Arduino Mega problem

Using Arduino Installation & Troubleshooting
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Hi!
I'm new here and having trouble with my arduino mega 2560. I'm ready to by a new one but I thought that I should check with the pro at this forum first before bying a new one.

Anyway, thing is I thing I think I have short-circuited my mega board. It happens when I started my new led lightning system. In the box, where the mega is placed, was a loose cable that somehow short-circuited the board (I think that). There was some "smoke" coming from/near the usb port and I shut the board down.
At the time, I was running the board with 9v.

After that I did try to connect it again but it did not work.

I then took the board to the computer and tried to clear the eeprom but it do not pass the "upload". It got stuck there.
When I check the computer I can find the port it is connect to (com3)
After that I have done loop-back test and it passed the test.
So, what else can I do before I buy a new one? Can I make another test to see if the chip is burnt or something? The thing is that no part get hot when I plugged it in the computer and the power led and the yellow/orange led under port 13 and ground is on. The RX led is also flashing.

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Please, can someone help me with this. I'm totally new at this kind of stuff and my english writing skills is not so good I'm afraid but I do hope that you understand what I mean.

//Patrik

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You fried the board. It could be the power circuit or the ATmega2560 itself.

I can think of one more test, but you need a programmer.
With a programmer and the ICSP header, you could try to connect to the ATmega2560.

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ok. So I guess I have to buy a new board then...I suspected that.
I don't realy understand the part about programmer and ICSP header but it feels that it would easier to just buy a new one instead. I'm totally lost when it comes to arduino I'm afraid :~
Anyway, thanks for you reply.

//Patrik

4

Normally a sketch is upload with the (virtual) serial port via the use.

The ICSP header are 6 pins. They are used for example to program a bootloader. But also a sketch can be uploaded via those 6 pins. But is programmer is needed for that. The programmer can be a USBasp programmer from Ebay for a few euros/dollars or even another Arduion board.

If you become an advanced user of Arduino, as some point you might want to use that.

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