"Something I see missing is any setup for the bit rate clocking."

On this part that's handled in the SPCTL register. I had set it in my code although I didn't show it in my code sample. Bauke also mentioned it and I tried tweaking it to his value and I didn't see any difference.

I'm bit-banging now and seeing the output singals I'm expecting. I'm not getting any response back from the SPI chip but it appears that is just because the prototype hardware they gave me didn't have an enable pin tied high as required by the part. They're fixing that now so hopefully I'll see some SPI data coming back here in a few minutes.

So much for going home tomorrow--looks like I'll be here at least another day. :)

Regards,
Craig Steiner