A quick progress report..

Slight mis-wiring on the USB and I didn't notice I needed a 1 Meg resistor across the crystal before it would spark up.

Whatever, the computer now makes the dee-dum USB noise when I plug/unplug the controller and a test program can read inputs and write outputs under XP.

Probably doesn't sound like much but from here on it's only typing. Fortunately I've got my big brother doing that bit for me :naughty:

Robin