Hey just bought a ATMEGA1280. Installed arduino software. plugged in that bad boy into my windows pc using the supplied usb cable and NOTHING. No lights notta. Vista didn't even tell me there was a new device to install. WTF over!
I have a vista and it took me 1 hour to unzip the whole file and if you have a usb 2.0 on your computer use it then open up the program and make sure you have the correct serial port selected.
That could be:
Bad usb port on the PC giving no +5vdc power output
Bad usb cable
Bad mega board
The power light on the board should light as long as there is some voltage available from either the USB connector or the external power connector. Perhaps you could attach a 9volt battery to the external power connector (positive center pin) and see if the power lite on the board lights up. If it does then you might want to try another PC or usb port or different usb cable. No software either on the PC or the mega board is required to just have the power light come on the mega board, just valid voltage.
Lefty
Did you get the 75.00 kit off makershed it should of came with a get started book.
no got mine from hong kong on ebay. no manuals
Feel free to ignore MakerMann and listen to retrolefty.
Retrolefty is on the right track, debug the power situation first, this isn't a software issue.
Where the kit is from is also irrelevant, even knock-offs from china are supposed to work (the exact same way as the 'official' one even), nor does it require a USB 2.0 port.
May I ask a silly?
When you say "Installed arduino software", what exactly do you mean?
The Arduino IDE Software? The communication drivers for the board? Both?
I hope you meant both. Arduino boards do need drivers installed before the system sees them, especially if is Windows is your platform.
Yeah i bought the Arduino experimenter's kit from Solarbotics. It works well. I tried the supplied usb cable with the ATMega 1280 i had before and that one is working as well. I guess it was just the USB cable. Thanks guys