Ive got a copy china thing mega 2560 can for the life of me get it to work
Cant seem to find the driver but any way
Im after something i can just plug and play for a board
Somthing with as many inputs and outputs
This site seems to be out of stock for most stuff
Thanks all
Do you have a link to the Mega 2560 board you bought ?
Or can you make a photo of it ? I would like to see which usb-serial chip is used.
You need a driver for every Arduino board, unless you use Linux.
Chinese clone boards are generally not what you want to go with for a "plug and play" experience - you normally have to poke at them a bit and figure out which interface chip they use, and get the appropriate drivers. And that's assuming they put a working bootloader on it, and that the board is free from design flaws (neither of which are guaranteed). For a plug-and-play experience, get an official Arduino Board (preferably the Uno). For reasons unclear to me, the Arduino official store doesn't seem to maintain stock - but official Unos can be had from reputable hobby electronics vendors.
As for making that Mega clone work, what serial chip does it use? That's what you need drivers for.
It'll be a small (SOIC-14, or TSSOP-20-something, or a small square one that you can't really see the pins on) chip near the USB connector.
The CH340G seems to be the most popular with the clones, and the drivers for that work great, even though the installer doesn't inspire confidence.
Some also use the FT232 from FTDI (or a counterfeit).
The official board uses an Atmega16u2, (a programmable AVR processor) programmed to act as a USB<->serial adapter.
Thanks for your replys
The link from fleebay
I have tried diffrent drivers then uninstalled
The board powers up red light
Connects to windows 7 unknone device tried manuly i stalling
Via device maniger
Thanks
You now need to tell us the identity of the USB chip - the small one near the USB connector.
Since it is a "clone" board, it is highly likely to be a counterfeit FT232 which the FTDI driver has deliberately disabled - in which case you need to find the utility for re-enabling counterfeit FT232s and then install the proper driver.
This would be entirely consistent with the USB being recognised (prompts pop up when you plug it in) but not characterised by Windoze.
I think that's a CH340G chip.
You need the ch341ser.exe driver from wch.cn
There is nothing wrong with that chip or the driver, but it is not officially supported by Arduino.
Peter_n:
There is nothing wrong with that chip or the driver, but it is not officially supported by Arduino.
Which is to say, not used by any official Arduino board. No actual "support" is needed - the IDE is entirely independent of the USB interface chip.
ednamole:
Ive got a copy china thing mega 2560 can for the life of me get it to workCant seem to find the driver but any way
Im after something i can just plug and play for a board
Somthing with as many inputs and outputs
This site seems to be out of stock for most stuffThanks all
You really should buy genuine Arduino boards if you possibly can. They cost a little more, but the quality is a lot better and you're supporting the people who made the whole "Arduino" thing possible in the first place.
I always buy genuine Arduino (except for two SainSmart 2560 boards which I bought specifically because they have the "old style" HC-49S PTH crystal pattern and I'm able to easily replace the inferior resonator with a superior crystal).
Krupski, since a few days, there is genuine genuine, and not so genuine genuine.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=307162.0
not so genuine genuine lol
Right i have the numbers its a
WCH (LOOKS LIKE) CH340G
NOT SURE IF ITS A ZERO OR O
the on is powerd up red and the L is flashing
When conected to laptop
Just to add i had a ch341ser usb driver last still no joy im not sure if im doing something wrong ive followed the arduino guide to set up
Then it is a CH340G, and this http://www.wch.cn/download/CH341SER_EXE.html makes it work.
I have not heard yet, that a CH340G didn't work.
After installing that driver, and connecting the Arduino clone board, do you see the serial port in the Device Manager ?
In the Device Manager, I have a "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COM3)" and I can use that in Arduino 1.6.1 without problem.
i was trying to use the older version ahhhhhhhhhhhhh last its alive muhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
now the world
thanks loads for your help i ended up copying all the files into the arduino driver folder and installing the program and there she was ether i had the wrong driver or the older version
im so happy 
;D 
now to try all the sample stuff
also can i run this board multiple inputs like a rpm input temp input and knock input and display it all to
the arduino lcd pannel ?
im trying to make a mini lsd display for my banger car lol for a project
One step at a time...
There is probably a library for rpm. Perhaps this one: FreqMeasure Library, for Measuring Frequencies in the 0.1 to 1000 Hz range, or RPM Tachometer Applications
Sometimes two libraries want to use the same hardware inside the microcontroller. Some libraries claim 100% of the Arduino.
Using rpm, temperature, knock, display... I think that is possible, but not a lot more.
Do you have a speaker (or piezo element) ? use it with 100 ohm resistor in series.
This is for example a library that claims 100% of the Arduino: http://sensorium.github.io/Mozzi/
The sound samples on their website are what the Arduino sounds with Mozzi.