couple questions

[hartl0602]

Well I finally got my Atmega, and Pic programmed and my Megadrum is now on speaking terms with my Computer; and it only took three days of trouble shooting and research. Now I just need to solder on the LCD, buttons, jacks and probably start a new line of trouble shooting hell. Then mount the whole thing in my newly hacked together project enclosure.

This brings me to my question, since I have yet to convert my acoustic drums to; is there a way to test to see if the jacks are communicating correctly with the main board? All I have is one transducer that I have scavenged from a smoke detector, though thinking about it I could probably scavenge a second…and wire them up to one jack for testing purposes, though that does raise another question; can I just tap on a piezo or should I put something on top of it? In addition, due to having a few trace lines and pads that lifted off of the board during soldering, I’ve been forced to run a few patch lines, what is the best way to make sure that they do not come loose? With the testors translucent green paint secure them well enough, or should I dab on a little epoxy to really be sure? Also I found mention of a bootloader in my search for information on programming the pic and megadrum, do I need this or are the new firmwares setup so to allow update via usb?

Thank you;

Sean

[dmitri]

can I just tap on a piezo or should I put something on top of it?

You can just tap on a piezo.

In addition, due to having a few trace lines and pads that lifted off of the board during soldering, I’ve been forced to run a few patch lines, what is the best way to make sure that they do not come loose? With the testors translucent green paint secure them well enough, or should I dab on a little epoxy to really be sure?

Not seeing how much you damaged traces I'd suggest using wires to repair broken traces/pads.

Also I found mention of a bootloader in my search for information on programming the pic and megadrum, do I need this or are the new firmwares setup so to allow update via usb?

You DO need a bootloader to be able to upgrade the firmware over usb. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=111

[hartl0602]

Thank you, I’ll have to reprogram my Atmega when I get home tonight, do i still need to edit the megadrum firmware or is that already done in the .syx versions?

And yes, by patch lines, I meant solid core wire. Also, one more question, is there a purpose to painting the copper side of a circuit board, or is it just esthetics?

sean

[dmitri]

Thank you, I’ll have to reprogram my Atmega when I get home tonight; and yes, by patch lines, I meant solid core wire. Also, one more question, is there a purpose to painting the copper side of a circuit board, or is it just esthetics?

To prevent oxidation.