Small Displays

(16 x 2 LCD Display)

The Pieces The Theory & Code

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD)
Liquid Crystal Display An LCD is a small low cost display. It is easy to interface with a micro-controller
(Craftdata BC1602A) because of an embedded controller(the black blob on the back of the board).
x1 This controller is standard across many displays (HD 44780) which means many
micro-controllers (including the Arduino) have libraries that make displaying
messages as easy as a single line of code.
Potentiometer
(10k Ohm) Testing
x1 Testing your LCD with an Arduino is really simple. Wire up your display using the
schematic or breadboard layout sheet. Then open the Arduino IDE and open the
example program.
File > Sketchbook > Examples > Library-LiquidCrystal > HelloWorld

The Schematic Upload to your board and watch as "hello, world!" is shown on your display. If
no message is displayed the contrast may need to be adjusted. To do this turn
Potentiometer
the potentiometer.
gnd
(ground) (-) Library Summary
(here's a summary of the LCD library for a full reference visit http://tinyurl.com/krcarl )
1 LiquidCrystal(rs, rw, enable, d4, d5, d6, d7) - create a new
1

Vss (gnd) +5 volts

Vdd (5v) LiquidCrystal object using a 4 bit data bus
Vo (contrast)
RS pin 12
LiquidCrystal(rs, rw, enable, d0, d1, d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7) - create
R/W a new LiquidCrystal object using an 8 bit data bus
Enable
Data 0 clear() - Clears the display and moves the cursor to upper left corner
Data 1 pin 11
LCD Data 2
home() - Moves the cursor to the upper left corner
Arduino

Data 3 pin 5 setCursor(col, row) - moves the cursor to column col and row row
Data 4
Data 5 pin 4 write(data) - writes the char data to the display
Data 6
Data 7 pin 3 print(data) - prints a string to the display
(5v)
pin 2
Technical Details
(gnd)
16
.: Summary LCD Datasheet: http://tinyurl.com/met7ol :.
.: Full LCD Datasheet: http://tinyurl.com/lmjxad :.

The Circuit The Layout Sheet

Potentiometer
(variable resistor)
A B C D E F Gto
H Gnd
I J

1 V+ to 5v 1
2 2
3 gnd 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
1

Vss7(gnd) 7
Vdd8 (5v) 8
Vo (contrast)
9 9
10 RS to pin 12 10
11 R/W 11
Enable
12 to pin 11 12
Data 0
13 13
Data 1
14 14
Data 2
15 15
Data 3
16 16
Data 4
17 to pin 5 17
Data 5
18 to pin 4 18
Data 6
19 to pin 3 19
Data 7
20 to pin 2 20
B/light

21 (5v) 21
22 (gnd) 22
16

23 23
24 24
25 25
26 CIRC-18
26
27 Showing27
Text
28
(LCD Displays)
28
29 29
30 30

A B C D E F G H I J

.: Instructions: print out, cut out, get making :.

.: for more details visit: http://tinyurl.com/ltvo93 :.