LCD no backlight, first row blocks, second row empty

[thisisit]

I have successfully assembled one in the past, but unfortunately I damaged it.
Now I am assembling another one, however I am having problems with it.
so I partially assembled one with all components except the Ethernet connector (ENC28J60 was soldered), and the LCD is not working, I don’t want to solder the ethernet connector now because it is the only one I have in hand. So I am wondering for the code to run, do I have to solder the ethernet connector?

I can use ISP to program no problem
I can use the updater to update to 2.1.6 no problem
then when I turn it on, LCD has no backlite and only first row shows blocks and second row empty.

I also tried the minimal components, first only soldered ATMEGA1284P and it’s components, then used ISP to program bootloader, it was successful.
Then I put the USB to serial on and updated the firmware to 2.1.6 using the updater, it was also successful.

Then I connected the LCD, nothing shows up, no backlite and both rows are empty.
then I soldered 24AA04BT and DS1037 and it’s components, connected LCD, still nothing, no backlight no blocks on both rows.

So is it supposed to run even without other components?
I checked the voltage on the LCD, VSS/RS is connected to GND and pin 15 and pin 2 are 5v. VO (pin 3) is 0V.

I was looking at the code I saw these:

DEBUG_BEGIN(9600);
DEBUG_PRINTLN(“started.”);

so where can I see the debug print?

Thanks

[Ray]

To debug, plug in a USB cable connected to your computer, and launch a serial monitor. This is the same as how you see serial printout on an Arduino. So perhaps you can take a look at a couple of Arduino serial tutorials.

[Author]

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