Hi Ed,
First, I am sorry it has taken me this long to respond.  When I managed
to get the first prototype operating correctly, I was simply turning on
the LED whenever the PIC entered the data received interrupt routine and
turning it back off when the interrupt routine finished.  This DID work,
however there was noticeable flicker in the LED.  What I wanted was for
the LED to be constantly on whenever data was being received.  My
solution (or so I thought) was to use one of the timers.  Every time the
data received interrupt routine was called, I would reset the timer 1
counter. This would prevent the timer 1 interrupt from being called.  If
the DMX data stream WAS interrupted, then the timer would "time-out" and
the timer interrupt routine would turn off the LED.  However, the LED
continues to flicker.  For some reason the timer interrupt is being
called, that is the part I haven't figured out.  I haven't given up
though, I am continuing to work on this problem and am trying to develop
a method of detecting the break that doesn't involved use of the 9th data
bit.  This would allow for the detection of real framing errors, although
I don't believe the DMX512 spec defines any error detecting/correcting
procedures, so this may be a moot point.  By all means, go ahead and try
this method.  I am here to learn as well, so if you discover anything
new, please post it on the list.  After reading your message, I went back
and looked at my code and realized that I hadn't finished commenting the
interrupt handler.  As soon as time permits, I will correct this and post
a new file.  I will be sure and send another message to the list when I
get this done.

All for now,

--------------------------------------------------------
Kelly Kohls
Amateur Radio Callsign : N5TLE
Home E-Mail Address: kkohls@juno.com
Homepage URL: www.qsl.net/n5tle
--------------------------------------------------------

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