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