I'm trying to get my 16F877 to talk to an Analog Devices SSM2160 (6 VCAs with an SPI interface used for audio level control in Surround systems). The PIC receives data via RS-232 thru it's USART, does a few calculations and then sets the 2160's VCA levels accordingly via SPI. Everything seems to be working OK except for SPI. I suspected some clock mode incompatibility so I wanted to change the CKP and CKE bits but found that I'm unable to change anything in the SSPSTAT register. SSPCON works ok, and I think I've got my banks ok to. I joined the source of the I/O Init part of my program. Any comments are welcome.

;******************************************************************************
; I/O SETUP
;
INIT
    bcf         STATUS,RP0
    clrf         PORTB
    clrf         PORTC
    bsf         STATUS,RP0
    clrf         TRISB
    clrf         TRISC
    movlw     b'00000000'         ; PORTB is all outputs.
    movwf     TRISB
    movlw     b'10000000'         ; PORTC : set USART Rx bit
    movwf     TRISC
    bcf         STATUS,RP0
    bsf         SND                    ; Set SPI chip select at idle.
    clrf         STATUS
    clrf         INTCON
    bsf         STATUS,RP0
    clrf         PIE1
    movlw     b'00100000'           ; Set :Rx interrupt enabled
    movwf     PIE1
    movlw     b'11000000'           ; Set :General IRQ, Peripheral IRQ
    movwf     INTCON
    movlw     64
    movwf     SPBRG
    movlw     b'00000100'            ; Set : BRGH=1
    movwf     TXSTA
    movlw     b'01000000'            ; Set : CKE (transmit on falling edge of SCK)
    movwf     SSPSTAT              ;!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PROBLEM HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    bcf         STATUS,RP0
    movlw     b'10010000'            ; Set :Serial Port enabled, Continuous Rx
    movwf     RCSTA
    clrf         SSPCON
    movlw     b'00110010'            ; Set :SSPEN, CKP bits and Fosc/64
    movwf     SSPCON
    bcf         STATUS,RP0
    bsf         Power_Led             ; Turn on Soft Power Led