Ok, now I feel like an idiot. I believe I am in the "cart before the horse" situation. Or maybe "eyes bigger than stomach" Anyhoo, I programed the PIC and according to the programmer, everything was A-OK. Verified ok also. Green LED lights when writing or reading the PIC. So I'm feeling good and the next step would be to run a sequence. Then I realize that I don't have the active hub built yet.
The hub isn't built yet because the SS controllers aren't built yet.
The SS controllers aren't built because I don't have any nodes yet.
I don't have nodes because a 3 week trip to Florida ate into my light budget and I figured I would push off moving to SS until next year.
Of course, I got so excited about the Ether dongle and reading about the fun you all were having with the new system that I jumped into the co-op TOTALLY forgetting the lack of SS. (Or maybe I rationalized it away.) The box with all the neat parts arrived, then the new resistors came, AND I ordered my new toy (PICkit3) and wanted to try it out right away, so I just HAD to build the new dongle, right?
So I build it, apply power, and no green light. Thinking it was a power indicator, I turn to you all for help and find out that it isn't one and I might be golden. THEN, and only then, do I realize my folly (as outlined above for your enjoyment.)
Reading the forum, I realize I have an out: I can flash it and change it to a DMX dongle. Birds are singing, the sun is shining, and all is right again in the world. I flash the DMX firmware, unplug my old dongle from my wireless transmitter, plug the newly flashed Ether dongle into the transmitter, and was just about to plug the dongle into the ethernet port of my computer when I hear RJ describing how the Ether dongle works as a DMX dongle (I was playing the video file at the time) and he mentions using the combiner backward when using the Ether dongle as a DMX one.
And guess what I DIDN't get...
So now I gotta ask, is there a way to test to see if the Ether dongle works with only it and an Express? I'm guessing I can't see if it works as a Pixelnet dongle (since I don't have any pixels, ugh) but I would like to know that it works at least part way.