Just wanted to write up a quick update on my bi-directional LED project.

I’ve switched to a more ‘fitting’ microcontroller, the pic16f737, which has eleven ADC ports on it, although i’m only able to use ten.

after scaling up my code from four adc to ten adc inputs, and changing a few other things around, I compiled the code for the 737, and loaded it on. The 737 isn’t as nice as the 876a, the biggest drawback is it cannot self-program. Which means I have to use an eeprom programmer every time I want to update the firmware, instead of just flashing the firmware update serially.

Of course, the program initializes OK, but is not sending the data. I’m not sure if it is not reading the data correctly from the ADCs, not passing it into the transmit buffer, or not timing the transmits correctly. Whatever the case, I need to debug. This is where my current problem comes into play. I cannot get any useful data out of the hardware serial port, regardless of how slow a baud rate I choose. It appears to be a problem with my compiler and a recent update. I’m currently exploring that over on another forum.

Needless to say, once I get my debugging output fixed, I’ll be able to quickly (i hope) identify the source of the no-data problem, and be on my way to building a very large led array.