i think the led works fine, it seems too, i havent actually timed it to make sure its correct. the lcd is a serial lcd, and it just shows wierd characters. the same as if i cahnge the baud rate. i was thinking it might have something to do with my crystal being off, but i have tried a couple, with a couple different chips. i will try playing around with the timing and baud rate and see what i can come up with.