Hi Richard,

I made a general purpose pcb a while ago for dil28 PICs that has breakouts for each pin and a 'shield' that sits over it for ease of changing displays (Nokia, 16x2, GLCD, etc). It has LED's via jumpers, +5 or +3v3 selection and a RE on there as well, I tried to make it as universal as possible and it's been a workhorse for a lot of testing in the past. There is also a slide switch that is program/run for ease of ICSP and isolation when done.

To eliminate any possibility of the pcb being the problem I changed to a breadboard and used my other flying lead program/run slide switch arrangement to the breadboard. Same results. Only thing I haven't tried yet is a different 1788 which I know I have somewhere but it is eluding me but I'll look up the specs and see if there is a close family member I can use in the meantime. I don't have to use the 1788 so will also explore other dil28 chips I have to get a good end result.

I'll get back to you when I have something.

Cheers,
Bill