Whoops, I didn't check the specs before I blurted that out. I mean the positive supply pin. Its also an AC ground, which is all the osc caps care about. At 09:33 AM 6/12/99 -0700, you wrote: >At 09:43 AM 6/12/99 -0400, you wrote: >>With the PICs I've been using, Vcc not RTN is nearest the oscilator pins. I >>don't know if this is true the the whole PIC line, but may well be. >> >>So when I have to ground my osc caps (actually I use a resonator, same >>thing applies), I could either go the long way around to the real ground >>pin, or "Ground" these caps to Vcc. Guess what I do? Nail em right to Vcc. >> >>Vcc is an AC short to ground (what do you think all those bypass caps do?), >>and is a fine return point for the caps. My application is an accurate >>timer, so I implicitly test start-up time. I've tested these things from >>-60 to +150¡C and they start up and start pronto every time. > >Just looked at the pinouts for the 16C5xx, 5x, and 7x series. There is a >Vdd, and a Vss, but no Vcc. >Do you mean Vss, the negative-most power supply pin, or Vdd the >positive-most. I get the impression >you are talking about Vdd when you mention Caps to ground. > >On quite a few parts, Vss is immediately adjacent to the OSC pins, and Vdd >is one over. >Depends heavily on the part and package. > >kelly > >**************************************************************************** >******** >All legitimate attachments to this email will be clearly identified in the >text. >William K. Borsum, P.E. >OEM Dataloggers and Instrumentation Systems > & > >