Quote Originally Posted by HankMcSpank View Post
...You're bang on ...using pauses is not optimum, as obviously while it's erhm pausing it ain't doing anything else.
If you want to use a PIC (or any MCU for that matter) efficiently, one of the most important things to learn to do - after you have accomplished your first blinky program - is to wean yourself off using pause (blocking) type commands completely.