Firstly Robot, Im not using any back up battery for the main controller though you can pick them up i think. only a back up battery on the RTC chip to keep the time and date,
Daveg, I sort of see what your codes doing but its incomplete, without knowing what you did with the integers RW and RS :-?
anyhow just about to give wiring the RTC chip together onto a breadboard and see what happens from there.
i need to get larger breadboard/stick my current breadboards down as its getting a bit messy now lol.