Hi Bob,

Thanks for the update. Hindsight is perfect, as we all know. In this case, it shows that if you had been using an oscilloscope instead of the funky serial port monitor to look at the Tx pin on your micro, you would have seen immediately that something was coming out.

Then (again with the oscilloscope) you could have easily measured the bit times and determined that the baud rate was off, which would have led you directly to the crystal and/or the timer settings as the place to look for problems.

I think this just reinforces what you and Jan and Andy have already noted. Supply yourself with tools that are simple and sharp, and then be sure to select the right one for the job at hand.

-- Russ