Do i have to use max232??

[mister_e]

quick test, remove all your timeout label, delay and such and redo the test.
if it's working, increase them.

case not... i'll prefer to use the internal USART.

[MaurI]

The problem might be much simpler than you think!
1)Are those PICs on separate PCBs?
2)Do they have separate power supplies?

My Idea is if the answers are yes and no then you should join the grounds together. You must join the pics with the signal wire and a ground wire.

When I was younger and just started with electronics that was my problem, I connected the ground and everything started to work!!

[Dwayne]

Hello SubZero,

I would start as Steve says...Remove all.

I would do the following... In somewhat this order.

1. The slave (receiving chip).

(WITHOUT USING SERIN)

1. Blink a light on each of the pins that will control your LCD. (Portb).

You can do this by the following psuedo code:

TRISB=%00000000 ' assigning all Portb as output.
Loop:
port b=255
pause 100
portb=0
pause 200
goto Loop

this verifies that your Slave chip is working correctly on the output, and it gives you confidence that your LCD will be driven by all pins of Port B. It is not a GUARANTEE, but a big vote of confidence.

2. Attach LCD and (WITHOUT USING SERIN) Print "Hello Word" on the LCD.

This gives you the confidence that the Slave IS working, and that the LCD IS working...


If either of the above 2 things I have said cannot be done... you had better drop everything and MAKE the above two things happen!...Either that, you are wasting your time.


Master Chip.

Same as above.. You had better BLINK the LED's on the pins you are using to send... If you use PortA.0, you had better be able to BLINK a LED on PORTA.0!!!! If you can't blink a LED on PortA.0, then don't go ANY FURTHER!!!! Why is it not blinking??? Is it because you didn't turn off the comparitors? Assign it to Digital? Use the proper TRISA of %00000001 ?

IF the pin you are going to use, blinks a LED, lets go to the next step

Use the simplist of ALL SEROUT commands.... instead of going though the next steps, that link I gave you will take you through using the SEROUT and scoping it.

==================

Now, with master chip working... lets reprogram the Slave with a SERIN command... no thrills.... just like the link....

=====================

You should be able to get communication between the chips...from here on, you add LITTLE by LITTLE, and fall back upon something that WORKS.

Try adding a timeout label and loop it back...make sure it works...

============================

Remember, you are experiementing, and sometimes its better to take a small nibble off that loaf of bread, than biting off more than you can chew or swallow.

Many times I have reverted to the Nibble technic...In programming, I sometimes look through 200,000 lines of code...Much if it I can ignore...But when that paticular "error" or "failure" occures, I must sometimes look through each line of code, and sometimes each variable of each line!

Dwayne

print hello to the LCD.