Phil,

You are a genius! I have no idea how you figured out my mistake. But yes, I connected the Tx to Tx and Rx to Rx. Seemed totally logical to me, and sadly still sort of does. Now that I flipped them as you suggested, it works and "Hello World" repeats over and over on the laptop. Sweet!!! I will play around with a faster xtal later and report back, and I am still looking into the Max232 as per Dave's suggestion.

More reading to do, but first have to clean the house up for New Years, although I would rather play with this.

Thanks again!
Patrick

Quote Originally Posted by Sherbrook View Post
Re:- Blue LED dims - check your breakout board connections

Breakout board Tx pin goes to PIC Rx pin
Breakout board Rx pin goes to PIC Tx pin

If you have connected Tx to Tx and Rx to Rx it would explain why the blue LED dims

Phil