It took a bit of testing and research but I finally got an HD44780 controller, 16x2 LCD display functioning with the PIC 16F877A, now I need to get it to function with the PIC16F1786 (my target chip). The C-code from Microchip demonstrating a glucometer design used a harder to source 16x2 LCD display, I would have started with that but couldn't get it it. So, I decided to work with a more standard 16x2 LCD. My ultimate goal is to use a Nokia 5110 LCD since it is a bit more compact and fairly inexpensive and easy to source.

I've bread boarded an HD44780 16x2 LCD, connected to the PIC16F1786. I'm currently editing code to test out the LCD.