micro bit lcd screen manufacturer

Micor:bit has variety of programming methods like mbed, micropython, typescript and other programming methods, as well as code online websites which are abundant.

Place the block before send display data. You can choose the position, color and size. For the screen, (1,1) is on top-left, and (160,128) is on bottom-right

Cytron Technologies just released the MakeCode extension for the 3.3V Serial LCD. This extension has also been tested with micro:bit V1.5 and micro:bit V2 for I2C serial communication. The extension is in the block language form and it very easy to use.

To program the LCD, we need the extension or the “driver” of this LCD. We can get the extension at this GitHub microbit-LCM1602-14-LCD-extension created by Cytron Technologies. This extension is compatible with all MakeCode programmable based which are JavaScript, Python, and even Block programming. Click the link given, the view will look like this :

There are 5 fundamental functions that been created in this extension for this LCD. The functions are the LCD initialization, LCD scroll right, left, set LCD’s column and row and function to write the text string.

Five of them are just fundamental functions for the LCD. You are encouraged to improve the code for your own application purposed by editing the repository in MakeCode. You can see at the README.md of this extension’s GitHub in the edit this project’s section to guide you.

We are done setting up the extension in MakeCode and understand how to use those functions, so, how about we do some application from the whole that we learnt before by displaying the ‘Hello World!’ on the LCD. Let’s go!

STEP 1:In order to display the text on the LCD, we need to initialize the communication first between the microcontroller and the LCD. This can be done by using the initialize block as shown in the clip and then enter the communication address.

STEP 2:Put the row and column block to allocate the text on the LCD. As an example, for me, I would like to allocate my text at the 0 row and 0 column.

STEP 5:Then, in the forever block, insert the loop block. We can get the loop block from the Loops section as shown in the video below. This is for looping the character whenever a new character register entered. The range of the loop depends on the column size of the LCD. So, in this case, the range to loop is from 0 to 15.

STEP 9:Plug the USB cable into the micro: bit and the micro: bit’s file will pop up. then, just drag and drop the program into the micro: bit’s file and wait until the file pop up again.

The Kitronik: VIEW Text32 is a character LCD showing 32 characters (2 lines of 16 characters). The: VIEW Text32 also breaks out the BBC micro:bit pins to edge pads (excluding pin14).

The bottom edge of the board has a replication of the BBC micro:bits own edge connector, this allows you to plug the: VIEW Text32 into any board that the micro:bit itself can be slotted into. This is great news if your project outputs strings of text and numbers that previously would have slowly scrolled across the LED Matrix.

The board has been designed so that the BBC micro:bit can be slotted into the edge connector on the top side of the PCB. No extra tools are required for installation, the board is supplied and ready to go –plug and play/work!

LCD character displays are a useful way to get output from a microcontroller. The one used on this page is a fairly standard size, able to display 2 rows of 16 characters. The advantage we have over the LED matrix is that we don"t need to have our text scrolling across the screen. This allows us to display things like sensor readings so that we can see them change in real time.

The most common standard for the controllers built into these displays is the Hitachi HD44780 LCD controller protocol. This is a parallel interface (we need to send signals down several wires at the same time). For many microcontrollers that have been around longer than the micro:bit (like Arduino), there are libraries to help you interact with common hardware like this. Although no such libraries exist for the micro:bit, I have been able to make a rough conversion of the Arduino library code for use with the micro:bit.

The HD44780 LCD controller interface is made up of 16 connections, not all of which are needed to communicate with the display. On most modules, these are broken out to 0.1 inch spaced pins and are in the following order,

We will need to connect up LCD pins 1 & 2 to our power pins on the micro:bit as well as connecting LCD pins 15 & 16 up to the power to make the backlight work. The resistor for this light is built into the display module.

The RS pin needs to connect to a GPIO pin. It is set to LOW when we send commands to the display (like clearing the screen or moving the cursor) and set to 1 when we are sending character data.

The RW pin is set to LOW when writing to the LCD and set to HIGH when reading. We don"t need to read from the display so we can save ourselves a GPIO pin by connecting this pin directly to GND.

There are 8 data pins. We can operate the display in either 8 bit or 4 bit mode. 4 bit mode means 4 rather than 8 connections. When we use 4 bit mode, we only connect up D4 - D7 to our GPIO pins. This does mean that we will be sending our bytes in two parts and will be a little slower when updating the display but will save us 4 GPIO connections.

The micro:bit hasn"t been around long enough for there to be many examples of how to connect to these or any hardware libraries that provide simple functions for you to use. This has been converted from the open source Arduino library with the timings for delays rounded up. This makes the communication a little slower than can be achieved but more than good enough for most uses you want to make of the LCD.

The Kitronik :VIEW Text32 LCD Screen for BBC micro:bit is a character LCD showing 32 characters (2 lines of 16 characters). The :VIEW Text32 also breaks out the BBC micro:bit pins to edge pads (excluding pin14).

The bottom edge of the board has a replication of the BBC micro:bits own edge connector, this allows you to plug the :VIEW Text32 into any board that the micro:bit itself can be slotted into. This is great news if your project outputs strings of text and numbers that previously would have slowly scrolled across the LED Matrix.

The board has been designed so that the BBC micro:bit can be slotted into the edge connector on the top side of the PCB. No extra tools are required for installation, the board is supplied and ready to go - plug and play or work.

Another challenge was to connect an OLED displauy and get it to display a reading such as temp. As I had a 16 pin LCD screen I decided to try that instead – how hard can it be…

The LCD is much more complicated to wire up compared to an OLED display. It also requires a potentiometer (variable resistor) and a 5v external power (that became important later).

My first attempt to follow the tutorial didn’t work, the LCD powered up but that was because it was powered by the power supply but no text was displayed.

This didn’t matter as during my second attempt the power supply spiked from 5v to 25v . Everything got very hot, especially the processor on the Micro:bit and it was not longer responsive. Nothing when reset, nothing when connected via USB. Toast.

After all this I did find this simpler way to connect LCD that is specifically designed for Micro:bit – http://www.suppertime.co.uk/blogmywiki/2019/11/microbit-colour-lcd/

This is the Kitronik :VIEW Text32 character LCD...for those times when the LED Matrix isn"t delivering adequate visual feedback from your micro:bit project!

The :VIEW Text32 is a character LCD showing 32 characters (2 lines of 16 characters). The :VIEW Text32 also breaks out the BBC micro:bit pins to edge pads (excluding pin 14).

The bottom edge of the board has a replication of the BBC micro:bit"s own edge connector, this allows you to plug the :VIEW Text32 into any board that the micro:bit itself can be slotted into. This is great news if your project outputs strings of text and numbers that previously would have slowly scrolled across the LED Matrix.

The board has been designed so that the BBC micro:bit can be slotted into the edge connector on the top side of the PCB. No extra tools are required for installation, the board is supplied and ready to go - plug and play/work!

On the back of the :VIEW Text32 is a 3 x AAA battery holder to provide power to the :VIEW Text32, the attached micro:bit, and the replicated edge connector. There is a power switch for turning the battery supply on and off. The replicated edge connector can supply 90mA (as per the normal micro:bit).

Kitronik has produced a set of custom blocks for the Microsoft MakeCode editor. To add them click on the cog icon in the top right of the editor, then; select Extensions from the drop-down menu, type and enter Kitronik into the search bar and select the :VIEW Text32 tile from the list. The custom blocks will now be added to the editor and can be used in your code.

Get meaningful text readouts from your microbit projects with the Kitronik :VIEW Text32, a 32 character 2 line display that has a microbit style edge connector.

The Kitronik :VIEW Text32 character LCD, for those times when the LED Matrix and/or external LEDs aren"t delivering adequate visual feedback from your microbit project. The :VIEW Text32 is a character LCD showing 32 characters (2 lines of 16 characters). The :VIEW Text32 also breaks out the BBC micro:bit pins to edge pads (excluding pin14).

The bottom edge of the board has a replication of the BBC microbits own edge connector, this allows you to plug the :VIEW Text32 into any board that the microbit itself can be slotted into. This is great news if your project outputs strings of text and numbers that previously would have slowly scrolled across the LED Matrix.

The board has been designed so that the BBC micro:bit can be slotted into the edge connector on the top side of the PCB. No extra tools are required for installation, the board is supplied and ready to go --plug and play/work!

On the back of the :VIEW Text32 is a 3 x AAA battery holder to provide power to the :VIEW Text32, the attached micro:bit, and the replicated edge connector. There is a power switch for turning the battery supply on and off. The replicated edge connector can supply 90mA (as per the normal micro:bit)

Kitronik has produced a set of custom blocks for the Microsoft MakeCode editor. To add them click on the cog icon in the top right of the editor, then; select Extensions from the drop down menu, type and enter Kitronik into the search bar and select the :VIEW Text32 tile from the list. The custom blocks will now be added to the editor and can be used in your code.

The Kitronik :VIEW Text32 character LCD, for those times when the LED Matrix and/or external LEDs aren"t delivering adequate visual feedback from your microbit project. The :VIEW Text32 is a character LCD showing 32 characters (2 lines of 16 characters). The :VIEW Text32 also breaks out the BBC micro:bit pins to edge pads (excluding pin14).

The bottom edge of the board has a replication of the BBC microbits own edge connector, this allows you to plug the :VIEW Text32 into any board that the microbit itself can be slotted into. This is great news if your project outputs strings of text and numbers that previously would have slowly scrolled across the LED Matrix.

The board has been designed so that the BBC micro:bit can be slotted into the edge connector on the top side of the PCB. No extra tools are required for installation, the board is supplied and ready to go --plug and play/work!

On the back of the :VIEW Text32 is a 3 x AAA battery holder to provide power to the :VIEW Text32, the attached micro:bit, and the replicated edge connector. There is a power switch for turning the battery supply on and off. The replicated edge connector can supply 90mA (as per the normal micro:bit)

Kitronik has produced a set of custom blocks for the Microsoft MakeCode editor. To add them click on the cog icon in the top right of the editor, then; select Extensions from the drop down menu, type and enter Kitronik into the search bar and select the :VIEW Text32 tile from the list. The custom blocks will now be added to the editor and can be used in your code.

Need an LCD display? Check out the Kitronik :VIEW text32 LCD Screen, which features an edge connector the BBC Micro:Bit easily slots into. Or are you working on an E-Textile project and need some LEDs? We supply Electro-Fashion Sewable LEDs in seven different colours.