PIC16F88 senior design

[AlaskanEE]

Sorry skimask I was just trying to step gengerly in the forum since I'm new, but was trying to get my point across without ticking anyone off. I know it came off pansy, but I was playing it safe. I misunderstood what you were saying about the internal oscilator. I had skimmed the data sheet and accidentally lumped the statement "the PIC16F88 CAN be set to 20MHz" in with the preceeding paragraph saying that the PIC's internal oscilator can be set to multiple frequencies. So when you said that the DEFINE OSC command doesn't set anything to 20MHz I was confused and the sentance "so the 16F88 doesn't have an internal oscilator" should have had a question mark cause I was asking. Also I was just trying to let everyone know what I'm doing and show the code I was using so that they could comment on what I had done, if it would work or not. I wasn't trying to get everyone to write my code for me and I'm sorry for my lack of clarity on that point. Again sorry for the miscommuniactions and lack of clarity. Also thanks Adam for the suport, I just blew this up too quickly, was getting frustrated with the programming. Chalk it up to experience I guess.

[mackrackit]

I should have been a little more clear. If you want something reliable, external oscillator is a must. Being that serial communications are involved. The internals work fine but sometimes the timing will get a little off.

The oscillator you choose will need to be defined in the *.inc file for the chip you are using along with the other fuses. In the *.bas file you tell PBP what the oscillator speed is for timing. These are the same yet different.

You will find a line in the *.inc file something like this.

__config _XT_OSC & _WDT_ON & _PWRTE_ON & _BODEN_ON & _LVP_OFF & _CP_OFF

Look at the data sheet and it will tell you what each one does.