by SLTom992 » Wed Jun 25, 2014 4:37 pm
OK, I have learned/remembered a lot in these exchanges, The basic problem was that I didn't analyze the hardware itself and went off on the tangent. The true problem was that somehow I got the idea that this was an SPI interrupt problem when in fact it was a missing external interrupt problem.
The SPI was working as it should have been and was trapped in a loop since it wasn't mediated by the external interrupt.
Also I downloaded a more up-to-date manual which noted that ALL interrupt flags are set regardless of the enable bit for that specific interrupt so that when receiving an interrupt you must be careful to specifically look at the flag bits you are interested in.
I'd like to thank those who have been so helpful if a bit confused at what I was trying to say. Part of the moral to this string is to not get a concussion; they are a lot more serious than you might think.