Ahh sweet success!! ;D Sadnesss and joy, I'd overlooked a detail...J8 on the core, I'd just chained it to the din then the dout, so of course I was using the wrong port for one and fouling the data line for the other, bit silly really!! :-[ But so glad I realised. Hooked them up correctly and bingo, I have a good front panel. Now I still have the lcd to fix, I wish I had another to swap in. I hope I havent broken it! How can I check encoder operation w/o an LCD..? direction is important here.. ??? Umm, just to re-iterate, there are 11 taster buttons on the front panel, not 10 like the parts list states. Also in the core module text, the table of port assignments it does not give any assignments for midibox fm, there is no mention of it. I know it's kinda obvious, 1 port for in and 1 for out but it did make me question it for a minute or two. Thnx folks, it's a really nice feeling when it comes together, thnx for putting all this up for us mere mortals!