Thanks, actually where i went wrong on the reynolds example was the cmcon0 register was incorrectly set for the 16f684 (needed update from melabs 2.45 --> 2.45a)

so i have a program that seems to read the 12 bit temperature from the ds18b20 ... only one problem, when i convert from twos compliment it reads garbage, but if i leave the data as is and output it, it makes perfect sense, accurate as well as i can tell without a full blown calibration and its responsive to stimuli (body temp and soldering iron)

now I usually follow the motto in electronics 'if it works, don't ask' (i only have a year of electronics from university and i never covered microcontrollers, so its a good motto) but i find this disconcerting. Any ideas why this set-up would read the data in this way? I have attached the code but nothing i can see in it reverses the data ?

so any ideas?

Thanks

James