Hi Dj

You do not need to force the values to Hex, instead you need to convert the HEX values to word. Since PBP does not support a function like VB does, you need to build this code. A simple routine to convert a hex character to byte would be

Code:
' expects a HEX character with capitalized A-F values
Hex2Bin:
    Hexchar = Hexchar - "0"          ' remove the value of ascii 0 (30H)
    if Hexchar > 9 then  Hexchar = Hexchar - 7   ' convert A-F to 0a-0Fh
    return
Now, you would do this 4 times once for each nibble in the word you are converting and get your Hex word like this

Code:
   WordVal = 0                              ' start with a val of 0
   read a hex character to HexChar
  gosub Hex2Bin
  WordVal = WordVal * 16 + HexChar
   read a hex character to HexChar
  gosub Hex2Bin
  WordVal = WordVal * 16 + HexChar
   read a hex character to HexChar
  gosub Hex2Bin
  WordVal = WordVal * 16 + HexChar
   read a hex character to HexChar
  gosub Hex2Bin
  WordVal = WordVal * 16 + HexChar
Now, WordVal would contain the 16 bit representation of the 4 character Hex String