Arduino not being detected

Hello All,

I am using an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 (along with RAMPS for building a Prusa i3).
So after building it, on powering it on, things worked fine for a while with the motors moving randomly and the arduino being detected as well.
However, next time I powered the setup on for calibration, the Arduino board was not getting detected on the computer. I removed the RAMPS and tried to plug the Arduino individually (through USB port), but no success.
The Power LED, pin 13 LED , RX and TX LEDs are glowing continously. However, the computer (Windows 7) does not detect the board anymore. When I say "does not detect", I mean that it does not give "Unknown device" error nor does it make a plug-and-play sound. I cant find any devices added in the "device manager".

From a bit research we found out that some of the reasons could be:
1. Either the voltage regulator has burnt out
2. The USB chip has fried
3. The firmware has been corrupted.

Can anybody help us in providing a direction from where and how to start in singling out the correct reasons and possibly how to fix it? Is there a way to find out the possible reason on the basis of status of LEDs? Anyway to debug this?

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

P.S.
1. I am an electronics novice, so please be easy on me :-)
2. There is no abnormal heating in the board which some posts suggest could be a sign of burned up components.

The regulator is not used with USB power, so that isn't likely, and even if the firmware was wiped, the bootloader should still connect . . . have you tried the IDE? Otherwise, cable, USB chip, you have a clone USB chip and a predatory FTDI driver "Fixed it" for you, or just inherent Windows flakiness . . . .

- Tim

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2015 02:38AM by tadawson.

mega2560 uses a atmega16U2 as a USB to serial converter

some clones use ch340

its very rare to use a FTDI chip on mega2560 boards.

Hi tadaswon and Dust,

Thanks for taking out time to reply on this post.

I dont think it uses a FTDI chip.

Anyways, an update from my side. I've been reading forums and some posts instruct to upload a factory firmware using my Arduino UNO as ISP programmer.
So I've been trying that.

Will update with my findings.

Thanks again for your time :-)

If your reprogramming the atmega16U2 via ISP, that might work, if its lost its programing

But If your programming the 2560 bootloader... that wont make any diference

The computer sees the 16U2, not the 2560.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2015 01:00AM by Dust.

The point wasn't it running an FTDI chip, but if it was running an FTDI clone . . . FTDI had a version of thier driver setup to brick clone chips . . .

- Tim

@tadawson

No, your just obsessed with FTDI chips

shariqkhanfreelancer never said it had a FTDI, you did.

I've said that most mega2560 dont have FTDI chips, most have atmega16u2 or ch340

shariqkhanfreelancer has since said "I dont think it uses a FTDI chip."

Unless you know something thats not posted here please stop the FTDI talk

Hello @tadawson and @dust,

Thanks for your inputs. Being a novice I am learning from suggestions like yours, and by browsing other forums as well.
I know being a total beginner, I can ask some very noob questions, so thanks for putting up with me.

@dust You are so right saying "If your programming the 2560 bootloader... that wont make any diference"

Apparently, I hadn't read this comment of yours, before jumping the gun and trying to do the same. Since I did not have the slightest knowledge about the difference between 2560 and 16u2, I ended up trying to load the bootloader on 2560, which as you suggested did not make any difference.

So I am now off to trying to programming the atmega16u2 by following this url

The only problem is I don't have a lot of male-femae pins right now with me, so I cant connect the ICSP headers with them.

When I programmed the 2560 I had been told a alternate pin mapping :
Arduino Uno Target Mega2560

D10 (SS) Reset
D11 (MOSI) D51
D12 (MISO) D50
D13 (SCK) D52

Gnd Gnd
+5V +5V

The above mapping was easy to do using simple wires and did not require male-female jumpers.

I am still looking for a similar mapping for programming the atmega16u2 , as I dont have the jumpers. I tried scouting in the elctronics sho[s here. But being in a small city the shops over here dont have these. I will have to order these online but they may take 3-4 days to come.
So I was hoping for an alternate mapping

Any ideas?

Quote
Dust
@tadawson

No, your just obsessed with FTDI chips

shariqkhanfreelancer never said it had a FTDI, you did.

I've said that most mega2560 dont have FTDI chips, most have atmega16u2 or ch340

shariqkhanfreelancer has since said "I dont think it uses a FTDI chip."

Unless you know something thats not posted here please stop the FTDI talk

Please consider reading *and* actually understanding what I wrote before you bleat and embarrass yourself . . .

I said that *IF* he ended up with an FTDI *CLONE*, that there was a predatory Win* driver *from* FTDI that could cause the symptoms he is seeing . . . just another data point to consider. And note closely that 'FTDI Clone' =//= 'FTDI Chip'

- Tum

@tadawson and @Dust,

Hey guys, I believe both of you are trying to help me out and in the process there has been some confusion. I did not mean to create any rift out there. I am sorry if any of my posts caused any confusion.

Back to my problem, so I tried different steps for verifying and uploading the firmware on atmega16u2, and it preety much looks like it is fried.

So, I have another question here:
I have another working Arduino UNO, which I can use as ISP tp upload the "Marlin firmware" on the Arduino Mega.
But is it possible to use the printer without connecting the Arduino Mega to the laptop, given that its USB interface has gone bad.
I am also thinking how would I use "Pronterface" in such a situation.

Any ideas?