> Does anyone know how to get this small chip to communicate with a
> serial port. All I want is a program that will send a simple
> character, like a 'a', through the serial port. I want this so I can
> build some kind of serial test for visual basic.
> If anyone knows can they please tell me, or can they give me an
> address of someone who will be able to help.

There is an article in the MAY issue of Nuts and Volts magazine called:
RS-232 Analog Input.

They connect a PIC 16C54 directly to a RS-232 port with a few resistors and a
transistor.   The code for the project is offered to the public at the Nuts
and Volts webb site.  http://www.nutsvolts.com/  If you decide to download
this file, you need to log into the site then choose the MORE icon on the
left. When this page loads choose the FTP LIBRARY icon. When this page loads,
page down until you see the file called RS-232.ZIP.  This file contains all
the code for the PIC 16C54 and the Basic programs for the pc.

I know you want it for a 16C84 but maybe this will help.

The software to communicate with the port on the pc side is Qbasic.  With
some fiddling you could probably change it to Vbasic.
This project is set up to send control characters and regular characters back
and forth to the PIC, and from the PIC back and forth to an 12 bit ADC chip.

Hope this helps.....................

Rich