Oh hey, Thanks! You're exactly right the set up of my ports was the snag. I was also confused with the dataOut= and the pins on the port expander being addressed as a binary number (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128). My first go after after setting up TRIS, the port expander was counting up in binary and of course stopping because of the if dataOut >=8 then bit of code. I fixed all of that and tossed together some quick, sloppy code using a couple of FOR NEXT loops and SELECT CASE structure to get it to count up and down in proper fashion to scan the LEDs one at a time up PORTA and back down. So if I wanted to play "night rider", now I all I'd need is a black firebird Now I feel like a have a good grasp on how to talk to the MCP23S17 for the project I had originally intended it for. Thank you for the fast replies and for posting your tutorial on this part! I'll post my "blinky" code when I get back to my real PC.

Thanks again!

Ryan