lcd display python manufacturer
Based on those MakePython solutions, Makerfabs can also help to customize those boards with customer’s special requests. Contact sales@makerfabs.com for detailed info and further discussion.
Python is one of the most widely used, simple, and easy-to-learn programming languages around. MicroPython is a lean implementation of the Python 3 programming language that has been pared down to run efficiently on microcontrollers.
This MakePython ESP32 Color LCD is the color LCD version of the MakePython ESP32. The only difference is that this version using a colorful 1.3 inch LCD ST7789, which makes the boards suitable for applications that need a colorful display. Besides, also this version has 2 optional for users: WROOM(NO PSRAM) and WROVER(8MB PSRAM).
The MakePython ESP32 color LCD board is programmed with MicroPython by default, users can begin the MicroPython development as getting them on hand. There"s also the Makerfabs MakePython ESP8266.
The Sitronix ST7789 is a driver chip for small color IPS LCD displays that supports SPI interfaces. This example uses a 2-inch color LDC display manufactured by Waveshare with a retail price of approximately $13 or $14.75 on Amazon Prime.
Note: The ST7789 uses a SPI interfaces but not a true standard SPI protocol. The device only uses MOSI (DIN) to send data from master to slave for LCD display. Only four wires are needed to connect from the Pico to the device.
For most LCD controllers, the communication method of the controller can be configured, they are usually using 8080 parallel interface, 3-line SPI, 4-line SPI, and other communication methods. This LCD uses a 4-line SPI interface for reducing GPIO and fast speed.LCD
This is CircuitPython sample program. You need to include this library in your CIRCUITPY/lib folder. You can download it from CircuitPython Library Bundle.adafruit_st7735r.mpy
The principle of the LCD1602 liquid crystal display is to use the physical characteristics of the liquid crystal to control the display area by voltage, that is, the graphic can be displayed.
Features: Easy to use; Less I/O ports are occupied; Support IIC Protocol; The I2C LCD1602 library is easy to get; With a potentiometer used to adjust backlight and contrast; Blue backlight; Power supply: 5v; I2C address is: 0x27.
The schematic is, CS (Chip Select), RST(Reset) and A0 (Register Select) can be connected to any 3 GPIO pins. In this example, 8,24 and 25 are default values. Different values can be specified as parameters when instantiating the ST7565 Python class. SCLK (Serial Clock) on the GLCD goes to GPIO 11 which is the Pi’s serial clock. SID (Serial Input Data) on the GLCD goes to GPIO 10 on the Pi which is MOSI. GPIO 10 and 11 must be used for SID and SCLK. Vdd is connected to a 3.3V pin on the PI and the grounds are also connected.
The LCD has a RGB backlight. The LED pins can go to GPIO’s 16,20 and 21. To control the color from the Pi, specifying RGB pins when instantiate the ST7565 class. The resistors must be placed in series to limit the current to prevent LED breakdown. The LED brightness can be changed by using different values of resistors. It will be best to adjust the current to be around 20mA, of course, different values will result in a different mix of colors. It is very difficult to mix a pure white color. Please calculate the resistor value carefully, at 40mA, the LED brightness will decrease sharply with time, with the current of close to 60mA, the LED might be breakdown and be permanently damaged.
The display is 128 pixels horizontal by 64 pixels vertical. The LCD can be broken into 8 horizontal pages. They are numbered from 3 to 0 and 7 to 4 up to down. Each page includes 128 columns and 8 rows of pixels. To address the pixels, specifying the page and column number, and send a byte to fill 8 vertical pixels at once.
The display has SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) to connect to Pi. SPI requires 3 lines MOSI, MISO and Clock. The Pi is the master and the GLCD is the slave. In this example, Only writing to GLCD and not ready, so the connection to MOSI and Clock lines are needed. MOSI is the output from the Pi to the GLCD and the Clock synchronizes the timing.
From the raspi-config menu, select Advanced Options, then SPI. Then select Yes for “ Would like the SPI interface to be enabled”. Hit OK, Reboot. Select Yes for “ the SPI kernel module to be loaded by default”. Reboot the Pi after enabling SPI. Then test SPI using IsmodIt should return SPI_bcm2708 or spi_bcm2835 depending on the Pi version. The python SPI library requires python2.7 dev which can be installed with apt-get install:
The main ST7565 library (st7565.py) handles drawing, text & bitmaps, and a font module (xglcd_font.py) to load X-GLCD fonts. Here are the basic drawing commands which to create points, lines, rectangles, circles, ellipses, and regular polygons:For more details, please refer to the reference below or contact our engineers.
In this tutorial, we will Control a 16x2 LCD Display using Raspberry Pi. We will connect the LCD to GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pins of PI to display characters on it. We will write a program in PYTHON to send the appropriate commands to the LCD through GPIO and display the needed characters on its screen. This screen will come in handy to display sensor values, interrupt status and also for displaying time.
There are different types of LCDs in the market. Graphic LCD is more complex than 16x2 LCD. So here we are going for 16x2 LCD display, you can even use 16x1 LCD if you want. 16x2 LCD has 32 characters in total, 16 in 1st line and another 16 in 2nd line. JHD162 is 16x2 LCD Module characters LCD. We have already interfaced 16x2 LCD with 8051, AVR, Arduino etc. You can find all our 16x2 LCD related project by following this link.
There are +5V (Pin 2 or 4) and +3.3V (Pin 1 or 17) power output pins on the board, these are for connecting other modules and sensors. We are going to power the 16*2 LCD through the +5V rail.We can send control signal of +3.3v to LCD but for working of LCD we need to power it by +5V. The LCD will not work with +3.3V.
As shown in the Circuit Diagram, we have Interfaced Raspberry Pi with LCD display by connecting 10 GPIO pins of PI to the 16*2 LCD’s Control and Data Transfer Pins. We have used GPIO Pin 21, 20, 16, 12, 25, 24, 23, and 18 as a BYTE and created ‘PORT’ function to send data to LCD. Here GPIO 21 is LSB (Least Significant Bit) and GPIO18 is MSB (Most Significant Bit).
16x2 LCD Module has 16 pins, which can be divided into five categories, Power Pins, contrast pin, Control Pins, Data pins and Backlight pins. Here is the brief description about them:
6. Once this E pin goes low, the LCD process the received data and shows the corresponding result. So this pin is set to high before sending data and pulled down to ground after sending data.
As said we are going to send the characters one after the other. The characters are given to LCD by ASCII codes (American standard Code for Information Interchange). The table of ASCII codes is shown below. For example, to show a character “@”, we need to send a hexadecimal code “40”. If we give value 0x73 to the LCD it will display “s”. Like this we are going to send the appropriate codes to the LCD to display the string “CIRCUITDIGEST”.
Hey everyone, in this tutorial we are going to interface a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) module with the Raspberry Pi Pico using Micropython. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to display strings, characters on the LCD using Micropython. Before beginning this tutorial, I"m presuming that you"ve already followed our tutorial series on Raspberry Pi Pico. Previously we have worked with an OLED display and we have seen the I2C and ADC on the Raspberry Pi Pico. Now, let’s see how to interface an LCD display module with the pico board.
The 16x2 LCD gets its name from the fact that it contains 16 columns and 2 rows. As a result, it will contain a total of (16x2=32) 32 characters, with each character consisting of 5x8 Pixel Dots. The image below depicts a single character with all of its pixels.
Each character has a size of (5x8=40) 40 pixels, giving us a total of (32x40) 1280 pixels for 32 characters. Additionally, the LCD instructions should be told where the pixels are located. As a result, controlling everything using a microcontroller will be challenging. So, an interface IC, such as the HD44780, is used on the backside of the LCD Module. More information is available in the HD44780 Datasheet.
This IC"s job is to take commands and data from the MCU and process them so that relevant information may be shown on the LCD screen. Without a backlight, the LCD"s working voltage ranges from 4.7 to 5.3 volts and its current usage is 1mA. It is capable of working in both 8-bit and 4-bit modes. These LCDs come with a green or blue backlight and may also show any characters created by the user.
The LCD display will have 16 Pins. ThePinout and Pin Description of the 16x2 LCD Module is mentioned in the table below. You can refer to this article on 16x2 LCD Display Module on our website for more details about the LCD pinouts.
The following circuit diagram is representing the connection of the LCD to the Raspberry Pi Pico. I have used a potentiometer to control the brightness of the LCD display. The 4-bit data pins (i.e. D4 to D7) are connected to the GPIOs 18,19,20,21 respectively. The Rs pin of the LCD is connected to the GPIO 16 and the E pin is connected to the GPIO 17. The output of the potentiometer is connected to the V0 pin of the LCD and the VBUS pin is connected to the input terminal of the potentiometer. This VBUS pin of the pico is used to power the LCD via VDD pin of the LCD. Pin number 15 of the LCD is connected to the VDD pin of the LCD to provide the power supply of 5V and Pin number 16 of the LCD is connected to the Ground pin followed by the RW pin of the LCD.
To program the LCD with Raspberry Pi Pico using Micropython, you need to download the respective library and code files from our GITHUB repository of the Raspberry Pi Pico Tutorial Series. When you open the “codes”, you will get two python files named “lcd_pico.py” and “main.py”. The “lcd_pico” can be used as a library to program the LCD display with Raspberry Pi Pico using Micropython. In the “main.py” file I have used some functions from the “lcd_pico.py” file to display some strings on the LCD. Let’s discuss both python files one by one.
In the “lcd_pico.py” file, we have imported two libraries “machine.py” and the “utime.py”. The machine library contains the built-in functions to define the Pins, GPIOs, etc. The “utime” library is used to provide the delay in the code. Then I have defined the GPIO pins for the 4-bit data pins of the LCD and the RS and E pin of the LCD. The “machine.Pin(16,machine.Pin.OUT)” is used to set the GPIO21 as OUTPUT and assign this in the “rs” variable. Similarly, the GPIOs 17 to 21 are set as OUTPUT pins and assigned to the “e”, “d4”, “d5”, “d6”, and “d7” variables respectively.
The “setCursor(line,pos)” function below is used to set the position of the cursor. We need to pass two parameters “line” and “pos”. In my case, I am using the 16x2 LCD which has 2 lines to set the cursor. And the “pos” is used to set the position where we want to print the data.
TheclearScreen() function is used to clear the display screen and the setupLCD() function is used to initialized the LCD. We need to use the setupLCD() function at the starting of our main code. The displayString() is used to display any String data. This function takes three parameters that are “row”, “col” and the “input_string”. The “row” and “col” are used to set the cursor position and the “input_string” is used to pass the string that needs to be print on the LCD.
In the main.py file, I have imported the “lcd_pico” library and then I have called the “setupLCD()” function. Then I used the “displayString()” function to print the following strings. In this function, I have passed the “row” and “col” to set the cursor position and then I have passed the strings to be displayed on the LCD. The longDelay() function is used to provide the delay in microseconds.
In the while loop below I have used the displayString() to display the “CIRCUIT DIGEST” with 1.5 seconds of interval. The clearScreen() is used to clear the display screen in every 1.5 Seconds.
Now, in the Thonny IDE, open the “main.py” and “lcd_pico.py” files. To begin, save the “lcd_pico.py” file on the Pico board by pressing the “ctrl+shift+s” keys on your keyboard. Before saving the files, make sure your Pico board is connected to your laptop. When you save the code, a popup window will appear, as shown in the image below. You must first select the Raspberry Pi Pico, then name the file “lcd_pico.py”andsave it. Then repeat the process for the“main.py” file. This procedure enables you to run the program when the Pico is turned on.
When you upload and run the code on the pico board, you will see the output similar to the images below. The first image is showing the “WELCOME” string in the first row of the LCD and “TO” string in the second row of the LCD. Then after 4 seconds of delay, it is displaying the “CIRCUIT” string in the 1st line of the LCD and “DIGEST” string in the 2nd line of the LCD.
which uses the KS0066 display controller the memory start offsets (+ no. of Cursor Shifts Required) are displayed in the photo"s of said "LCM1604" blue display here: https://www.cpmspectrepi.uk/raspberry_p ... .282017.29
In this experiment, we will be building on the previous experiment by adding an LCD screen and writing a script to display the temperature sensor data on it. If you start thinking about how to run this in the background, we have something planned for that too!
The LCD screen is a 16x2 display, meaning it has 2 rows of 16 columns (characters). It has an LED backlight to illuminate the display even in the dark!
To get this experiment up and running, we’ll be using the same temperature sensor circuit from the previous experiment, but we’ll also be connecting the I2C display to the Omega so we can display the temperature on it. The code we write will tie the two together, but the build will borrow heavily from the previous experiment.
Note that this time, we’re using the 5V pin instead of the 3.3V source that we’ve been using previously. This is because the display requires a higher voltage to run.
All done! If everything is connected properly, the LCD should light up with a bright green background and a row of black boxes on the top row. If it doesn’t light up, check that the jumper on the back of the LCD is firmly connected to the LED pins hanging off the side.
If the display lights up but you can’t see any black boxes, you may need to adjust the contrast on the display. There is a small grey screw on the back; use a Philips screwdriver to turn it and adjust it so that the boxes appear. This will define how clear the text will be on the display.
Wouldn’t it be nice if something could run the script for us every minute to actually update the LCD? We will get there in a bit, but for now, let’s take a look at how the code works.
Here we’ve introduced the Onion I2C module. The Python module takes care of the complexities in working with I2C devices, exposing a set of easy to work with functions. In the process, we’ve also started to let multiple objects interact with each other - actually making apparent the benefits of abstraction.
We wrote this module to make it easy for you to use the I2C bus. I2C based electronics are designed to operate with a minimum of instructions and very specific signalling between host and client. Our I2C modules does all the signalling and contact establishing for you so you only need to worry about sending the correct data and reading the correct registers. For a detailed look on how it works, we’ve written up a software reference to our I2C Python Module.
In the code, we specifically use two main functions of the library: the constructor and i2c.write(). The constructor creates an I2C device object with the given address. The i2c.write() function then writes a list of bytes to the device’s address (without specifying the memory location on the device). The LCD display requires specific commands in order to activate its different write modes which the lcdDriver class wraps up nicely, making our final execution script quite compact.
Here we’re using two objects of different classes to accomplish our goal, TemperatureSensor and Lcd. If we had other devices we wanted to include in this experiment, we can write more class definitions and load them using the import statement.
We can use the cron Linux utility to automatically run the script once every minute, without having to tie up your system by leaving Python running. Since cron executes from elsewhere in the Linux system, we’ll have the give it the absolute path to our scripts.
To briefly explain, the asterisks (*) mean ‘for all instances’. The position of the asterisk corresponds to ‘minute’, ‘hour’, ‘date’, ‘month’, and ‘year’ in order from left to right. The path at the end is the script or command you want to run. Basically, this line tells cron to run the STK09-temperatureLCD.py script once a minute.
Raspberry Pi 16×2 LCD I2C Interfacing and Python Programming– I have been using 16×2 LCD for quite a long time in different Arduino and IoT related projects. You know we have two types of the 16×2 LCD, the normal one used more wires and the other one is based on the I2C interface which needs only two wires.
If you have the plain version of this display then this tutorial is not for you. The plain version is not practical anyway it would use a lot of GPIO Pins and it has a complicated programming requirement.
With this version you need only four pins and the programming model is very simple. Other than the display you will need some wires. This is what I will be using.
The backpack module uses the I-squred-C (or I2C) protocol to communicate with the Raspberry Pi, which uses only two wires: SDA and SCL (data and clock). Please note that the display is a 5 volt device, and it is powered by 5 volts, but due to design of the I2C protocol, and the fact that the Raspberry Pi is the controlling device, it is safe to connect such display to the Raspberry Pi directly.
I suggest using wires of different colors to connect the LCD display. This minimizes the risk of damage due to incorrect connections. For example, I’m using
I use the cobbler connector with a breadboard, but the display can be connected to the GPIO headers directly, you’ll just need to use different wires. 5 volts and ground connections are close to each other here, while the SDA and SCL line are connected on the opposite side.
Before you start using the I2C 16×2 LCD display with Python, you need to make sure that the I2C protocol is enabled on your Raspberry Pi. You can use the sudo raspi-config utility to take care of that. This program is navigated using keyboard arrows, tab and the Enter key. Look for I2C in the interfacing options and enable it. Enabling I2C requires a reboot.
And you can also adjust the contrast using a small Phillips screwdriver. Set it somewhere in the middle. Be careful not to short anything with the screwdriver while you make the adjustment. Looks like my display is ready to go.
The 27 hexadecimal addresses happen to be the most common, but your display’s address may be different. For example, it could be 3f. This will depend on the chip version of the backpack module. As long as the i2cdetect command shows the display is connected, you are good to go.
The easiest way to program this 16×2 I2C LCD display in Python is by using a dedicated library. There are many to choose from. I like things simple, so the library I recommend is rpi_lcd.
This library has the default 27 address hard-coded. If your display has a different address you will need to change it. You need to find the library on your system and the following command should do that for you.
I use the clear function at the end of the program, otherwise the message will stay on the display after the program ends. The two numbers (1 and 2) at the end of the text function indicate which line of the display to use.
This is an opportunity to adjust the contrast, especially if the display does not show anything, if you don’t see the “Hello, Raspberry Pi!” message. The adjustment only affects the letters, not the backlight. The backlight in this model is not adjustable, it’s always on, but you can turn it off by removing the jumper on the backpack.
If you plan on using an LCD with your Raspberry Pi, there’s a good chance you’ll need to program it in Python at some point. Python is probably the most popular programming language for coding on the Raspberry Pi, and many of the projects and examples you’ll find are written in Python.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to connect your LCD and program it in Python, using the RPLCD library. I’ll start with showing you how to connect it in either 8 bit mode or 4 bit mode. Then I’ll explain how to install the library, and provide examples for printing and positioning text, clearing the screen, and controlling the cursor. I’ll also give you examples for scrolling text, creating custom characters, printing data from a sensor, and displaying the date, time, and IP address of your Pi.
You can also connect the LCD via I2C, which uses only two wires, but it requires some extra hardware. Check out our article, How to Setup an I2C LCD on the Raspberry Pi to see how.
There are two ways to connect the LCD to your Raspberry Pi – in 4 bit mode or 8 bit mode. 4 bit mode uses 6 GPIO pins, while 8 bit mode uses 10. Since it uses up less pins, 4 bit mode is the most common method, but I’ll explain how to set up and program the LCD both ways.
Each character and command is sent to the LCD as a byte (8 bits) of data. In 8 bit mode, the byte is sent all at once through 8 data wires, one bit per wire. In 4 bit mode, the byte is split into two sets of 4 bits – the upper bits and lower bits, which are sent one after the other over 4 data wires.
Theoretically, 8 bit mode transfers data about twice as fast as 4 bit mode, since the entire byte is sent all at once. However, the LCD driver takes a relatively long time to process the data, so no matter which mode is being used, we don’t really notice a difference in data transfer speed between 8 bit and 4 bit modes.
If this is your first time writing and running a Python program, you might want to read How to Write and Run a Python Program on the Raspberry Pi, which will explain everything you need to know to run the examples below.
The RPLCD library can be installed from the Python Package Index, or PIP. It might already be installed on your Pi, but if not, enter this at the command prompt to install it:
The example programs below use the Raspberry Pi’s physical pin numbers, not the BCM or GPIO numbers. I’m assuming you have your LCD connected the way it is in the diagrams above, but I’ll show you how to change the pin connections if you need to.
Let’s start with a simple program that will display “Hello world!” on the LCD. If you have a different sized LCD than the 16×2 I’m using (like a 20×4), change the number of columns and rows in line 2 of the code. cols= sets the number of columns, and rows= sets the number of rows. You can also change the pins used for the LCD’s RS, E, and data pins. The data pins are set as pins_data=[D0, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7].
The text can be positioned anywhere on the screen using lcd.cursor_pos = (ROW, COLUMN). The rows are numbered starting from zero, so the top row is row 0, and the bottom row is row 1. Similarly, the columns are numbered starting at zero, so for a 16×2 LCD the columns are numbered 0 to 15. For example, the code below places “Hello world!” starting at the bottom row, fourth column:
The RPLCD library provides several functions for controlling the cursor. You can have a block cursor, an underline cursor, or a blinking cursor. Use the following functions to set the cursor:
Text will automatically wrap to the next line if the length of the text is greater than the column length of your LCD. You can also control where the text string breaks to the next line by inserting \n\r where you want the break to occur. The code below will print “Hello” to the top row, and “world!” to the bottom row.
This program will print the IP address of your ethernet connection to the LCD. To print the IP of your WiFi connection, just change eth0 in line 19 to wlan0:
Each character on the LCD is an array of 5×8 of pixels. You can create any pattern or character you can think of, and display it on the screen as a custom character. Check out this website for an interactive tool that creates the bit array used to define custom characters.
First we define the character in lines 4 to 12 of the code below. Then we use the function lcd.create_char(0-7, NAME) to store the character in the LCD’s CGRAM memory. Up to 8 (0-7) characters can be stored at a time. To print the custom character, we use lcd.write_string(unichr(0)), where the number in unichr() is the memory location (0-7) defined in lcd.create_char().
To demonstrate how to print data from a sensor, here’s a program that displays the temperature from a DS18B20 Digital Temperature Sensor. There is some set up to do before you can get this to work on the Raspberry Pi, so check out our tutorial on the DS18B20 to see how.
In general, you take the input variable from your sensor and convert it to an integer to perform any calculations. Then convert the result to a string, and output the string to the display using lcd.write_string(sensor_data()):
Well, that about covers most of what you’ll need to get started programming your LCD with Python. Try combining the programs to get some interesting effects. You can display data from multiple sensors by printing and clearing the screen or positioning the text. You can also make fun animations by scrolling custom characters.