MegaDrum 56 inputs latest schematic and PCB

[Chunky Kev]

After changing round the Capacitor that was wrong polarity as you suggested previously, now the latter is correct. It stays on first screen of menu and doesn't get to the one with 2 lines. I'll get a magnifying glass and take a really close look at board and see if there are any splits or cross connections etc.

[dmitri]

Can you navigate the menu with buttons?

[Chunky Kev]

Yep, that seems to work OK.

[dmitri]

Then for some reason you have inputs activity which prevents MegaDrum from exiting the menu.

[Chunky Kev]

I guess that means as I don't have any inputs connected that I have a bad connection somewhere then. I will have to have close look and see what I can find. Any suggestions where to start looking, or could it just be anywhere?

[dmitri]

It could be anywhere. Make sure you have the MIDI led connected - it flashes when there is input activity.

[Chunky Kev]

Well I am getting somewhere. Found it was the jack sockets/cables. I am using mono jack cables, and so the ring is also connecting the shield when i plug it in. I have a spare stereo and it seems to resolve that issue. I now get to the second part of LCD Menu, and when triggered I see the LED on the board flash, but I am still not getting an output via my midi cable to my Mac. Any ideas on that one at all? As I said before not been able to upload Hex to pic chip, could that be part of problem?

[dmitri]

If the PIC doesn't have a firmware it won't work - otherwise why would we need a firmware?

[Chunky Kev]

So how do I get it on there. Have read everything I can find and cant see a solution. I don't have parallel and serial ports so cannot do it with ISCP or ISP. PC is running windows 8, 64 bit and Pic software didn't seem to recognise USB connection. Was only going to use my mac with garage band to get audio out, as not a big mac user. Any ideas of a way I could do it, or does this seem to point to another issue with my circuit?

[ignotus]

You should be able to use the midi i/o ports of MD to send and receive midi signals to your PC and the usb just for power. You said somewhere that you had a midi-usb cable. Plug that in and your computer should detect it as a midi i/o port; choose that port in your vst host.
If you want to use the pic for midi i/o, your only option is to find another PC with a serial port to load the firmware. A usb-midi cable will not do.