lcd display commands brands

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.

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.

These displays have been in use for many years, and in some ways the technology has become a commodity, but it is important to select the best options to fit your design. There are many details concerning this technology, including: fluid type, operating voltage, controller/drivers and other key details that can make your design excel or under-perform.

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 are popular for new designs since they stand out. Negative mode means the background is a darker color, like black or blue and the characters/icons/segments are a lighter color such as: White, Red or Green.

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.

The cost of character displays is driven more by the size of the glass, then by the number of characters. A larger 8×1 can be more expensive than a small 16×2.

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.

If the product needs to be readable in the dark or low light conditions, then it will be necessary to attach a backlight of one type or another. The best way to conserve power is to keep the amount of time the backlight is on to a minimum. Turn off the backlight as soon as the user no longer needs it. This is a common practice in cell phones. The backlight turns off a few seconds after the number is dialed or the phone is answered. The person using the phone will continue to talk, but the display will be dark.

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.

There are some key advantages to EL backlights. They are very thin, around one to two millimeters in thickness. And they provide a very even flow of light. We carry inventory on a few EL character displays, but the majority of the character displays we sell are LED.

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.

STN (Super Twisted Nematic) fluid is the most popular option. It provides a sharper contrast and a wider viewing angle than TN. Below is a photo of a STN 16 x2 character display.

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.

The job of the polarizer is to allow some light to pass through and some of the light to be reflected. Depending on where your display will be operating, will decide which polarizer to choose. There is no cost difference between the three polarizers. Below is a quick summary:

The reflective polarizer is basically a mirror. It will reflect 100% of the ambient light and is ideal for displays operating in direct sunlight or in situations with very bright indoor lights.

A reflective polarizer cannot be used with a LED backlight or EL backlight since it will not allow any of the light to pass through, but it is possible to use with a LED edge-lit or side-lit display. An advantage of an edge-lit display is that it is thinner than a LED backlight, but not as thin as a display equipped with an EL backlight.

A Transflective polarizer is the most popular of the three options and works best with a display that requires the backlight to be on some of the time and off some of the time. It does not perform as well in direct sunlight as a reflective polarizer, but is sufficient in most cases.

The Transmissive polarizer is used when the backlight is on all the time. This is not the best option for battery powered products, but provides a brighter backlight. This polarizer must be used for displays that run in negative mode. Negative mode is when the characters are light colored and the background is a dark.

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.

TFTS and OLEDs require power to generate light to be readable. In many cases, their backlight needs to be even brighter in direct sunlight. This could draw 50mA or more depending on the size and brightness of the display.

When the ambient temperature of the display drops too low, the display’s performance suffers. The colder the fluid in the display, the slower the response. At some point, the display freezes up and the characters no longer change.

As long as the temperature doesn’t drop too low, there will be no damage to the display, and it will return to normal operation when the temperature rises.

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.

Believe it or not, LEDs do generate heat, but nothing close to resistors or heater film. In some cases, it is enough to give the display a little extra warmth to keep it operating when the temperature drops below its threshold.

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.

The displays are made up of small squares that contain a 5x8, 7x10 or 16x16 dot matrix configurations. That means there are 5 dots across and 8 dots up for a total of 40 dots. Each dot is individuality addressed on or off to produce any letter or number.

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.

This page contains a partial list of our standard displays. Simply choose the number of characters, the size of the display and the color combination that will meet your needs. If you need a size not listed on this page, please call us. We can still supply it to you.

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.

Don’t see the exact display you want on this page? Focus Display Solutions can supply you a display to match the exact configuration you want, even if it is not in our current inventory.

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.

This custom character design allows the customer to avoid any redesign cost or delays in the manufacturing of their product and to offer replacement displays for products that had been in the field for over ten years.

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.

We are able to match and replace these discontinued Liquid Crystal Displays. There may be a one-time NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) fee required to modify the ITO glass, PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and bezel to match the dimensions and characteristics necessary for your production.

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.

With the part number, we will attempt to locate a full data sheet with enough details allowing us to quote a replacement for your discontinued display. If we cannot locate a data sheet, we will ask if your previous supplier had provided one to you.

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.

If you decided to move forward with us and order samples of your replacement display based on the estimated cost, we will require two of your discontinued samples. They do not need to be working displays, but need to be in good condition. Please note: We will not be able to return the two displays.

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.

Lcd stands for liquid crystal display. Character and graphical lcd’s are most common among hobbyist and diy electronic circuit/project makers. Since their interface serial/parallel pins are defined so its easy to interface them with many microcontrollers. Many products we see in our daily life have lcd’s with them. They are used to show status of the product or provide interface for inputting or selecting some process. Washing machine, microwave,air conditioners and mat cleaners are few examples of products that have character or graphical lcd’s installed in them. In this tutorial i am going to discuss about the character lcd’s. How they work? their pin out and initialization commands etc.

​Character lcd’s come in many sizes 8×1, 8×2, 10×2, 16×1, 16×2, 16×4, 20×2, 20×4, 24×2, 30×2, 32×2, 40×2 etc .Many multinational companies like Philips, Hitachi, Panasonic make their own custom type of character lcd’s to be used in their products. All character lcd’s performs the same functions(display characters numbers special characters, ascii characters etc).Their programming is also same and they all have same 14 pins (0-13) or 16 pins (0 to 15).​

In an mxn lcd. M denotes number of columns and n represents number of rows. Like if the lcd is denoted by 16×2 it means it has 16 columns and 2 rows. Few examples are given below. 16×2, 8×1 and 8×2 lcd are shown in the picture below. Note the difference in the rows and columns.

On a character lcd a character is generated in a matrix of 5×8 or 5×7. Where 5 represents number of columns and 7/8 represent number of rows. Maximum size of the matrix is 5×8. You can not display character greater then 5×8 dimension matrix. Normally we display a character in 5×7 matrix and left the 8th row for the cursor. If we use the 8th row of the matrix for the character display, then their will be no room for cursor. The picture below shows the 5×8 dot matrix pixels arrangement.

To display character greater than this dimension you have to switch to graphical lcd’s. To learn about graphical lcds here is a good tutorialGraphical Lcd’s Working and Pin out.

The picture above shows the pin out of the character lcd. Almost all the character lcd’s are composed of the same pin out. Lcd’s with total pin count equal to 14 does not have back light control option. They might have back light always on or does not have a back light. 16 total pin count lcd’s have 2 extra A and K pins. A means anode and K cathode, use these pins to control the back light of lcd.

Character Lcd’s have a controller build in to them named HD44780. We actually talk with this controller in order to display character on the lcd screen. HD44780 must be properly handled and initialized before sending any data to it. HD44780 has some registers which are initialized and  manipulated for character displaying on the lcd. These registers are selected by the pins of character lcd.

When we send commands to lcd these commands go to Command register and are processed their.Commands with their full description are given in the picture below.When Rs=0 command register is selected.

When we select the register Rs(Command and Data) and set Rw(read –  write) and placed the raw value on 8-data lines, now its time to execute the instruction. By instruction i mean the 8-bit data or 8-bit command present on Data lines of lcd. For sending the final data/command present on the data lines we use this enable pin.Usually it remains en=0 and when we want to execute the instruction we make it high en=1 for some mills seconds. After this we again make it ground en=0.

To set lcd display sharpness use this pin. Best way is to use variable resistor such as potentiometer a variable current makes the character contrast sharp. Connect the output of the potentiometer to this pin. Rotate the potentiometer knob forward and backward to adjust the lcd contrast.

NOTE: we can not send an integer, float, long, double type data to lcd because lcd is designed to display a character only. Only the characters that are supported by the HD44780 controller. See the HD44780 data sheet to find out what characters can we display on lcd.  The 8 data pins on lcd carries only  Ascii 8-bit code of the character to lcd. How ever we can convert our data in character type array and send one by one our data to lcd. Data can be sent using lcd in 8-bit or 4-bit mode. If 4-bit mode is used, two nibbles of data (First high four bits and then low four bits) are sent to complete a full eight-bit transfer. 8-bit mode is best used when speed is required in an application and at least ten I/O pins are available. 4-bit mode requires a minimum of seven bits. In 4-bit mode, only the top 4 data pins (4-7) are used.

Command 0x30 means we are setting 8-bit mode lcd having 1 line and we are initializing it to be 5×7 character display.Now this 5×7 is some thing which every one should know what it stands for. usually the characters are displayed on lcd in 5×8 matrices form. where 5 is total number of columns and is number of rows.Thus the above 0x30 command initializes the lcd to display character in 5 columns and 7 rows the last row we usually leave for our cursor to move or blink etc.

NOTE:You can send commands in hexadecimal or decimal form which one do you like the result is same because the microcontroller translate the command in 8-bit binary value and sends it to the lcd.

Character Lcd’s can be used in 4-bit and 8-bit mode.Before you send commands and data to your lcd. Lcd must first be initialized. This initialization is very important for lcd that are made by Hitachibecause they use HD44780 driver chip sets. Hd44780 Chip set  first has to be initialized before using it. If you don’t initialize it properly you will see nothing on your lcd.

In 4-bit mode the high nibble is sent first before the low nibble and the En pin is toggled eachtime four bits is sent to the LCD. To initialize in 4-bit mode:

To learn more about the difference between 4-bit and 8-bit character lcd mode and operation with demo example visit the tutorial link given below. Demo examples are very easy to understand and one can make changes easily in the code. Please also give us your feed back on the post.

All settings are stored on onboard EEPROM and loaded during power up. To display data on the SerLCD and built-in serial enabled LCDs, you simply send ASCII-formatted characters using a serial interface which matches the communication protocol. This means that if you pass the ASCII character "r" to the module, an "r" will be displayed on the LCD at the next cursor position.

There are two reserved control characters used to control and configure various features on the LCD. The control characters are 0xFE and 0x7C. Sending a control character followed by a command will allow you to control the cursor, backlight, and other features on the SerialLCD. A complete table of commands are shown below in hexadecimal and decimal value in brackets. Either representation is acceptable when sending a control or command character.

The HD44780 LCD controller is very common. The extended commands for this chip include but are not limited to those described in table. Please refer to the HD44780 datasheet for more information.

Clear display and set cursor position are the two commands that are used frequently. To clear the screen, send the control character 0xFE followed by 0x01. Clearing the screen resets the cursor position back to position 0 (i.e. the first character on the first line).

Say we want to the place a character on the third character position of the second line in a 16x2 character display. The cursor position is not what you would expect. Notice that the last character on line 2 jumps from 15 to 64 on the next line? To do this we need to:

Now that we know the position, send the command character 0xFE to tell the SerLCD you want to send a command followed by the number 194. If you are comfortable converting back to hexadecimal, you can also send 0xC2.

The cursor should now be sitting in the third position of the second line. Sending any other character will display on the LCD starting at this position.

If you purchased the SerLCD backpack module by itself, you will have to configure the module to the type of LCD it is going to be, or is currently attached. To set the type of LCD the SerLCD module is attached to, transmit the control character 0x7C followed with either 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, or 0x06 as explained in the SerLCD Command Set above. These commands set the LCD character width and number of lines. These settings are used to correctly wrap the cursor to keep it within the viewable screen. The type of LCD is saved to EEPROM after each change.

If you purchased the built-in serial enabled LCD, it has already been configured to work with that specific LCD. You should not have to configure anything.

Caution! Once you change the baud rate, you need to change the baud rate of your controlling device to match this. To change the LCD"s baud rate from 9600 to 14400, first enter the control character 0x7C control and 0x0E. Then adjust your microcontroller"s code to match the baud rate of 14400.

If the serial enabled LCD gets into an unknown state or you otherwise can"t communicate with it, try sending a "CTRL-R" (0x12) character at 9600 baud while the splash screen is active (during the first 500 ms of boot-up) and the unit will reset to 9600 baud.

The SerLCD v2.5 provides you with control of the backlight to one of 30 different brightness levels. To control the backlight, send the control character 0x7C followed by a number from 0x80 to 0x9D. Sending a 0x80 sets the backlight to off and 0x9D sets the backlight to fully on.

The SerLCD and built-in serial enabled LCD displays a splash screen by default. This splash screen verifies that the unit is powered, working correctly, and that the connection to the LCD is correct. The splash screen is displayed for 500 ms during boot-up and may be turned off if desired.

To disable the splash screen, send the control character 0x7C to the unit followed by "CTRL-J" (0x0A). Every time this command is sent to the unit, the splash screen display option will toggle. If the splash screen is currently being displayed, sending the 0x7C and 0x0A characters will disable the splash screen during the next boot, and sending the 0x7C and 0x0A characters again will enable the splash screen.

So if you had the cursor/blinking box on and turned the visual display off, the cursor/blinking box would not remain on after after issuing the 0xFE control and 0x0C command value to turn the screen back on.

Bosch, is a German multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world"s largest supplier of automotive components measured by 2011 revenues. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 1886. Bosch is 92% owned by Robert Bosch Stiftung. Bosch"s core products are automotive components (including brakes, controls, electrical drives, electronics, fuel systems, generators, starter motors and steering systems), industrial products (including drives and controls, packaging technology and consumer goods) and building products (including household appliances, power tools, security systems and thermo technology). Bosch is a leader in innovation and quality with reliable and award-winning technology. In 2001, Bosch bought Detection Systems and Radionics, Inc., to build their business in the North American security and life safety products manufacturing/supply business. Bosch caters to the areas of consumer goods and building technology with its power tool, thermotechnology, and security systems, as well as with its household appliances business within the BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH joint venture. With its brands Bosch, Hawera, Skil, Dremel, RotoZip, Freud, Vermont American, and many more, Bosch is one of the largest manufacturers of portable power tools worldwide. Bosch manufactures power tools for the building trade, industry, and do-it-yourselfers (DIY-ers). The numeric keypad section is a standard 3x4 keypad matrix that should be very familiar to you. It is designed to closely resemble that of a standard telephone with numeric keys 1 – 0 and * and # keys. The display is an easy to read 4 lines by 20 characters LCD that becomes backlit when a key is pressed or a system event occurs. This comes in a white enclosure.

Through improvements in LCD parts and materials, monitor weight has been reduced over earlier models, making it easier to transport and install the display.

Heavy-duty carrying handles are included with each monitor to ensure safe handling. These handles may be detached when the display is installed. All models additionally incorporate a VESA-compliant mounting hole configuration to help ensure a safe and secure installation with compatible third-party mounting hardware.

All settings are stored on onboard EEPROM and loaded during power up. To display data on the SerLCD and built-in serial enabled LCDs, you simply send ASCII-formatted characters using a serial interface which matches the communication protocol. This means that if you pass the ASCII character "r" to the module, an "r" will be displayed on the LCD at the next cursor position.

There are two reserved control characters used to control and configure various features on the LCD. The control characters are 0xFE and 0x7C. Sending a control character followed by a command will allow you to control the cursor, backlight, and other features on the SerialLCD. A complete table of commands are shown below in hexadecimal and decimal value in brackets. Either representation is acceptable when sending a control or command character.

The HD44780 LCD controller is very common. The extended commands for this chip include but are not limited to those described in table. Please refer to the HD44780 datasheet for more information.

Clear display and set cursor position are the two commands that are used frequently. To clear the screen, send the control character 0xFE followed by 0x01. Clearing the screen resets the cursor position back to position 0 (i.e. the first character on the first line).

Say we want to the place a character on the third character position of the second line in a 16x2 character display. The cursor position is not what you would expect. Notice that the last character on line 2 jumps from 15 to 64 on the next line? To do this we need to:

Now that we know the position, send the command character 0xFE to tell the SerLCD you want to send a command followed by the number 194. If you are comfortable converting back to hexadecimal, you can also send 0xC2.

The cursor should now be sitting in the third position of the second line. Sending any other character will display on the LCD starting at this position.

If you purchased the SerLCD backpack module by itself, you will have to configure the module to the type of LCD it is going to be, or is currently attached. To set the type of LCD the SerLCD module is attached to, transmit the control character 0x7C followed with either 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, or 0x06 as explained in the SerLCD Command Set above. These commands set the LCD character width and number of lines. These settings are used to correctly wrap the cursor to keep it within the viewable screen. The type of LCD is saved to EEPROM after each change.

If you purchased the built-in serial enabled LCD, it has already been configured to work with that specific LCD. You should not have to configure anything.

Caution! Once you change the baud rate, you need to change the baud rate of your controlling device to match this. To change the LCD"s baud rate from 9600 to 14400, first enter the control character 0x7C control and 0x0E. Then adjust your microcontroller"s code to match the baud rate of 14400.

If the serial enabled LCD gets into an unknown state or you otherwise can"t communicate with it, try sending a "CTRL-R" (0x12) character at 9600 baud while the splash screen is active (during the first 500 ms of boot-up) and the unit will reset to 9600 baud.

The SerLCD v2.5 provides you with control of the backlight to one of 30 different brightness levels. To control the backlight, send the control character 0x7C followed by a number from 0x80 to 0x9D. Sending a 0x80 sets the backlight to off and 0x9D sets the backlight to fully on.

The SerLCD and built-in serial enabled LCD displays a splash screen by default. This splash screen verifies that the unit is powered, working correctly, and that the connection to the LCD is correct. The splash screen is displayed for 500 ms during boot-up and may be turned off if desired.

To disable the splash screen, send the control character 0x7C to the unit followed by "CTRL-J" (0x0A). Every time this command is sent to the unit, the splash screen display option will toggle. If the splash screen is currently being displayed, sending the 0x7C and 0x0A characters will disable the splash screen during the next boot, and sending the 0x7C and 0x0A characters again will enable the splash screen.

So if you had the cursor/blinking box on and turned the visual display off, the cursor/blinking box would not remain on after after issuing the 0xFE control and 0x0C command value to turn the screen back on.

The 1602 SmartLCD module is a serially controlled 2 line by 16 character alphanumeric LCD display. Unlike most serial LCD modules on the market the 1602 SmartLCD includes a microcontroller which gives the module a rich set of features. It also requires no software or libraries to initialise the display, output text to the screen or control the features of the module, which reduces development time and frees up much needed resources in your microcontroller or development board. The SmartLCD can be used in one of 3 modes:

With passive serial mode no libraries or special configurations are required, just hook it up to your microcontroller"s serial port and display any text output from the port. That"s it!

Serial AT command mode also allows you to display text via a serial port but adds more control via simple to use text based AT commands - print text anywhere on the screen, control the brightness and contrast or even read the status of the push buttons on the optional SmartLCD keypad.

Finally in I2C mode multiple screens can be connected to one I2C port. For Arduino users just install the SmartLCDI2C library (download from our support forum) and control all the features of the SmartLCD from simple I2C commands.

The SmartLCD"s features can be further expanded with the addition of the SmartLCD keypad (see item SKU: HCKITS0058). This add-on board connects to the SmartLCD"s keypad header using a single 4 way cable. Once connected it adds the additional features of keypad control (up, down, left, right, select, and back) and audible output to your end application. Access to button states and speaker output is then available via the Smart LCD"s I2C or UART interfaces using its built-in commands (see the software section of the SmartLCD manual for more information).

A bonus feature of the SmartLCD, due to it not requiring initialisation by a microcontroller, is it"s ability to operate wirelessly using a suitable serial wireless pass-through module. Here in the diagram below you can see a remote control application of the SmartLCD and keypad with the addition of HC-05 Bluetooth slave (see item SKU: HCARDU0004) and Bluetooth master (see items SKU: HCARDU0064) modules.

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If you’ve ever attempted to connect an LCD display to an Arduino, you’ve probably noticed that it uses a lot of Arduino pins. Even in 4-bit mode, the Arduino requires seven connections – half of the Arduino’s available digital I/O pins.

The solution is to use an I2C LCD display. It only uses two I/O pins that are not even part of the digital I/O pin set and can be shared with other I2C devices.

As the name suggests, these LCDs are ideal for displaying only characters. A 16×2 character LCD, for example, can display 32 ASCII characters across two rows.

At the heart of the adapter is an 8-bit I/O expander chip – PCF8574. This chip converts the I2C data from an Arduino into the parallel data required for an LCD display.

If you have multiple devices on the same I2C bus, you may need to set a different I2C address for the LCD adapter to avoid conflicting with another I2C device.

An important point to note here is that several companies, including Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors, manufacture the same PCF8574 chip. And the I2C address of your LCD depends on the chip manufacturer.

So the I2C address of your LCD is most likely 0x27 or 0x3F. If you’re not sure what your LCD’s I2C address is, there’s an easy way to figure it out. You’ll learn about that later in this tutorial.

After wiring the LCD, you will need to adjust the contrast of the LCD. On the I2C module, there is a potentiometer that can be rotated with a small screwdriver.

Now, turn on the Arduino. You will see the backlight light up. As you turn the potentiometer knob, the first row of rectangles will appear. If you have made it this far, Congratulations! Your LCD is functioning properly.

Before you can proceed, you must install the LiquidCrystal_I2C library. This library allows you to control I2C displays using functions that are very similar to the LiquidCrystal library.

As previously stated, the I2C address of your LCD depends on the manufacturer. If your LCD has a PCF8574 chip from Texas Instruments, its I2C address is 0x27; if it has a PCF8574 chip from NXP Semiconductors, its I2C address is 0x3F.

If you’re not sure what your LCD’s I2C address is, you can run a simple I2C scanner sketch that scans your I2C bus and returns the address of each I2C device it finds.

However, before you upload the sketch, you must make a minor change to make it work for you. You must pass the I2C address of your LCD as well as the display dimensions to the LiquidCrystal_I2C constructor. If you’re using a 16×2 character LCD, pass 16 and 2; if you’re using a 20×4 character LCD, pass 20 and 4.

The next step is to create an object of LiquidCrystal_I2C class. The LiquidCrystal_I2C constructor accepts three inputs: I2C address, number of columns, and number of rows of the display.

In the setup, three functions are called. The first function is init(). It initializes the interface to the LCD. The second function is clear(). This function clears the LCD screen and positions the cursor in the upper-left corner. The third function, backlight(), turns on the LCD backlight.

The function setCursor(2, 0) is then called to move the cursor to the third column of the first row. The cursor position specifies where you want the new text to appear on the LCD. It is assumed that the upper left corner is col=0 and row=0.

There are many useful functions you can use with LiquidCrystal_I2C Object. Some of them are listed below:lcd.home() function positions 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 the above function, use this inside a for loop for continuous scrolling.

lcd.display() function turns on the LCD display, after it’s been turned off with noDisplay(). This will restore the text (and cursor) that was on the display.

If you find the default font uninteresting, you can create your own custom characters (glyphs) and symbols. They come in handy when you need to display a character that isn’t in the standard ASCII character set.

The CGROM stores the font that appears on a character LCD. When you instruct a character LCD to display the letter ‘A’, it needs to know which pixels to turn on so that we see an ‘A’. This data is stored in the CGROM.

CGRAM is an additional memory for storing user-defined characters. This RAM is limited to 64 bytes. Therefore, for a 5×8 pixel LCD, only 8 user-defined characters can be stored in CGRAM, whereas for a 5×10 pixel LCD, only 4 can be stored.

After including the library and creating the LCD object, custom character arrays are defined. The array consists of 8 bytes, with each byte representing a row in a 5×8 matrix.

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