Tom, To be honest, I've never used the code on 8052.com to drive an LCD, I have already been there, done that, sworn a lot, done something else and got it all working in the end.

If you use it in 8 bit mode, its pretty easy to drive, I wonder if
a.) The LCD is working.
b.) If you have it connected properly

c.) Have you just copied the code in the tutorial ? I have a vague memory that George McCayev posted an erratum a few months ago on it.

Do you ohave a known good LCD you can compare results with ? It does sound like you have a more fundamemntal problem than just the busy flag read. What is your initialisation sequence ?

Steve