Hello Malcom,

I confess the line "WRITE Bvar, WORD SetPoints(EditChannel)" doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I guess use it or not, depending on if you want non-volatile storage of the data. Just wait until *after* all the serial data is received as writing to the EEPROM takes (precious) time.

Regarding sending a final acknowledgement to the PC, I probably wouldn't bother if it was working well. Primarily because it can get complicated quickly between the PC program and PIC code, and it becomes extra frustrating if you are only writing one side and someone else is on the other.

Uncle Paul's general advice for serial ports:
0. Use the hardware USART/EUSART whenever possible. The software serial routines work well enough but are far trickier because there is no buffer.

1. Never try to read serial data until PIR1.5 = 1. Otherwise there is no data to be read and the firmware will hang. You can make this an interrupt source but I generally put it as an item in the main program loop.

2. Have the PC application send initially only 1 or 2 bytes of data to get the PIC's attention (because the PIC's serial buffer is 2 bytes so you are GUARANTEED to get that much successfully). Then the PC must patiently wait for the PIC to respond.

3. When the PIC is ready to receive the clump of data ("clump" means greater than two bytes), have it send a character or two back to the PC to signify "I'm ready."

4. After the PC receives the "I'm ready" message it should immediately send the data clump.

I don't work at all with VB or other forms of BASIC for the PC so I can't say anything specific about that. I generally use Delphi or C++, make use of the PC's multi-threading and serial buffer capabilities.

Hope I'm not missing the point here...8^)

Best Regards,
Paul