thorargent:
In the same vein, I have a similar question but not so technical. I ended up blasting the analog channels and now I get "processor out of sync" and it won't accept a program or run the existing one. Clearly this is bad. If I install a new Atmega328 chip on the card, (assuming that nothing else is destroyed), can I program it in-situ using the Arduino software and get a working unit once more? Just curious. The chips are only a couple of bucks versus a new card being 20-30 dollars.Thanks.
Yes, assuming no other components got zapped a simple replacement of the 328p chip will get you operational, that's one of the greatest advantages of a arduino board that uses a socketed DIP uP chip. However to save you some greef if you haven't already learned how to burn bootloaders onto blank chips or if you don't own a hardware programmer or a second functioning arduino board I would suggest you buy your chip with a bootloader already burned into the chip for just a few dollars more. SparkFun has them as well as other speciality vendors.
Lefty