APM 2.8 No heartbeats or drives

Hello,
I have an apm 2.8 (arducopter 2.8) and I am trying to connect it to mission planner. When I look under the connections only com 1 appears I don’t see arduino mega 2560. I have tried com 1 hundreds of times and it doesn’t work. When I look under my computers drivers arduino mega 2560 don’t appear either. Does anyone know of any drivers? I am running windows 10. Also instead of connecting my apm 2.8 to mission planner can I just connect an RC controller without having to connect it to my computer?
Thank you!