I picked up a Freaduino ADK v2.2, my first Arduino (or similar), and when I couldn't get Blink to upload, ran through the normal troubleshooting, trying three different computers, three different cables, and two different operating systems. On all machines with all cables the results were the same, the FTDI USB COM port was detected, and as long as the USB cable was attached (and the device had been powered up at least a few seconds) the blue RX light flashes constantly. When I tell arduino to upload, the RX light stops flashing for a few seconds, then starts again, with the TX light flashing occasionally. But then I get the timeout error.
So I tried the loop-back test, shorted RESET to GND and RX to RX, plugged it back into the Win7 desktop, and using either PuTTY or Arduino's serial monitor, tried to talk to the serial port. Every time I sent anything (any keystroke in PuTTY, or send in the serial monitor), both the RX and TX lights would flash once, but no response was ever recieved. Same thing when I plugged it into the Ubuntu 12.04 laptop, and connected to /dev/ttyUSB0 with screen. Both lights flash, but I never get a response. (Without the RX and TX pins shorted, just the TX light flashes.)
Any suggestions as to how to either fix, or further troubleshoot this thing?