One possible solution... >Could anyone help me with a means of deriving a delay of between 5 seconds & >5 minutes. >I'd like to use a 16c56..is this possible? Short of using a VERY slow clock, how about putting a 555 timer pulsing once every, say, 5 seconds onto the RTCC input pin? A 555 with a period of 5 seconds is not extremely accurate, but I assume that when you are timing something to 5 minutes extreme accuracy is not critical. You might want to use one of the new CMOS versions of the 555 timer (the original 555 design tends to be noisy on the power lines). If you do use a 555, be sure to put a bypass capacitor at its power terminals. Todd Peterson =========================================================== *** Developers of the PICPlus(TM) Microcontroller Board *** Todd Peterson, Computer Engineer (tpeterson@netins.net) E-LAB Digital Engineering, Inc. P.O. Box 246 Lawton, IA 51030-0246 (712) 944-5344 Visit us at: http://www.netins.net/showcase/elab/ E-Mail Now for Your Free PICPlus(TM) Information Packet! TO: tpeterson@netins.net (include POSTAL mailing address) ===========================================================