the others under the Ramps 1.4 test script. But now I cannot get USB connectivity between Arduino and the PC. It always registers as unknown USB device on 2 different PC's and does not register (very briefly tested) on OS X. With USB power and DC power the machine will continue to do it's test dance but that's all. If I power on DC first then connect USB still no PC connectivity, and all motors dance except X-axis again.

I cannot determine what has caused a change in connectivity. I have extensively tried the manual installation of Arudino that is prescribed but I cannot get it to register as the device and gain connectivity. Using a manual driver install I was able to get Arduino to appear on COM 4 ( was on COM 3 when it was working) but I receive a code 43 error saying the device has returned errors.

Any ideas as to why this may be occurring or how I can further isolate the issue? I should I begin removing stepper controllers and testing individually or just yank ramps off of Arduino and see if it comes back? How could Ramps interfere with Arduino connectivity?

I really appreciate any help. I'm nearing my wits end and just want my machine to do more than dance.

i would get the ramps board off and try the arduino mega on its own try getting the blink command on again see what happens etc.

iv not got a ramp board yet (on its way soon) have the sanagupolulu (or however you spell it) but i do mess around with arduinos a bit.

the ramps board its not shorting ont he USB header is it? iv had arudino addon boards before short out on this i always cover my usb port header with some sugru to insulate it just incase.

did you solder the ramps board your self or did it come assembled?

you have the stepper drivers in the correct way?

I removed the Ramps board to the same result. USB Device Not Recognized. It comes up as a Unknown USB device in device manager and when I manually install it as a Arduino board as COM 4, it gives me Code 10 "This device cannot start"

I'm using a Mega 2560 R3 and installing the according driver. To do so, since it is not x64, I'm using the Install legacy device function of device manager.

Arduino IDE does not list Com 4 as an available port. Previous to uploading Ramps test I had no problem connecting on Com3 using standard installation instructions. I have attempted using another machine and cables.

I received it pre soldered and aside from the reversed stepper controller Ramps seemed fine. Like I said, I could connect to the Arduino with no problem prior to uploading the Ramps test.

I turned the lights on and noticed some how my board is burned? Could this some how be related to the reversed stepper controller? It seems unlikely since it was capable of functioning with the ramps test still. Maybe only the USB connector is damaged and I can save the rest of the board? What could have done this? It has been covered with a Ramps board since I got it. Ahhhh man. Just ordered another while I figure this out. I got burned.

Where did you get that mega from?

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Hi,
I have the same problem with my Arduino UNO.

I loaded my sketch (It was the DIM led example) + little modifications. Everything looked OK.
The next day, when I try to use my Arduino I got an: "unknown usb device".

Since then the USB is never recognized by the PC (IT does not even show in the Device Manager). I can see that my last sketch still works, so the Board seems to be OK.
If you get an answer how to solve this problem, please let me know.

I think that maybe there is some problem with the boot-loader, so I just bought an AVR programmer at Ebay, and I will try to flash the boot-loader again (Its a long shot, but I want to know what the problem is before I start buying more boards, so I can avoid this from happening again).

If I have any news or you find how to solve the problem please let you know.
Thanks,
Adrian

Quote

"unknown usb device". [...] I think that maybe there is some problem with the boot-loader

Very unlikely. USB stuff is done by the USB-TTL adapter, the bootloader is on the ATmega it's self. Two different chips.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

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