This is really a Win98 question, so apologies if a bit OT.
I am playing with a circuit idea around my PIC 16C74/JW on my protoyping board, debugging my software (or should that be firmware?) which will drive my circuit. As I'm using PicBasic to create my program, there is a handy facility called Serout which will send data to the serial port of my PC. Its great for watching values and seeing what's going on. I have a serial link between PC & Pic which has worked well in the past, but having got it out for the first time in a while, something's not right. I am using Microsoft Quickbasic to read in the Pic data, using the lines:
OPEN "com1:9600,n,8,1,cd0,ds0,op0" FOR INPUT AS #1 CLS Again: theChar$ = INPUT$(1, #1) PRINT theChar$; GOTO Again
But when I run the prog, nothing happens. If I break the program with CTRL-Break and run it again (F5), it bursts into life and all is well. MSQ-Basic is being run under Win98SE. I have tried messing with the Com1 settings in device manager, to no avail. Is there a basic reason why MSQ-Basic is behaving this way? I know it used to work without problems some time ago, so I may assume some program may be messing it up, but I have tried it on other PC's. If it helps, the Pic is sending out data inverted at TTL levels (as it has always done) and I have checked for good voltage levels.
Any ideas?
Graham