[Foster]

Let me second using the WPILibrary and the MPLab compiler for the Vex. The library does a lot of work for you and makes it very simple to do complex control programming in a few lines. There is very good documentation on all the calls.

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On the serial port question, I've hooked a number of different serial devices to the Vex.

1) Are you sure you have the right voltage levels? The serial ports are at a TTL, not RS-232. When I connected the Garmin GPS I used the orange Vex box to convert the levels. There was also a null modem between the GPS and the orange box.

2) Baud rate - are you sure the baud rates and the bit configurations are set?

3) Are you polling fast enough to get the bits back without a buffer overflow? Do you get framing errors?

Are you using the base code, WPILib or something else?