Only backlights on my screen [SOLVED]

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Hi all,
I bought a Makerbuino kit during last Rome Maker Faire, at the beginning of december.
I planned to give this kit to my children, as a present for Santa Claus.
We started together to solder and assemble few days ago and we encountered a problem at step 12: turning on Makerbuino, we had only backlights on the screen.
After some googling about this problem, I decided to continue assembling and soldering all the components in order to see if it could be a problem o contrast, without any result.

This evening, I finally try to follow the way suggested by Albert in Step 12 ->it doesn't work [SOLVED] to check if it could be the case of a blank ATmega: I connected Makerbuino to my pc via the usb adapter and tried to upload the following program (to be honest, I don’t know if the code makes sense… it was only a try to upload some program):

// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}

The uploading did not finish. Here are the error messages I received:
Arduino:1.8.5 (Windows 10), Scheda:“Arduino/Genuino Uno”

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6b
Problema di caricamento sulla scheda. Guarda http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload per suggerimenti

So, do you think it is the problem of blank ATmega?

Just another info: in my kit I found 2 voltage regulator (3.3V voltage regulator MCP1702-3302E) and no 2n2222 general purpose NPN transistor. I spent one hour to check the tiny text printed on the voltage regulator in order to be sure they were exactly the same component. So, I bought by myself and used a PN2222A transistor.

I look forward to receiving some news from you.

Thanks in advance.

Raffaele

Hi all,
I tried to burn the bootloader using my Arduino Uno as ISP, following the steps suggested by thread Step 12 ->it doesn't work [SOLVED] and by link https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/installing-an-arduino-bootloader.

I used the “easy procedure” to upload code into ATmega328 but I stopped in front of this error:
Errore durante la scrittura del bootloader
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

Sadly, I cannot imagine how to proceed.
Is there someone who can help me?

Thanks a lot.

Hi,
my device shows the same behaviour when the voltage is low. After charging the lipo it works fine again. I do not know if my explanaition is right but I guess that the backlight needs less power than the processor.

@bla, if the battery is low, the microcontroller won’t work. It’s as simple as that. Thank you for trying to help @kukulo out, but this is not a problem caused by a low battery.

I’ve spoken with @kukulo via email.This is most likely not a case of a blank microcontroller as it was a one-time manufacturing problem from August 2017.

I’ll mark the topic as solved and solve the problem directly with @kukulo via email.