larryd:
Attaching a proper schematic shows others exactly what's happening.
In almost all cases I agree. This would be the exception. Did you see the schematic attached above? Was it really of any help? I know you don't believe me, but that really is all there is to the system...for now.
Build programs and hardware in blocks and layers. That way I have a proven working fall back point. That's how I know exactly what was and was not working above. Little did I know that serial TTL was active low logic. Surprise on me.