arduino projects with lcd screen supplier

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an electronic display module and find a wide range of applications. A 16x2 LCD display is very basic module and is very commonly used in various devices and circuits. These modules are preferred over seven segments and other multi segment LEDs. The reasons being: LCDs are economical; easily programmable; have no limitation of displaying special & even custom characters (unlike in seven segments), animations and so on.

A 16x2 LCD means it can display 16 characters per line and there are 2 such lines. In this LCD each character is displayed in 5x7 pixel matrix. This LCD has two registers, namely, Command and Data.

The Arduino board has a wide variety of compatible displays that you can use in your electronic projects. In most projects, it’s very useful to give the user some sort of feedback from the Arduino.

With the TFT display you can display colorful images or graphics. This module has a resolution of 480 x 320. This module includes the SD card socket and SPI FLASH circuit.

This is a tiny display with just 1 x 0.96 Inch. This display has a black background, and displays characters in white. There are other similar displays that can show the characters in other colors.

Liquid Crystal displays or LCDs have been used in electronics equipment since the late 1970s.   LCD displays have the advantage of consuming very little current And they are ideal for your Arduino projects.

In this article and in the accompanying video I’ll show you how easy it is to add an LCD display to your next Arduino design. I’ll also show you a very popular Arduino Shield that has a keypad which you can use in your projects as well.

Today LCD displays are used in a variety of items from test equipment to televisions. They’re inexpensive and versatile, this makes them ideal for all sorts of designs.

LCD displays do not emit light. Instead they block the passage of light, like little windows which open and shut the let light through. The liquid crystals used inside LCD displays are sandwiched between two layers of polarized material. By changing the orientation of the liquid crystals they allow light to pass or they block the light entirely.

Because transmissive LCD displays (the type we will be using) work by blocking light they require a backlight. Several methods have been used to create back lights including electroluminescent panels and fluorescent tubes.   these days the most common form of backlight is an LED, in fact so-called LED televisions are usually just LCD screens with an LED backlight system.

Another type of LCD display, the passive-matrix display, does not require a backlight, it works using reflected light. This type of display is often found in digital watches.

The principles of liquid crystals were discovered in the late 1880s but work on Modern LCD displays did not begin until the mid-1960s. a number of patents were filed in the early 1970s and in 1973 the Sharp Corporation introduced LCD displays for calculators.

The first color LCD displays were developed in the early 1980s but production units were not commonly available until the mid-1990s. By the late 1990s LCD displays were quite common.

A number of LCD displays are available for experimenters. These low-cost monochrome displays are ideal for use with microcontrollers like the Arduino and micro computers like the Raspberry Pi.

The LCD1602 display module is a very popular and inexpensive LCD display.  It is available in a number of different colors such as blue yellow and green and can easily be connected to an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

Because the LCD module uses a parallel data input it requires 8 connections to the host microcontroller for the data alone. Add that to the other control pins and it consumes a lot of connections.  On an Arduino Uno half of the I/O pins would be taken up by the display, which can be problematic if you want to use the I/O pins for other input or output devices.

We will begin our experiments by hooking up the LCD1602 to an Arduino Uno and running a few of the example sketches included with the Arduino IDE.  This will allow you to get familiar with the display without needing to write any code.

We need to hookup our LCD display to our Arduino. The display can use any of the Arduino digital I/O pins as it has no special requirements, but if you hook it up as I’ve illustrated here you can run the example sketches without needing to make any modifications.

In addition to the LCD1602 display ands the Arduino Uno you will need a 10K trimpot ot potentiometer, this is used a s a brightness control for the display. You’ll also need a 220 ohm resistor to drop the voltage for the displays LED backlight.

The Arduino IDE includestheLiquidCrystallibraryand this library has a number of example sketches. I’ll go over three of them here but you can also try the other ones.

The sketch starts with a number of credits and a description of the required hardware hookup. You’ll note that this is the same hookup you just performed on your Arduino and LCD module.

We then initialize an object that we call “lcd” using the pinouts of the LCD display. If you decide to hook up your display to different pins then you’ll need to modify this section.

In the beginning of the loop we set our cursor to the first position in the second row. Note that the row numbers start with zero so the second row is row 1.

That ends the loop, so we start back at the top of the loop and repeat. The result will be a counter on the second line that counts seconds from the htime the Arduino was last reset.

Load the sketch up to your Arduino and observe your display. If you don’t see anything try adjusting the brightness control that you wired to the display.

The second example we will try isthe Scroll sketch. Scrolling is a useful technique when you can’t get your text to fit on one line of the LCD display.

A character on the display is formed in a 5 x 8 matrix of blocks so you need to define your custom character within that matrix. To define the character you’ll use thecreateCharfunctionof the LiquidCrystal library.  You are limited to defining a maximum of eight characters.

To usecreateCharyou first set up an array of bytes with 8 elements.  Each element in the array defines one row of the character in the 5 x 8 matrix.  You then use createCharto assign a number from 0 to 7 to that array.

The Custom Character demonstration requires one additional component to be wired to the Arduino, a potentiometer (10K or greater) wired up to deliver a variable voltage to analog input pin A0.

As with the previous sketches we examined this one starts by loading theLiquidCrystallibrary and defining an object calledlcdwith the connection information for the display.  It then moves on to define the custom characters.

Each character is defined as an array with 8 elements, the zeros and ones in the array indicate which elements in the character should be on and which ones should be off.  Five arrays are defined, although the sketch actually only used four of them.

Finally the setup routine ends by printing a line to the first row of the LCD display. The line makes use of two of the custom characters, the “heart” and the “smiley”.

We begin by reading the value of the voltage on pin A0 using the ArduinoanalogReadfunction. As the Arduino has a 10-bit analog to digital converter this will result in a reading ranging from 0 to 1023.

We then use an Arduinomapfunction to convert this reading into a range from 200 to 1000. This value is then assigned to an integer calleddelayTime, which as its name implies represents a time delay period.

One thing you may have noticed about using the LCD display module with the Arduino is that it consumes a lot of connections. Even in 4-wire mode there are still a total of seven connections made to the Arduino digital I/O pins. As an Arduino Uno has only 14 digital I/O pins that’s half of them used up for the display.

In other cases you would need to resort to using some of the analog pins as digital pins or even moving up to an Arduino Mega which has many more I/O pins.

But there is another solution. Use the I2C bus adapter for the LCD display and connect using I2C.  This only consumes two I/O pins and they aren’t even part of the set of digital I/O pins.

The bus has evolved to be used as an ideal method of communicating between microcontrollers, integrated circuits, sensors and micro computers.  You can use it to allow multiple Arduinos to talk to each other, to interface numerous sensors and output devices or to facilitate communications between a Raspberry Pi and one or more Arduinos.

In I2C communications there is the concept of Master and Slave devices. There can be multiples of each but there can only be one Master at any given moment. In most Arduino applications one Arduino is designated Master permanently while the other Arduinos and peripherals are the Slaves.

The Master transmits the clock signal which determines how fast the data on the bus is transferred. There are several clock speeds used with the I2C bus. The original design used 100 KHz and 400 KHz clocks.  Faster rates of 3.4 MHz and higher are available on some I2C configurations.

Every device on the I2C bus has a unique address. When the Master wants to communicate with a Slave device it calls the Slaves address to initiate communications.

The I2C Adapter for the LCD display is a tiny circuit board with 16 male header pins soldered to it. These pins are meant to be connected directly to the 16-pin connection on the LCD1602 display (or onto other displays that use the same connection scheme).

The device also has a 4-pin connector for connection to the I2C bus. In addition there is a small trimpot on the board, this is the LCD display brightness control.

Most of these devices have three jumpers or solder pads to set the I2C address. This may need to be changed if you are using multiple devices on the same I2C bus or if the device conflicts with another I2C device.

Most Arduino Unos also have some dedicated pins for I2C, these are internally connected to A4 and A5 and are usually located above the 14 digital I/O pins.  Some models of the Uno have additional I2C connectors as well.

Note how much easier it is to use the I2C connection, which does not consume any of the Arduino Unos 14 digital I/O pins. Since A4 and A5 are being used for the I2C bus they can’t be used as analog inputs in this configuration.

Nick has written a simple I2C scanner sketch that he’s put into the public domain. It scans your I2C bus and gives you back the address of every I2C device it finds.  I’ve repeated Nick’s sketch here, it’s also in the ZIP file that you can download with all of the code for this article.

Load this sketch into your Arduino then open your serial monitor. You’ll see the I2C address of your I2C LCD display adapter. You can then make note of this address and use it in the sketches we’ll be looking at now.

In order to run the subsequent sketches you’ll need to install another library. This is theNewLiquidCrystallibrarywhich, as its name implies, is an improved version of the LiquidCrystal library packaged with your Arduino IDE.

The sketch starts by loading the ArduinoWirelibrary. This is the Arduino library that facilitates communications over I2C and it’s part of your Arduino IDE installation.

On the next line we define the connections to the LCD display module from the I2C Adapter,. Note that these are NOT the connections from the Arduino, they are the connections used by the chip on the adapter itself.

Load the sketch and run it on your Arduino. If you can’t get it to work check out the address and connection information to be sure you have it right.

We need to make a minor wiring adjustment to the hookup with our I2C adapter, specifically we will need to add a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor into the circuit. The wiring is shown here:

As you can see the DHT22 is connected with its output tied to pin 7 of the Arduino. The other two connections are 5 volts and ground. Note that pin 3 of the DHT22 is not used.

This sketch also makes use of theDHTlibrary from Adafruit. We used this library in a previous article, “Using the HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor with Arduino” so you may want to take a look at that one in order to get it installed.

The key thing to note is that this library is dependant upon another Adafruit library, theirUnified Sensorlibrary. Both can be installed using the Library Manager in your Arduino IDE.

The sketch is similar to our demo sketch in that it creates an “lcd” object with the I2C and display connection information.  It also defines a couple of parameters for the DHT22 sensor, as well as some floating variables to hold the temperature and humidity values.

So far we have used the LCD1602 display module for all of our experiments. For our final demonstration we’ll switch to a popular Arduino shield that contains a LCD1602 along with some push buttons.

The LCD Keypad Shield is available from several different manufacturers. The device fits onto an Arduino Uno or an Arduino Mega and simplifies adding an LCD display to your project.

The Reset button is simply connected to the Arduino Reset pin and works just like the Reset button on the Arduino itself. This is common on many shields as the shields physically cover the Reset button.

Instead the buttons are connected to a resistor array that acts as a voltage divider. The entire array is connected to the Arduino’s analog A0 pin.  One pin for five push buttons.

Note that the LCD is being used in 4-wire mode. The LCD itself is the same one used on the LCD1602 module, so all of the code for that module will work with the LCD Keypad Shield as well.

Now that you know how the LCD Keypad module works and which Arduino pins it uses all that remains is to install it onto your Arduino and load the demo sketch.

One thing – once the shield is installed on the Arduino you won’t have easy access to the unused I/O pins to connect any sensors or output devices you may want to use (although the demo sketch doesn’t need anything else connected).  There are a couple of ways to get around this:

Use a shield that exposes the pins for prototyping before you install the LCD Keypad shield. In the video associated with this article I use a “Screw Shield” that brings all of the Arduino I/O pins out to a series of screw connectors. There are other similar shields. Using one of these shields is the easiest way to work with the LCD Keypad shield, as well as other Arduino shields.

The sketch begins by including theLiquidCrystallibrary. You can use the original one or the one includes with theNewLiquidCrystallibrary.  We then set up an object with the LCD connections, note that these are just hard-coded as they won’t change.

Next we define a number of constants, one for each of the push buttons. Note that nothing is defined for the Reset button as it simply mimics the Arduino Reset button, however a constant is defined for the “none” condition.

After that we define a function calledread_LCD_buttons().  This function reads the value on analog port A0 and returns an integer corresponding to the button integers we defined earlier. Note that the function adds approximately 50 to each of the manufacturers specified values to account for intolerances in the resistors in the voltage divider.

We start the loop by placing the cursor 9 spaces over on the second line. We then use themillisfunction to display a counter that counts the time since the Arduino was reset. This is to test the Reset button.

We then call ourread_LCD_buttons()function and use it to display the value of the push button, right before the counter. Then we end the loop and do it again.

Load the code onto the Arduino and run it. You should see the value of each button as you press it, along with a counter that increments each second. If you press Reset the counter should reset itself back to zero.

As you can see LCD displays are pretty simple to use thanks to the availability of some excellent libraries for the Arduino.  As these displays are also very inexpensive they will make an ideal addition to many of your Arduino projects.

And finally the LCD Keypad Shield is a convenient method of adding both a display and a simple keypad to your project, no wiring or soldering required.

Do you want your Arduino projects to display status messages or sensor readings? Then these LCD displays can be a perfect fit. They are extremely common and fast way to add a readable interface to your project.

This tutorial will help you get up and running with not only 16×2 Character LCD, but any Character LCD (16×4, 16×1, 20×4 etc.) that is based on Hitachi’s LCD Controller Chip – HD44780.

When current is applied to these crystals, they become opaque, blocking the backlight that resides behind the screen. As a result that particular area will be dark compared to the others. And this is how the characters are displayed on the screen.

True to their name, these LCDs are ideal for displaying only text/characters. A 16×2 character LCD, for example, has an LED backlight and can display 32 ASCII characters in two rows of 16 characters each.

The good news is that all of these displays are ‘swappable’, which means if you build your project with one you can just unplug it and use another size/color LCD of your choice. Your code will have to change a bit but at least the wiring remains the same!

Vo (LCD Contrast) controls the contrast and brightness of the LCD. Using a simple voltage divider with a potentiometer, we can make fine adjustments to the contrast.

RS (Register Select) pin is set to LOW when sending commands to the LCD (such as setting the cursor to a specific location, clearing the display, etc.) and HIGH when sending data to the LCD. Basically this pin is used to separate the command from the data.

R/W (Read/Write) pin allows you to read data from the LCD or write data to the LCD. Since we are only using this LCD as an output device, we are going to set this pin LOW. This forces it into WRITE mode.

E (Enable) pin is used to enable the display. When this pin is set to LOW, the LCD does not care what is happening on the R/W, RS, and data bus lines. When this pin is set to HIGH, the LCD processes the incoming data.

Now we will power the LCD. The LCD has two separate power connections; One for the LCD (pin 1 and pin 2) and the other for the LCD backlight (pin 15 and pin 16). Connect pins 1 and 16 of the LCD to GND and 2 and 15 to 5V.

Most LCDs have a built-in series resistor for the LED backlight. You’ll find this near pin 15 on the back of the LCD. If your LCD does not include such a resistor or you are not sure if your LCD has one, you will need to add one between 5V and pin 15. It is safe to use a 220 ohm resistor, although a value this high may make the backlight a bit dim. For better results you can check the datasheet for maximum backlight current and select a suitable resistor value.

Next we will make the connection for pin 3 on the LCD which controls the contrast and brightness of the display. To adjust the contrast we will connect a 10K potentiometer between 5V and GND and connect the potentiometer’s center pin (wiper) to pin 3 on the LCD.

That’s it. Now turn on the Arduino. You will see the backlight lit up. Now as you turn the knob on the potentiometer, you will start to see the first row of rectangles. If that happens, Congratulations! Your LCD is working fine.

Let’s finish connecting the LCD to the Arduino. We have already made the connections to power the LCD, now all we have to do is make the necessary connections for communication.

We know that there are 8 data pins that carry data to the display. However, HD44780 based LCDs are designed in such a way that we can communicate with the LCD using only 4 data pins (4-bit mode) instead of 8 (8-bit mode). This saves us 4 pins!

The sketch begins by including the LiquidCrystal library. The Arduino community has a library called LiquidCrystal which makes programming of LCD modules less difficult. You can find more information about the library on Arduino’s official website.

First we create a LiquidCrystal object. This object uses 6 parameters and specifies which Arduino pins are connected to the LCD’s RS, EN, and four data pins.

In the ‘setup’ we call two functions. The first function is begin(). It is used to specify the dimensions (number of columns and rows) of the display. If you are using a 16×2 character LCD, pass the 16 and 2; If you’re using a 20×4 LCD, pass 20 and 4. You got the point!

After that we set the cursor position to the second row by calling the function setCursor(). The cursor position specifies the location where you want the new text to be displayed on the LCD. The upper left corner is assumed to be col=0, row=0.

There are some useful functions you can use with LiquidCrystal objects. Some of them are listed below:lcd.home() function is used to position the cursor in the upper-left of the LCD without clearing the display.

lcd.scrollDisplayRight() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the right. If you want the text to scroll continuously, you have to use this function inside a for loop.

lcd.scrollDisplayLeft() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the left. Similar to above function, use this inside a for loop for continuous scrolling.

If you find the characters on the display dull and boring, you can create your own custom characters (glyphs) and symbols for your LCD. They are extremely useful when you want to display a character that is not part of the standard ASCII character set.

As discussed earlier in this tutorial a character is made up of a 5×8 pixel matrix, so you need to define your custom character within that matrix. You can use the createChar() function to define a character.

CGROM is used to store all permanent fonts that are displayed using their ASCII codes. For example, if we send 0x41 to the LCD, the letter ‘A’ will be printed on the display.

CGRAM is another memory used to store user defined characters. This RAM is limited to 64 bytes. For a 5×8 pixel based LCD, only 8 user-defined characters can be stored in CGRAM. And for 5×10 pixel based LCD only 4 user-defined characters can be stored.

Creating custom characters has never been easier! We have created a small application called Custom Character Generator. Can you see the blue grid below? You can click on any 5×8 pixel to set/clear that particular pixel. And as you click, the code for the character is generated next to the grid. This code can be used directly in your Arduino sketch.

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.

Arduino Powered Binary Clock: We can design a binary clock by using Arduino. This project needs simple electronic elements like LEDs. The LEDs are arranged in a sequence to display the analog clock.

Arduino Powered Lucky Cat As Physical Webcounter: This project is used to make indicate us when person visits our web page or web site. The lucky cat idol will make us to know this by connecting this to the web server by using Arduino. This project uses the simple hardware components like LED and servo motors.

Arduino Powered Mobile Phone: The cell phone can charge the Arduino by using its Li ion battery. This Arduino powered mobile phone project will be useful for charging applications, by using simple elements like diodes and resisters.

Arduino Room Temperature Monitor: This project will help us to monitor the temperature of a room by using a thermostat and Arduino. We can monitor the temperature by using a http server api and can send text messages about the temperature and room conditions.

– Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable microcontroller and a piece of software, or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer, used to write and upload computer code to the physical board.

– The Arduino platform unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, the Arduino does not need a separate programmer to load new code onto the board — you can simply use a USB cable. Additionally, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++, making it easier to learn to program.

– The open sources and extensible language: Arduino IDE is based on open source tool. The programming language used can be extended through the C++ library.

– The open source and expandable hardware: Arduino is based on Atmel’s ATMEGA 8-bit microcontrollers and its SAM3X8E and SAMD21 32-bit microcontrollers. Development boards and modules are planned to be released under the premise of following the “Creative Commons License Agreement”, so experienced circuit designers can make their own modules and carry out corresponding expansions and improvements. Even users who are relatively inexperienced can make a trial version of the basic Uno development board, which is easy to understand the principle of its operation and save costs.

– The Arduino hardware and software were designed for artists, designers, hobbyists, hackers, newbies, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can interact with buttons, LEDs, motors, speakers, GPS units, cameras, the internet, and even your smart-phone or your TV.

Arduino Leonardo: Arduino’s first development board to use one microcontroller with built-in USB. It is cheaper and simpler. The code libraries allow the board to emulate a computer keyboard, mouse, and more.

LCD means liquid crystal display. Basically, any displays can be used with Arduino, including alphanumeric character LCD display, monochrome graphic LCD display, color TFT LCD display, IPS LCD display. It can also be used for non LCD displays like: PMOLED display, AMOLED display, E-ink (E-paper) displays.  Orient Display developed easy interface (SPI, I2C) displays which can be easily used with Arduino.

LCD displays were first used for watches and calculators.  Now, LCD display technology dominants the display world, it can be found in wearables, smart homes, mobile phones, TVs, laptops, monitors, kiosks, aircraft cockpit, digital cameras, lab instrument, power grid etc.

LCD itself can emit light itself. It has to utilize outside light sources. LCD display module normally includes LCD glass (or LCD panel), LCD driving circuitry ( can be COG, COB or TAB) and a backlight.

A LCD display 16*2 is actually a basic and simple to use LCD module. It includes LCD glass, COB (Chip on PCB Board) LCD control board, backlight, zebra to connect LCD glass and control board and a bezel to hold everything together.  16×2 LCD display can display 16 characters per line and there are two lines. Each character has 5×7 dot matrix pixels and the cursor underneath. All 16×2 LCD display originally used standard Hitachi HD44780 driver. Of course the legendary HD44780 controller had EOL long time ago. All the 16×2 LCD displays use HD44780 compatible LCD controllers. Some of them are drop replacement, some of them need to modify the initialization code a little.

A 16×2 LCD has two registers like data register and command register. The RS (register select) is mainly used to change from one register to another. When the register set is ‘0’, then it is known as command register. Similarly, when the register set is ‘1’, then it is known as data register.

Command Register: The main function of the command register is to store the instructions of command which are given to the display. So that predefined tasks can be performed such as clearing the display, initializing, set the cursor place, and display control. Here commands processing can occur within the register.

Data Register: The main function of the data register is to store the information which is to be exhibited on the LCD screen. Here, the ASCII value of the character is the information which is to be exhibited on the screen of LCD. Whenever we send the information to LCD, it transmits to the data register, and then the process will be starting there. When register set =1, then the data register will be selected.

The resistor in the diagram above sets the LED backlight brightness. A typical value is 220 Ohms resistor, but other values will work too. Smaller resistors will make the backlight brighter. The potentiometer is used to adjust the screen contrast. I typically use a 10K Ohm potentiometer, but other values will also work.

All of the code below uses the LiquidCrystal library that comes pre-installed with the Arduino IDE. A library is a set of functions that can be easily added to a program in an abbreviated format. In order to use a library, it needs be included in the program. Line 1 in the code below does this with the command #include . When you include a library in a program, all of the code in the library gets uploaded to the Arduino along with the code for your program.

Now we’re ready to get into the programming! I’ll go over more interesting things you can do in a moment, but for now let’s just run a simple test program. This program will print “hello, world!” to the screen. Enter this code into the Arduino IDE and upload it to the board:

There are 19 different functions in the LiquidCrystal library available for us to use. These functions do things like change the position of the text, move text across the screen, or make the display turn on or off. What follows is a short description of each function, and how to use it in a program.

The LiquidCrystal() function sets the pins the Arduino uses to connect to the LCD. You can use any of the Arduino’s digital pins to control the LCD. Just put the Arduino pin numbers inside the parentheses in this order:

This function sets the dimensions of the LCD. It needs to be placed before any other LiquidCrystal function in the void setup() section of the program. The number of rows and number of columns are specified as lcd.begin(columns, rows). For a 16×2 LCD, you would use lcd.begin(16, 2), and for a 20×4 LCD you would use lcd.begin(20, 4).

This function clears any text or data already displayed on the LCD. If you use lcd.clear() with lcd.print() and the delay() function in the void loop() section, you can make a simple blinking text program.

Similar, but more useful than lcd.home() is lcd.setCursor(). This function places the cursor (and any printed text) at any position on the screen. It can be used in the void setup() or void loop() section of your program.

The cursor position is defined with lcd.setCursor(column, row). The column and row coordinates start from zero (0-15 and 0-1 respectively). For example, using lcd.setCursor(2, 1) in the void setup() section of the “hello, world!” program above prints “hello, world!” to the lower line and shifts it to the right two spaces:

This function creates a block style cursor that blinks on and off at approximately 500 milliseconds per cycle. Use it in the void loop() section. The function lcd.noBlink() disables the blinking block cursor.

This function turns on any text or cursors that have been printed to the LCD screen. The function lcd.noDisplay() turns off any text or cursors printed to the LCD, without clearing it from the LCD’s memory.

This function takes anything printed to the LCD and moves it to the left. It should be used in the void loop() section with a delay command following it. The function will move the text 40 spaces to the left before it loops back to the first character. This code moves the “hello, world!” text to the left, at a rate of one second per character.

This function takes a string of text and scrolls it from right to left in increments of the character count of the string. For example, if you have a string of text that is 3 characters long, it will shift the text 3 spaces to the left with each step.

lcd.noAutoscroll() turns the lcd.autoscroll() function off. Use this function before or after lcd.autoscroll() in the void loop() section to create sequences of scrolling text or animations.

This function sets the direction that text is printed to the screen. The default mode is from left to right using the command lcd.leftToRight(), but you may find some cases where it’s useful to output text in the reverse direction.

This command allows you to create your own custom characters. Each character of a 16×2 LCD has a 5 pixel width and an 8 pixel height. Up to 8 different custom characters can be defined in a single program. To design your own characters, you’ll need to make a binary matrix of your custom character from an LCD character generator or map it yourself. This code creates a degree symbol (°).

The detailed LCD tutorial can be found in the article. ARDUINO LCD SET UP AND PROGRAMMING GUIDE or to check https://github.com/arduino-libraries/LiquidCrystal

Before you learn how to connect your display to Arduino, it’s worth to think about what exact task it’s going to perform, to choose the right type and model of display. Commonly used with Arduino are 2×16 alphanumeric LCD displays (capable of displaying 2 lines of 16 characters each) with green or blue backlight.

In the offer of electronics shops you will often find e-paper displays as well – their main advantage over other screens is much lower energy consumption (due to the type of technology) and a unique image that looks literally as if the content was written on paper. The biggest disadvantage of this solution is of course the relatively high price per unit.

Shops often also offer larger versions of LCD displays, 8-segment displays, touch screens and many other solutions. The choice should be made based on the needs – for example, if the project is commercial and the device will be used in sunlight, and low price is not a priority – no backlighting will be an advantage and an e-paper display will work well for this. In a project where the device will only need to display a single number – an 8-segment display will work well. Nevertheless, the most popular choice remains the 2×16 LCD, which works well for most projects and is particularly popular with electronics beginners and students.

Due to its high popularity and usefulness, below we will describe how to connect a 2×16 LCD display. This type of equipment is usually sold as a display on a laminated PCB – some products have the I2C converter soldered in, but some models do not have it. In this case such a converter must also be prepared to realise the project. To complete the whole task it will be practical to use a contact board, thanks to which you will be able to reuse each of the used elements many times – also in other projects. Prepare also a set of connection wires (with male and female plugs on their ends) and

The first step is to solder a female goldpin to GPIO pins on Arduino board. Thanks to this, you will be able to connect any device in any configuration and use for example dedicated frontends (e.g. with male goldpins soldered on). If the I2C converter does not have male leads, a goldpin strip should be soldered there as well. Both components should be connected by correct positioning on the contact board. Converter should have 4 pins on output – it will be power supply (VCC), ground (GND) and SDA and SCL.

Before connecting the power supply make sure exactly what voltage your display requires – it will be 3.3 V or 5 V. Based on this information, connect the VCC pin from your converter to the corresponding voltage on your Arduino board. Of course, you can power the display with an external power supply, but this will only make sense if you connect more components to the board. The GND pin should be connected to the GND pin on the Arduino, and the SDA and SCL pins to the analog inputs on the board.

Oczywiście sposobów podłączania wyświetlacza jest bardzo wiele – te różnią się między sobą przede wszystkim w zależności od wyświetlaczy, ale także w zależności od przyzwyczajeń elektronika oraz od zadania jakie wyświetlacz ma spełniać. Nawet wśród najprostszych wyświetlaczy LCD 2×16 różnice między modelami mogą być stosunkowo duże, dlategoza każdym razem zapoznajmy się z dokumentacją techniczną, nawet jeszcze przed jego kupnem, aby uniknąć niemiłego zaskoczenia, kiedy staniemy przed problemem z podłączeniem lub przedwczesną diagnozą o uszkodzeniu sprzętu.

Arduino is a popular open-source development board used by engineers, hobbyists and makers to develop electronic projects and prototypes in an easy way. The Arduino platform consists of many development boards like Arduino UNO, Arduino Nano, Arduino Mega, Arduino Pro Mini etc.. all of which are based on the series of AVR microcontrollers.

The below list consist of a large collection of free Arduino Projects from Circuit Digest, including basic LCD interfacing, sensor interfacing projects to advanced Bluetooth and Wi-Fi project. All projects consist of neatly illustrated Arduino circuit diagram and detailed explanation, the relevant Arduino code is also provided for a complete do-it-yourself tutorial.

TFT LCD screens combined with Human Machine Interface (HMI) technology result in exciting project ideas applicable to a wide variety of industries. STONE HMI TFT LCD Arduino project ideas. After all, HMI is a smart technology that uses touch to draw out information from both the human user and the display machine.

And when high-quality display screen modules such as STONE Tech’s TFT LCD products are laden with HMI technology, the result is outstanding machine performance capable of bringing out the best in every customer and business.

Now, this article will feature STONE HMI. Furthermore, we will also present some exciting project development initiatives carried out by the company using its vast range of TFT LCD modules paired with HMI technology, and the TFT LCD Arduino project.

Human Machine Interface (HMI) is an interface or dashboard that lets human users interact with a machine. HMI allows users to monitor and control a machine through the use of different touch technologies.

The interface with which HMI works consists of both hardware and software. These two work together to let users input signals using direct or indirect touch (such as by using a special screen stylus) on the machine display. Once the touch signals have been inputted, the machine recognizes them and sends them to the software to begin interpretation. The machine then responds by showing the desired information to the human user.

Information that a user can get from an HMI machine greatly varies depending on the setting with which the machine is used. Here are some examples of common HMI machines and the data it presents to its daily users:

An HMI in the form of a bank ATM can provide a user with financial information such as his bank account balance, withdrawals, deposits, bills payments, phone credit loading, and similar data.

Medical equipment in hospital settings uses HMI to display pertinent information regarding a patient. For instance, a ventilator machine can display data such as vital signs and a selection of possible breathing patterns for the patient. It can also alert medical practitioners when there is a problem with the patient or the machine through alarms and sounds.

Another HMI machine used in daily life is the car dashboard. An on-board car control panel using an intelligent touch screen can be used to display important car information like speed, gas levels, and time. The screen dashboard can also be used to toggle many functions like turning the AC and beam on or off using a single touch.

HMIs are user-friendly by nature. Graphics and colors can easily be added to the display to communicate with the end-users. Any problems arising from the HMI screen can also be detected easily using color codes, alarms, and sounds. Furthermore, you’ll need only a few touches to fix any issues detected by an HMI device.

HMI greatly improves productivity when used in industrial settings. These interactive screens and machines help automate several tasks. While these tasks could be carried out by a human worker, using an HMI machine gets the job done in less time, translating to more work finished by the day’s end.

Several HMI machines have the innate ability to record data. This is especially useful in adjusting machine settings or troubleshooting any mechanical issues. Automatic data gathering can be programmed into the HMI software, allowing the machine’s screen and hardware to capture data through a series of commands.

Using HMI machines in workplaces such as factories and corporate offices increases worker satisfaction. This is because the HMI technology allows workers to interact easily with the machine, automating some of their work and providing them more efficiency.

What makes HMI a good choice for industrial use is that it is fully flexible and customizable to fit several industrial needs. The TFT LCD screen sizes can be tailor-made to suit the HMI’s application. Furthermore, the software that comes with the machines can be adjusted as well.

Another exciting opportunity for HMIs is their ability to connect with the Internet, much like an Internet of Things (IoT) device. This allows greater opportunities for productivity such as remote controlling and network monitoring.

STONE Technologies is a proud manufacturer of superior quality TFT LCD modules and LCD screens. The company also provides intelligent HMI solutions that perfectly fit in with its excellent hardware offerings.

STONE TFT LCD modules come with a microcontroller unit that has a cortex-m4 32-bit CPU. Such a module can easily be transformed into an HMI screen. Simple hexadecimal instructions can be used to control the module through the UART port. Furthermore, you can seamlessly develop STONE TFT LCD color user interface modules and add touch control, features to it.

Each customizable TFT-LCD HMI display module comes with free access to STONE’s dedicated design software. STONE TOOLBox software is an easy-to-use program that allows you to set up graphical user interface functions such as:

STONE TOOLBox features a drag-and-drop mechanism and comes with simple instructions. Hence, even beginning engineers can quickly and seamlessly create an impressive user interface within minutes.

Intricate and intuitive interfaces will require a bit more steps. Nevertheless, using the TOOLBox program allows you to save time on developing HMI projects due to its ease of use.

HMI projects can quickly be done with Stone’s HMI-ready display modules. As previously mentioned, STONEprovides complete modules that include hardware and a free downloadable GUI design software – everything you need to get started on your HMI concept.

With faster project timelines comes greater production savings. Stone’s modules are cost-effective and since they have superior quality, you’re assured of a quick return on investment (ROI) with fewer costs on maintenance and repairs in the long run.

Also, STONE manufactures several TFT LCD touch screen sizes that range from 3.5 to 15.1 inches. Customized options are also available depending on your needs. There are also plenty of options and models for each screen size.

Indeed, STONE produces a plethora of HMI-ready TFT LCD screens. You won’t have a hard time finding the right display module compatible with your microcontroller projects.

Over the years, Stone’s modules have been used to create numerous projects featuring its reputable HMI technology. These project ideas cater to a wide variety of fields and industries.

STONE developed an oxygen monitor for an Italian customer. The monitor uses Stone’s 7-inch TFT LCD screen and was connected to an oxygen tank for medical use.

The end-product featured a touch screen display where fan functions such as speed, dose, and RF are controlled. Moreover, the resulting fan control board can operate at temperatures ranging from -20°C to 70°C, making it a simple yet heavy-duty device.

STONE’s display screen was connected to the Arduino development board through UART. But this required a level conversion achieved by the MAX3232. Meanwhile, the same Arduino board was wired to the MAX30100 module through an IIC interface.

Some modifications to the MAX30100 module were made, specifically to the IIC pull-up resistor. The remainder of the project was finished using Arduino codes to finally create a responsive display for heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring.

This project aims to create a fingerprint door lock that can enter, scan, compare, and delete fingerprints. It utilized an STM32 development board, fingerprint identification module, and Stone’s STVC050WT-01 LCD display.

STONE LCD screen’s role here is to display the fingerprint module’s status. As with all other projects, STONE TOOLBox software was used to generate the user interface flashed on the screen. Meanwhile, Stone’s LCD screen was connected to the development board and fingerprint identification module with MCU through UART-TTL signals.

The idea for this project is a real-time display of pictures collected by the camera on the LCD display screen. The TFT LCD STONE module used for this project is a 7-inch serial display module with 800×480 resolution. A camera module, development board, and some wires are needed to complete the project.

The user interface was designed using STONE TOOLBox and Adobe Photoshop. Then, the hardware parts were wired together; some parts needed welding. After that, a simple program was written following MCU to the command control TFT-LCD module.

This particular project used a STONE serial LCD touch display screen. This functions as the main display for the coffee machine. With the screen installed, you can:

RGB lamps that can be controlled through a touch display – this is the aim of this project idea. STONE’s 7-inch TFT LCD display module in STVC070WT-01 was used to connect and control an RGB lamp.

Last but not least is a basic appliance controller made using STONE’s 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen and an STM32 development board. The touch screen controls lights for various parts of the house. The finished product also collects data about humidity, temperature (indoor and outdoor), and air quality.

This project resulted in a simple electronic scale made by connecting STONE’s 5-inch touch screen to a development board, an ADC conversion module, and a pressure acquisition module. The finished product can:

STONE’s TFT LCD intelligent touch modules can be paired with Arduino technology to automate a variety of processes. This project clearly demonstrates this.

Here, a sensor directly connected to Arduino Uno is monitored by the display screen in real-time. Moreover, two light bulbs connected to Arduino are directly controlled by the display screen as well.

This project is all about making a car display dashboard using a 10.1-inch STONE LCD touch screen. The on-board display interface for a used car contains the following:

We presented an overview of what HMI technology is, how it works, and which applications use it. Also, we covered Stone’s range of HMI-capable TFT LCD display modules. Furthermore, we discussed a lengthy list of exciting project ideas made using Stone’s superior quality HMI displays.

STONE Technologies is truly your best bet for powering your HMI-driven development ideas(projects based on TFT LCD Arduino, STM32, ESP, etc.). Take inspiration from the actual examples we’ve shown you and build your very own HMI display device today.

Have you ever been unsure which display you should be using in your next project? This tutorial from educ8s.tv will come in handy for choosing the best display for your each and every Arduino project!

There are lots of choices, so let’s talk about each one of them. Basically, you have three types of displays: LCD displays, OLED displays, and E-paper displays.

LCD displays: LCD (liquid crystal display) is the technology used for displays in notebook and other smaller computers. Like light-emitting diode (LED) and gas-plasma technologies, LCDs allow displays to be much thinner than cathode ray tube (CRT) technology. LCD display is a flat-panel display or other electronic visual display that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals.

One of the famous LCD displays is Nokia 5110 LCD display, a basic graphic LCD screen for lots of applications. It was originally intended for as a cell phone screen.

Its controller is a low power CMOS LCD controller which makes it a good choice for low-consumption projects. It uses only 0.4mA when it is on and less than 0.06mA when in sleep mode. You have to use this library and you don’t need more than 8 wires to start using this display. This tutorial video will show you with details how to use Nokia 5110 LCD with Arduino:

A second choice is the OLED displays. OLED is an organic light emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescentlayer is a film of organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. An OLED display works without a backlight; it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a liquid crystal display. Thus, it is provides better contrast than the LCD choice but it becomes a bit more expensive.

Unlike LCD or OLED displays, these displays reflect light instead of emitting it. Such displays are great for low power projects since they have the ability to keep the text or the image you had set before for a really long time and without electricity. One of these displays disadvantages that they are absolutely costly compared with other choices, some displays can reach $60!

The tutorial concludes with this interactive table based on different criteria, this is ordered progressively by price. You can compare between displays here.