Tom,

In my line of work, I normally communicate with the PIC MCU via parallel mode (8-wire). Recently I have switched from using the Assembly language to PIC Basic pro.

The MSComm control that ships with VB6 sounds like the control that you would need to use (a sample of how to use this application is on the VB6 CD as well as MSDN CD). You would use the MSComm1.Open command to open a comm-link between the MCU and VB.

There is an event called OnComm. When this event fires, read using the MSComm1.Input command.

Another possiblity is to use the GreenLeaf CommX control which allows for more control over the comm port (http://www.greenleafsoft.com). I have used this control with great success over the past five years.

One thing that I have found to be extremely helpful while debugging serial comms applications has been to use either Hyperterminal or ProComm to test communications from the MCU end.

Hope this has helped somewhat.