Newbie - failed at the first hurdle on Mels RTC!

[Archangel]

Well hu lee gan, you should be chuffed (I Think !), it feels pretty good that first working code. The great thing about the 648 is it is pin compatable with the 628 and 16f84 and there is a ton of free beginners examples for those chips, without the memory shortages you alluded to. I cut teeth on that series too, though I have grown fond of the 16F690 due largely to success I have had using it on Microchips demo boards. Too many noobs want to start out with a really complicated chip and then get frustrated and stall out before learning to walk. The really great thing about the demo boards is use of ICSP and no shakey connections, though they default to intOsc, and they do sell an 18 pin demo board. What I really like is automatic reload of hex when you compile and use PICKit2. You do not have to have demo board to use ICSP, it's just really convenient.

[hu lee gan]

Well you're spot on - I was 'attracted' to the 16F887 due to the amount of functionality it offered ( obviously didn't research enough!), but that very same flexability was where I fell down!
Having had problems configuring the fuses and then consequently reading the thread you sent me a link for (Mel's explanation of fuses etc.) I realised that I might be biting off more than I could chew and decided to move to the 'smaller' chip, and it worked for me. Once I have all of this working perfectly, I'm going to get it running on th 16F887 just to allow me to apply what I've learned thus far, on a new chip. The intention is to build what basically amounts to a box with an LCD displaying the current Date & Time which has a button under the LCD, when pressed, this outputs the current Date & Time via RS232... simples!
I've got the RTC running on one 628 and the RS232 'stuff' working on another - once the 648's arrive I should hopefully be able to combine the entire code into one program (fingers crossed!)
I haven't dabbled in electronics for many years (I'm 39 and got a C&G in digital electronics when I was 16!), and I've been meaning to play about with microcontrollers for years but never seemed to get around to it...
I'm a 2-stroke motorbike mechanic and have quite a few bike related projects 'on the go' - hopefully I'll be able to be a positive contributer to the projects section once I get my head around PB-Pro...
Thanks to this forum - the future smells of burning flux - lol

[Archangel]

You might try debugout or whatever keyword they use ( I am in the house away from My Computer ) anyway it is supposed to use less "overhead" so it might fit your 628.