lcd module commands price

A 16×2 dot matrix Character LCD Module display in STN Negative Blue LCD Mode, Six O’clock viewing direction, Wide Temperature Range (Operating Temp: -20°C to 70°C, Storage Temp: -30°C to 80°C), and White LED Backlight. It has a transmissive polarizer suitable for darker environment. This product is assembled Chip On board with 1/16 Duty and a Controller IC S6A0069 or equivalent. The interface type is Parallel. This is an ROHS Compliant product manufactured with ISO standards and procedures.

The CFA633 series of advanced display modules will be changing from the current firmware v2.1 to v2.2. Design changes were made for backwards compatibility.

The CFA633 series of advanced display modules will be changing from the current hardware v2.0 to v2.1. Design changes were made for backwards compatibility.

As part of our continuous improvement, design changes have been made to the hardware of the CFA633 series of advanced display modules for improved manufacturability, improved quality, and a lower current profile.

The WRUSBY33 cable is replacing the WRUSBY11 cable as our standard offering for product bundles and cable options for an internal USB connection for our line of intelligent modules.

As part of our continuous improvement process, Crystalfontz America, Inc. is releasing a new version of firmware for the 2v0 hardware based CFA633 family of intelligent modules.

Customers with Defined Part (DP) numbers will not have their modules shipped with this new firmware automatically. Please contact our engineering support team at support@crystalfontz.com.

Need a 4 line 20 character lcd for your product? Crystalfontz keeps stock of the most popular colors and interfaces for standard 20x4 character LCDs. We pride ourselves in being able to get our 20x4 lcd display modules in your hands quickly and with all the product support you can use. Our CFA635, CFA735, CFA634 are all intelligent lcd display modules, that have their own command set making integrating them into your product a much faster process than using a standard LCD module. If you"re looking for a 40x2 character lcd, we have those as well!

We come across Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) displays everywhere around us. Computers, calculators, television sets, mobile phones, and digital watches use some kind of display to display the time.

An LCD screen is an electronic display module that uses liquid crystal to produce a visible image. The 16×2 LCD display is a very basic module commonly used in DIYs and circuits. The 16×2 translates a display of 16 characters per line in 2 such lines. In this LCD, each character is displayed in a 5×7 pixel matrix.

Contrast adjustment; the best way is to use a variable resistor such as a potentiometer. The output of the potentiometer is connected to this pin. Rotate the potentiometer knob forward and backward to adjust the LCD contrast.

A 16X2 LCD has two registers, namely, command and data. The register select is used to switch from one register to other. RS=0 for the command register, whereas RS=1 for the data register.

Command Register: The command register stores the command instructions given to the LCD. A command is an instruction given to an LCD to do a predefined task. Examples like:

Data Register: The data register stores the data to be displayed on the LCD. The data is the ASCII value of the character to be displayed on the LCD. When we send data to LCD, it goes to the data register and is processed there. When RS=1, the data register is selected.

Generating custom characters on LCD is not very hard. It requires knowledge about the custom-generated random access memory (CG-RAM) of the LCD and the LCD chip controller. Most LCDs contain a Hitachi HD4478 controller.

CG-RAM address starts from 0x40 (Hexadecimal) or 64 in decimal. We can generate custom characters at these addresses. Once we generate our characters at these addresses, we can print them by just sending commands to the LCD. Character addresses and printing commands are below.

LCD modules are very important in many Arduino-based embedded system designs to improve the user interface of the system. Interfacing with Arduino gives the programmer more freedom to customize the code easily. Any cost-effective Arduino board, a 16X2 character LCD display, jumper wires, and a breadboard are sufficient enough to build the circuit. The interfacing of Arduino to LCD display is below.

The combination of an LCD and Arduino yields several projects, the most simple one being LCD to display the LED brightness. All we need for this circuit is an LCD, Arduino, breadboard, a resistor, potentiometer, LED, and some jumper cables. The circuit connections are below.

The Parallax Serial LCDs (liquid crystal displays) can be easily connected to and controlled by a microcontroller using a simple serial protocol sent from a single I/O pin. The LCD displays provide basic text wrapping so that your text looks correct on the display. Full control over all of their advanced LCD features allows you to move the cursor anywhere on the display with a single instruction and turn the display on and off in any configuration. They support visible ASCII characters Dec 32-127). In addition, you may define up to eight of your own custom characters to display anywhere on the LCD. An onboard piezospeaker provides audible output, with full control over tone note, scale and duration using ASCII characters Dec 208–232.

The LCDs currently for sale are updated to Revision F. Basic functionality remains the same, but power requirements and the layout of the backpack have changed. Please see the documentation for information on your model.

Character LCD Displays (aka Alphanumeric) are one of the most common display technologies available and for that reason we hold inventory for samples and prototypes in our Chandler, Arizona location.

Our team of LCD specialists can assist you in selecting the best options so that your design is able to meet your needs and at a cost that is within your budget. Call today with any questions.

These displays are used in applications such as change machines, measurement devices, and data loggers. The module has the ability to display letters, numbers and punctuation marks.

One reason for the popularity of Character LCD displays is that they are equipped with a controller/driver chip containing a built in character (or font) table.

The table holds preloaded letters, numbers, and punctuation for each language. The font table allows the designer to request any character by addressing (selecting) the number of that character. In other words, the letter capital ‘T’ may be assigned the number 31 and the “&” symbol could be assigned number 141. This eliminates the work required to create each charter from scratch and reduces the amount of time necessary to program the LCD module.

The LCD you choose for your new design sets the perceived value of your product. Think about it: The first thing your customer looks at when they are deciding whether to purchase your product, is the LCD display. If it looks good, then your product looks good.

Negative mode displays must have a backlight on all the time to be readable. The challenge is that the LED backlight will draw/drain 10 times more power than the LCD without a backlight. So, if this is a battery application, it is best to stick with a positive mode.

Positive mode displays are readable without a backlight if there is enough ambient light. The LCD without a backlight will draw around 1uA. LED backlights can draw as little as 15mA up to 75mA or more depending on the number and brightness of the LEDs.

The first question to answer is ‘what size of LCD?’ The larger the display the more information that can be displayed and the larger the characters can be. We recommend you choose one of the standard sizes on this page to reduce cost and lead time. Focus Display Solutions (aka FocusLCDs) carries many of the industry standard sizes in inventory and may be able to ship the same day.

Character LCD Displays are built in standard configurations such as 8×1, 20×2 and 40×4. The two numbers identify the number of characters in each row and then the number of rows. An example of this is a 20×2 which means there are 20 characters in each row and there are two rows. This will provide you a total of 40 characters. The more characters there are on the display, the more drivers are required to drive the LCD. The controller and drivers are included with the LCD.

Note: It is possible to program the software to scroll your letters and numbers across the screen, allowing you to choose a smaller sized LCD and still display all your information.

It is possible to custom build a unique combination such as a 12×2 or a 16×8. This would be considered a custom LCD and would require a one-time tooling cost and possibly a higher MOQ. Go to our

Character LCD modules are available in two temperature ranges, Normal (for indoor use) and Extended (for outdoor use). The outdoor version will continue to operate down to -30C. The cost difference between normal and wide (extended) temperature range is 5% to 7% higher for the extended versions. In most cases, if cost is not critical, we recommend that you incorporate the wider temperature version.

There are three types of backlights available for a character LCD module: No backlight; LED; or EL backlight. Before introducing the various backlight options, it is helpful to cover two terms that are common for backlights: NITs and half-life.

Engineers designing a battery powered product may request a character module with no backlight since the backlight draws more than ten times (10x) the power required for the LCD alone. The goal with a battery powered product is to conserve power and extend the life-time of the battery.

DC Current – LEDs are driven by DC (Direct Current), which is the same type of power required for the character LCD logic voltage. Also, batteries supply DC which makes it easy to integrate the LED backlight with a battery. EL backlights require an AC (Alternating Current) to operate. The AC signal needs to be generated by an inverter. The added inverter increases the cost of the display and produces electrical noise that can interfere with neighboring circuits.

Character LCDs that include an EL (ElectroLuminescent) backlight are not as common and their popularity is decreasing. EL backlights are AC driven which requires an inverter to be supplied by the customer or attached to the LCD. Their half-life is rated at 3K hours which makes this a poor choice for products where the backlight will be on all the time. Their MOQ (Minimum Order Quantities) have increased in the last few years. At this time there is a 500 piece MOQ.

A character LCD is constructed by placing the nematic fluid between two layers of ITO (Indium tin oxide) glass. The function of the fluid is to either block or allow light to pass through.

A TN (Twisted Nematic) monochrome LCDs is the lowest cost option. TN does not provide a very sharp contrast and has a smaller viewing angle then STN or FSTN. A smaller viewing angle means the display is readable if you look directly at it, but if you rotate it more than 40 degrees in either direction, the characters will be difficult to read.

FSTN monochrome character LCD displays are assembled by taking the STN fluid and adding a film or retardation coating to the glass. This produces a sharper contrast than STN. FSTN is more popular on higher end products such as medical applications. Below is a photo of a FSTN 16×2 monochrome LCD

There are three types of polarizers: Reflective; Transflective; and Transmissive. The correct polarizer is determined by the various lighting conditions your character LCD display will operate in.

V Logic is the voltage used to drive an LCD and draws very little current, somewhere around 1mA or less. Character displays can be driven with a VL at 3.3V or 5V.

V LED is the voltage used to drive the LED backlight only. This can be 3.3V or 5V. LED backlights can draw up to ten times (10X) the amount of current of just the LCD alone (VLCD). If your product is a battery application, the backlight should be turned off when not in use. Or build in a sensor that only turns it on in the dark.

Is it possible to drive the LCD and the LED backlight from the same connection, but not recommended since interference from the LED backlight could affect the performance of the LCD.

A key advantage of character LCDs over multicolor technology such as TFT (Thin Film Transistor) and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) it their low thirst for current.

This is a much more affordable solution. A small PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is attached to the back of the LCD. The board is populated with several quarter watt resistors in series that generate heat. This option draws a great deal of power. In fact, it draws more than most LED backlights.

Nothing saves heat and power like insulation. Putting your LCD into something that breaks the wind and holds in the heat, will save your batteries. Many times, a protected display will continue to operate even when the temperature drops far below the threshold. This should always be the first step taken when worrying about display functionality at low temperatures. Once your product is insulated, the heat producing options noted above can be implemented.

There are three fluid types used in character LCDs: TN, STN and FSTN. TN operates the best at colder temperatures and offers a faster response time. TN does not provide the wide viewing range found in STN and FSTN, but is sufficient for most industrial uses.

The five most common types of LCD technology are: Segment, Character, Graphic, TFT and OLED. Character and Segment are the least likely options to be discontinued. They have been around for many years and are still very popular.

Used to read or write the data being transferred between the LCD and the microprocessor. Tie this to ground if you only plan to write data for one-way communications.

DB 0. Most character LCDs have eight (8) data bits for faster transfer. But can operate on just four (4) data bits if you are running low on I/O (In/Outs) pins.

Positive connection of the LED backlight or side lit. The voltage could range from 5V or 3.3V. Not all character LCDs contain a LED backlight. In this case, the two pins are no connect.

Polarity is an issue with LED backlights, since they are DC (Direct Current). That means positive must connect to positive. Half of the character LCDs have pin 15 as positive and 16 as ground. The other half are reversed. If you need the polarity reversed, there is a jumper on the back of the PCB to switch polarity.

Our lead time on standard Character LCD displays – that are not in stock – range from five to seven weeks. This rapid lead time is due to the fact that we do not ship LCD’s via boat, but FedEx Air. By shipping via FedEx Air, we receive the LCD glass within four to five days after it is completed, compared to shipping by boat which can add several additional weeks to your lead time.

The cost to design and tool up a custom replacement LCD is much less than the cost associated with retooling a case or having to redesign the customer’s PCB to accept a different LCD. The customer may also need the exact display to repair units that are in the field.

Character LCD displays are built in standard sizes and configurations. This makes the process of locating an equivalent LCD a simple process, but it is critical to make sure that the replacement display is a drop -in equivalent to your current display. It may not be possible to build a 100% equivalent product without some modifications.

If your current LCD supplier has discontinued your display, Focus Display Solutions (aka Focus LCDs) has the ability to cross it over to an equivalent display and in many cases Fed Ex/UPS a sample to you the same day.

Note: when you begin ordering LCD displays from Focus, we will supply you with the data sheet. If you purchase the display, you should own the data sheet.

Providing us the full part number of the LCD allows us to determine not only the size of the display, but also the type of construction such as COB (Chip on Board) or COG (Chip on Glass), number of characters, backlight option, operating temperature range, background and backlight colors, viewing angle, backlight and LCD logic voltage, and in most cases the controller driver used.

If we are unable to locate the data sheet of your current LCD, we will request a data sheet. If possible, please forward over the data sheet or a link to the data sheet. If your LCD supplier is no longer in business or they will not provide you the data sheet, the next option is a photo of the display.

Note: when you begin ordering LCD displays from Focus, we will supply you with the data sheet. If you purchase the display, you should own the data sheet.

16×2 LCD is named so because; it has 16 Columns and 2 Rows. There are a lot of combinations available like, 8×1, 8×2, 10×2, 16×1, etc. But the most used one is the 16*2 LCD, hence we are using it here.

All the above mentioned LCD display will have 16 Pins and the programming approach is also the same and hence the choice is left to you. Below is the Pinout and Pin Description of 16x2 LCD Module:

These black circles consist of an interface IC and its associated components to help us use this LCD with the MCU. Because our LCD is a 16*2 Dot matrix LCD and so it will have (16*2=32) 32 characters in total and each character will be made of 5*8 Pixel Dots.  A Single character with all its Pixels enabled is shown in the below picture.

So Now, we know that each character has (5*8=40) 40 Pixels and for 32 Characters we will have (32*40) 1280 Pixels. Further, the LCD should also be instructed about the Position of the Pixels.

It will be a hectic task to handle everything with the help of MCU, hence an Interface IC like HD44780 is used, which is mounted on LCD Module itself. The function of this IC is to get the Commands and Data from the MCU and process them to display meaningful information onto our LCD Screen.

The LCD can work in two different modes, namely the 4-bit mode and the 8-bit mode. In 4 bit mode we send the data nibble by nibble, first upper nibble and then lower nibble. For those of you who don’t know what a nibble is: a nibble is a group of four bits, so the lower four bits (D0-D3) of a byte form the lower nibble while the upper four bits (D4-D7) of a byte form the higher nibble. This enables us to send 8 bit data.

As said, the LCD itself consists of an Interface IC. The MCU can either read or write to this interface IC. Most of the times we will be just writing to the IC, since reading will make it more complex and such scenarios are very rare. Information like position of cursor, status completion interrupts etc. can be read if required, but it is out of the scope of this tutorial.

The Interface IC present in most of the LCD is HD44780U,in order to program our LCD we should learn the complete datasheet of the IC. The datasheet is given here.

There are some preset commands instructions in LCD, which we need to send to LCD through some microcontroller. Some important command instructions are given below:

This is a high quality 16 character by 2 line intelligent display module, with back lighting, Works with almost any microcontroller. This is a popular 16×2 LCD display. It is based on the hd44870 display controller hence it is easy to interface with most micro controllers. It works of 5v and has a green back light which can be switched on and off as desired. The contrast of the screen can also be controlled by varying the voltage at the contrast control pin (pin 3).

LCD modules are very commonly used in most embedded projects, the reason being its cheap price, availability and programmer friendly. Most of us would have come across these displays in our day to day life, either at PCO’s or calculators. The appearance and the pinouts have already been visualized above now let us get a bit technical.

16×2 LCD is named so because; it has 16 Columns and 2 Rows. There are a lot of combinations available like, 8×1, 8×2, 10×2, 16×1, etc. but the most used one is the 16×2 LCD. So, it will have (16×2=32) 32 characters in total and each character will be made of 5×8 Pixel Dots.  A Single character with all its Pixels is shown in the below picture.

Now, we know that each character has (5×8=40) 40 Pixels and for 32 Characters we will have (32×40) 1280 Pixels. Further, the LCD should also be instructed about the Position of the Pixels. Hence it will be a hectic task to handle everything with the help of MCU, hence an Interface IC like HD44780is used, which is mounted on the backside of the LCD Module itself. The function of this IC is to get the Commands and Data from the MCU and process them to display meaningful information onto our LCD Screen. You can learn how to interface an LCD using the above mentioned links. If you are an advanced programmer and would like to create your own library for interfacing your Microcontroller with this LCD module then you have to understand the HD44780 IC is working and commands which can be found its datasheet.

This is 1-2. The guide is the most up-to-date and is a huge guide prepared by collecting and researching almost all the sources, especially about the 16x2 LCD and the history of LCD. With the information you will learn, you will be able to understand how the LCD you will see in one place works, and you will be able to do it. Let’s get started right away.