I recently added a DS1302 RTC chip to my 16F877 breadboard and programmed it to make a simple clock. The 1302 uses a .33F supercap for "battery" backup. I haven't tested exactly how long it keeps the chip running, but it does hold the time overnight with power off.

It's very experimental, with no way of setting the time except to change the code in a clock-setting program that I run to set the clock. A second program is just to display the time. The programs were written in C using Hi-Tech PICC Lite.

After writing the History of PIC Programmers article last night I got inspired to do something about my PICkit 2 connector problem. Here's what I did about it: