Quote Originally Posted by aerostar View Post
"define LCD_BITS 4 'SET TO 4 BIT"


"define" should be "DEFINE" all your others were uppercase.

Manual states

These definitions must be in all upper case. If not, the compiler may not recognize them. No error message will be produced for DEFINEs the compiler does not recognize
Good catch!! Yes the DEFINE must be all in upper case as stated in the manual.