lcd module 16x2 soldering factory

16×2 LCD is an Alphanumeric display that can show up to 32 characters on a single screen. You can display more characters by scrolling the texts one by one. The I2C Module is used to reduce the no. of pins needed for the display. It enables the display to work with only four pins.

Most projects require an LCD display to communicate with the user in a better way. Some projects required to display warnings, errors, Sensor values, State of the input and output device, Selecting different modes of operations, Time and date display, Alert message and many more. This will give the project a better view and its operation in a more visual way.

A 16×2 LCD means it can display 16 characters per line and there are 2 such lines. In this LCD each character is displayed in 5×7 pixel matrix. This LCD has two registers, namely, Command and Data.

The command register stores the command instructions given to the LCD. A command is an instruction given to LCD to do a predefined task like initializing it, clearing its screen, setting the cursor position, controlling display etc.

If you want to test the i2c signals and the internal LCD RAM, you can use the hd44780 library and run the run the included I2CexpDiag diagnostic test.

I"m a total noob on Arduino here, and this is my first project on 16x2 LCD, 4x4 keypad and others. So, the story is, after I uploaded the program for my group"s Arduino alarm clock to the Arduino board, the LCD displays black boxes on the first row of the LCD. Plus, when I disconnected the board from my computer and connected the board to a 5V adaptor, the LCD didn"t display anything.

I"ve already searched the possible causes from the Internet, and mainly they said that either the initialization of the LCD is wrong or there are problems on the soldering. My friend and I concluded that there are no problem with the soldering, but we don"t know where the problem is in the program.

The thing is, we didn"t have any connection for the backlight of the LCD since we have no potentiometer. I tried to control the contrast and brightness of the LCD by using the Arduino, but I can"t understand anything since I"m a total noob.

LCDs usually come without a microcontroller to control the display. To connect, you will need a strip of header pins, a potentiometer to adjust the contrast of the display, breadboard, and wires. Depending on the LCD, you may need a current limiting resistor to to limit the current to the LED backlight. You will need to solder the header pins of your choice to the display in order to plug it into your breadboard. If you have not soldered before, we recommend looking at our soldering tutorial.

While you can use any standard 16x2 alphanumeric LCD, the white on black display supplied with the kit looks übercool. The photographs in this guide are of a standard black on green display so yours may look different. The "16x2" refers to the display having two rows of sixteen characters each — other displays are available which are 8x1 or 20x4.

It is pretty straightforward to solder the header pins to the LCD module. Make sure to keep the soldering iron in contact with the joints for no more than about three seconds. There small risk of the damaging the existing components on the board with excess heat. You also need to be careful to keep the soldering iron away from the already soldered components on the board — you"re probably not yet ready to do surface mount soldering repair.

Before soldering, perform a "test fit" of parts. A test fit gives you a chance to double check if you"ve got the parts you need and ensures that they fit together. For this connection, break a row of 16x1 male headers and insert the header pins into the holes on the LCD module as shown in the image below. If you are using an RGB LED, you will need a row of 18x1 male headers.

Ensure that you don"t have one pin too many or too few in your header strip. Also make sure the black plastic strip of the header is positioned on the underside of the printed circuit board (PCB) so that you have plenty of pin length below the PCB to plug into your breadboard or a socket. The longest part of the pins should be below the PCB. The pin header provides connections that carry the data signals for controlling what the display... displays. They also carry power to the small microcontroller behind the black blob on the module and to the LED backlight if your display has one.

Because there"s not a lot of room it is easiest to feed the solder from behind pin while the soldering iron tip is between the pins, resting on the PCB pad with the side of iron against the side of pin you"re soldering. The reason we start with just one pin is because it makes it easier to obtain the correct alignment and fix any mistakes.

Once you"re happy with the alignment of the header you can solder another pin into place — we recommend soldering the pin at the opposite end of the header to the first pin you soldered. The reason for this is that once the two end pins are in place, the alignment won"t change.

Your display module should now look like the image below. One additional detail to note is that the pin header is usually at the "top" of the display — so keep that in mind if you plan to mount it anywhere. Remember to always test the display out before mounting to a project.

First, cutting the purchased large glass substrate into an lcd glass substrate with a corresponding size and cleaning the glass substrate. The glass substrate is combined and the liquid crystal is filled, the two glass substrates are fixed at a fixed interval, the frame glue and the conductive adhesive are sealed on the edge of the two pieces of glass and leave one or two notches, the liquid crystal panel is placed in the vacuum chamber, air of the liquid crystal panel is pumped out through the reserved gap.

The liquid crystal is then filled with atmospheric pressure, and the filling opening is closed by using the uv glue, and the liquid crystal filling process is completed. And the angle of the two polarizers is parallel to the angle of the pi alignment film of the color filter and the tft, and the polarizer is made to be finished. The imaging of the liquid crystal display requires the use of polarized light. And the front and the back of the liquid crystal panel are respectively provided with a piece of polarized light to be stuck on the liquid crystal glass to form a liquid crystal sheet with a total thickness of about 1 mm. If any one of the polarizers is missing, the LCD panel is not able to display the image. The drive ic (drive ic is an important driving part for controlling the liquid crystal color and the gray-scale brightness switch) on the outside of the liquid crystal panel, The ic chip in the process of releasing acf (anisotropic conductive adhesive), the discharge chip, the alignment check, the chip crimping, the sealing glue, the detection and the like is pressed and stuck between the ic chip and the ic chip, and the ic is pre-pressed and then pressed in the binding ic process. Use the acf to press the end points together as required, and then seal with the sealing adhesive.

At this time, a liquid crystal panel equipped with a chip has formed a complete lcd module. The fpc flexible circuit board is connected with the lcd module through the acf bonding, and the fpc flexible circuit board is connected with the lcd module to realize the connection of the external driving circuit. The manufacturing process mainly comprises the steps of acf pre-sticking, pre-bonding, primary bonding, detection and the like. A mounting device for manufacturing a printed circuit board (smt) is used for sticking a mounting element such as a chip, a resistor and a capacitor on a corresponding pad position of a pcb (printed circuit board) with a solder paste, and then carrying out reflow soldering high-temperature welding to complete a manufacturing process of the electronic component to be fixed on the pcb. And the finished printed circuit board is connected with the fpc flexible circuit board or the lcd liquid crystal module to realize the connection of the external driving circuit. And finally, the glue is coated and solidified, and the assembly process of the lcd liquid crystal module is finished.

RX1602N is a COG type character LCD module with IC ST7028 exclusive for VATN displays, and it supports I2C serial interface. Logic power supply 3.3V. RX1602N has FPC as its connection method, and the backlight AK pins are also soldered on the FPC. Customers can use ZIP Connector to control the connection, and a hook is added to the side of the backlight mechanism to fix the entire module. With FPC connection, there’s no need to reserve a space on the PCB for soldering the display. This FPC connection also makes it more convenient to repair or replace with new displays.

The 16x2 Alphanumeric LCD Display Module is equally popular among hobbyists and professionals for its affordable price and easy to use nature. As the name suggests the 16x2 Alphanumeric LCD can show 16 Columns and 2 Rows therefore a total of (16x2) 32 characters can be displayed. Each character can either be an alphabet or number or even a custom character. This particular LCD gas a green backlight, you can also get a Blue Backlight LCD to make your projects stand our and visually appealing, apart from the backlight color both the LCD have the same specifications hence they can share the same circuit and code. If your projects require more characters to be displayed you can check the 20x4 Graphical LCD which has 20 Columns and 4 Rows and hence can display up to 80 characters.

The 16x2 LCD pinout diagram is shown below. As you can see the module has (from right) two power pins Vss and Vcc to power the LCD. Typically Vss should be connected to ground and Vcc to 5V, but the LCD can also operate from voltage between 4.7V to 5.3V. Next, we have the control pins namely Contrast (VEE), Register Select (RS), Read/Write (R/W) and Enable (E). The Contrast pin is used to set the contrast (visibility) of the characters, normally it is connected to a 10k potentiometer so that the contrast can be adjusted. The Read/Write pin will be grounded in most cases because we will only be writing characters to the LCD and not read anything from it. The Register Select (RS) and Enable pin (E) pin are the control pins of the LCD and will be connected to the digital pins GPIO pins of the microcontroller. These pins are used to instruct the LCD where place a character when to clear it etc.

From DB0 to DB7 we have our eight Data Pins which are used to send information about the characters that have to be displayed on the LCD. The LCD can operate in two different modes, in the 4-bit Modeonly pins DB4 to DB7 will be used and the pins DB0 to DB3 will be left idle. In 8-bit Mode, all the eight-pin DB0 to DB7 will be used. Most commonly the 4-bit mode is preferred since it uses only 4 Data pins and thus reduces complexity and GPIO pin requirement on the microcontroller.Finally, we have the LED+ and LED- pins which are used to power the backlight LED inside our Display module. Normally the LED+ pin is connected to 5V power through a 100 ohm current limiting resistor and the LED- pin is connected to Ground.

This article about soldering techniques is the second on a series written by Barbara Dutra, an exchange engineering student from Brazil, currently attending Arizona State University, college of electrical engineering. She is currently an intern at Focus Display Solutions.

The majority of Liquid Crystal Displays require electronic components to be attached to the LCD Glass via a printed circuit board. These components are permanently attached using solder via LCD soldering techniques.

The soldering of electronic components is the act of joining two pieces mechanically by melting a combination of metals that becomes a permanent adhesive once cooled.

There are many types of soldering tools and methods used depending on the application. For example, there is the soldering of mechanical parts with special materials in large equipment such as aviation, or solders used in very small scale applications such as in Surface Mount Devices (SMD) components, and finally there is one extremely delicate type of soldering processes used in the case of the amendment in optical fibers.

A poor solder connection can seriously reduce or cut the flow of current causing the circuit to fail in its operation. ( Note: A poor LCD solder connection increases the amount of resistance. The higher the resistance the more heat that is generated and the more power required to operate the device. This is a critical concern in battery powered applications that have a LCD and a Liquid crystal module with a backlight.)

The soldering station is used for SMD components in the industrial manufacturing of some PCB assemblies used in such products as display modules, cell phones and computer boards.

Soldering irons have a hollow base with a heating element located inside. Its tip, which is typically copper covered by another material that allows the transfer of heat, becomes heated when the iron is turned on.

The soldering gun contains an iron tip which heats almost instantaneously when the trigger is pressed. It also contains a small lamp to illuminate the place where soldering is taking place. This iron is suitable for heavier soldering applications or large components with thicker terminals that require more heat.

The majority of industrial countries now require ROHS approved solder and soldering techniques. The use of ROHS solder in Liquid crystal displays has not increased its cost or lead-time.

Before starting the soldering process, a bit of solder is applied to the tip of the soldering iron, this allows heat to be passed from the heating element to the copper contact.

The tip of the soldering iron is briefly placed simultaneously against both the leads of the component and the copper of the trace. The solder flows into the hole and forms a strong electrical bond as the solder cools down to room temperature.

Warning: This operation must be quick so that the soldering iron heat does not damage the track or electronic component. If there is excess solder or join is faulty, the solder can be reheated and removed with the use of the nozzle.

Soldering of SMD"s is more complex for a variety of reasons such as exposure to high temperatures and soldering conditions. The SMD components have very small terminals for soldering, and they are on the copper side of the board that will be exposed to heat. The risk of heat damages to the components is much higher than in a conventional method of mounting components with through-hole.

There are two welding processes: wave soldering and reflux soldering. The majority of Chip on Board (COB) LCDs contain a combination of both SMD (sometimes called SMT for surface mount technology) and through-hole.

In the wave solder process, the board should be reversed to receive the wave soldering, so it is required that the components are pre-pasted with an epoxy adhesive. On a conveyor belt, the board passes through a tub with solder alloy in liquid state.

In the case of reflux soldering, the components on the LCD are placed on the board that will be carried by a belt into an oven. A solder paste is applied to the plate and this paste is melted in the oven, soldering all components. This process will solder the components of the upper part of board. Then the plate goes to the soldering wave form, where the lower side components are soldered.

When a SMD component is defective or poorly welded, in some cases, the issue can be corrected using a soldering iron. However, an experienced person is required for this to be carried out due to the very precise work involved.

First remove the solder and then the soldering iron. Do not move the terminal until the solder cools and never "blow" on the solder. This may create air bubbles to form creating a poor solder joint and increasing resistance in the circuit or misalignment of the component.

Once the solder is cooled, tap the terminal with a wire cutter to make sure that soldering is secure and cut off the excess terminal with cutting pliers.

Note: "flow soldering" should not be used for soldering printed circuits due to their acidic nature which can corrode from their residues, thereby damaging the components.

A good LCD soldering joint will be shiny and even, a poor LCD soldering joint will have a dull appearance and be filled with holes or gaps that allow for the component to break free. Also, a poor solder joint will create more resistance.

The LCD soldering may have a good bond with the lead of the component, but a bad contact with the trace on the PCB. This can happen by insufficient heating of the lead, or the printed circuit board is dirty or rusty. Below is an image of this type of solder failure.

The image below shows a good LCD soldering contact with the trace, but little adhesion to the lead of the component. Note the lack of contact between the lead and the solder.

This can be a major headache since the LCD soldering will look good and you will have a difficult time locating which solder joint is causing the broken circuit.

The image below shows a poor LCD soldering weld that can occur on a solder joint for a LCD Display. The component will behave as if there is no connection at all.

Contact Focus Display Solutions for any questions or concerns you have regarding LCD soldering requirements for LCD displays. We are based in Chandler, Arizona and support customers in the US and Canada.

The Biomaker Stage-2 component pack contains a liquid crystal display (LCD) capable of displaying 2 lines of 16 characters (right). The device is equipped with an I2C interface backpack, that allows serial communication with the device. (This is the black-coloured circuit board soldered to the back of the green-coloured LCD board). The I2C interface allows communication with the LCD screen through two wires plus power supply, rather than 8+ wires required by a parallel port device. The I2C protocol allows comunication with multiple devices on the same 2 wire bus. Each device needs a unique address, usually set in the hardware.

The LCD display is powered by a 5V supply and draws about 25mA with the backlight on, and 2mA without. The green coloured backlight sits behind black coloured characters. The characters are formed in two lines of 16 characters in 5x7 dot matrices.

XOD provides the software node text-lcd-16x2-i2c, that allows direct communication with the display, with inputs for each line of the display (see below). The address of the i2C device should be set at 27h using the ADDR parameter.

Advanced use: If you which to use multiple LCD displays on the I2C bus, you can add solder bridges to the jumpers A0, A1 and A2 on the I2C backpack - in order to change the address of each device, and allow them to be individually addressed. The supplied I2C backpack has a PCF8574T chip: and the IC address is (high order first) 0100 A2 A1 A0. When shipped, A2~A0 are all vacant. The default I2C address therefore: 0100 111 (0x27). If you want to modify the address yourself add the relevant jumpers, noting that floating address pad is 1, and the short circuit is 0 after adding a solder bridge.

Important: There is a potentiometer that controls the contrast setting of the display. It is a controlled by a black plastic wheel at the front left edge of the LCD screen. (Contrast can also be adjusted using the blue potentiometer on the I2C backpack). The contrast setting requires fine adjustment, and the screen will appear blank and unresponsive if badly adjusted. If, on first use, you want to check that the LCD screen is correctly connected (i.e. are using the correct I2C address), use a XOD node to switch the backlight on and off. If that works, load some text into the screen, and adjust the contrast for best legibility.

Newhaven 16x2 character Liquid Crystal Display shows characters with bright pixels on a black background. The RGB display includes three backlight colors built into each display, which enables you to choose from a red, green or a blue backlight color. You can also mix the intensities of those colors to create new custom colors. This transmissive LCD Display requires a backlight for visibility while offering a wide operating temperature range from -20 to 70 degrees Celsius. This NHD-0216K1Z-NS(RGB)-FBW-rev1 display has an optimal view of 6:00, operates at 5V supply voltage and is RoHS compliant.

Easily modify any connectors on your display to meet your application’s requirements. Our engineers are able to perform soldering for pin headers, boxed headers, right angle headers, and any other connectors your display may require.

Luckily, some pieces of equipment have a relatively short list of well-known failure modes, a fact that [Lauri Pirttiaho] relied on for this fix of an old Weller WD1 soldering station. The unit, sporting the familiar light blue Weller livery and more than a few scratches and dings, had an LCD that was DOA. Typically it’s the driver that’s the problem here, but [Lauri]’s diagnosis revealed it was the LCD module itself that was bad.

With OEM replacements being basically unobtainium at this point, the fix was to intercept the data heading from the driver to the old LCD and send it to a new, easily sourced 16×2 character LCD display. This began with an inspection of the display controller’s datasheet, and a bit of probing of the old display to find out which segments and backplanes map to which pins. A little bit of case modding allowed the new display to fit, the old controller chip was removed, and a PIC16 went into its place, in a tidy nest of Kapton tape and bodge wires. The PIC does the job of translating the original display, which had a fair number of custom icons and symbols, into sensible text-based equivalents and sending them to the 16×2 via I2C. The video below shows the hack in action; it honestly looks like it could have come from the factory like that.