DMA interrupt for SPI - c

Question

I'm trying to recreate a project of writing to an SD card (using FatFS) for a dsPIC33FJ128GP802 microcontroller.
Currently to collect the date from the SPI I have a do/while that loops 512 times and writes a dummy value to the SPI buffer, wait for the SPI flag, then read the SPI value, like so:
int c = 512;
do {
SPI1BUF = 0xFF;
while (!_SPIRBF);
*p++ = SPI1BUF;
} while (--c);
I'm trying to recreate this using the DMA intterupts but it's not working like I had hoped. I'm using one DMA channel, SPI is in 8 bit mode for the time being, so DMA is in byte mode, it's also in 'null write' mode, and continuous without ping pong. My buffers are only one member arrays and the DMA is matched.
DMA2CONbits.CHEN = 0; //Disable DMA
DMA2CONbits.SIZE = 1; //Receive bytes (8 bits)
DMA2CONbits.DIR = 0; //Receive from SPI to DMA
DMA2CONbits.HALF = 0; //Receive full blocks
DMA2CONbits.NULLW = 1; //null write mode on
DMA2CONbits.AMODE = 0; //Register indirect with post-increment
DMA2CONbits.MODE = 0; //continuous mode without ping-pong
DMA2REQbits.IRQSEL = 10; //Transfer done (SPI)
DMA2STA = __builtin_dmaoffset(SPIBuffA); //receive buffer
DMA2PAD = (volatile unsigned int) &SPI1BUF;
DMA2CNT = 0; //transfer count = 1
IFS1bits.DMA2IF = 0; //Clear DMA interrupt
IEC1bits.DMA2IE = 1; //Enable DMA interrupt
From what I understand from the null write mode, the DMA will write a null value every time a read is performed. However, the DMA wont start until an initial write is performed by the CPU, so I've used the manual/force method to start the DMA.
DMA1CONbits.CHEN = 1; //Enable DMA
DMA1REQbits.FORCE = 1; //Manual write
The interrupt will now start, and runs without error. However the code later shows that the collection was incorrect.
My interrupt is simple in that all I'm doing is placing the collected data (which I assume is placed in my DMAs buffer as allocated above) into a pointer which is used throughout my program.
void __attribute__((interrupt, no_auto_psv)) _DMA2Interrupt(void) {
if (RxDmaBuffer == 513) {
DMA2CONbits.CHEN = 0;
rxFlag = 1;
} else {
buffer[RxDmaBuffer] = SPI1BUF;
RxDmaBuffer++;
}
IFS1bits.DMA2IF = 0; // Clear the DMA0 Interrupt Flag
}
When the interrupt has run 512 times, I stop the DMA and throw a flag.
What am I missing? How is this not the same as the non-DMA method? Is it perhaps the lack of the while loop which waits for the completion of the SPI transmission (while (!_SPIRBF);). Unfortunately with the null write mode automatically sending and receiving the SPI data I can't manually put any sort of wait in.
I've also tried using two DMA channels, one to write and one to read, but this also didn't work (plus I need that channel later for when I come to proper writing to the SD card).
Any help would be great!