My Alexmos controller died, so I thought I would replace it with a "Martinez" board. I bought one, and there was simply no way it would communicate using the GUI. I am running Windows 7 and had the drivers loaded. Windows found the board ('COM 16"), and the GUI even reported that it was 'connected' - but there were no updates to the 'live' screen.

So I thought that I would reload the firmware. Every time I tried to load the code (over USB) I got the AVRDUDE "out of sync" message. And yes, I had the correct COM port selected.

I thought that there might be no bootloader in the chip, so I connected an AVR programmer. But it didn't work either. I forget the error message right now.

So, I thought I must have a bad board. I bought another. When I hook it up using USB (only) and motors disconnected, I get the red LED in the middle of the board (only) and it will not communicate over USB. The proper COM port is selected.

I'm at wit's end. What should I try next?