Home | Product Categories | Kits | LCD-10097

Possibly a naive question, but are we missing resistors to limit the current in the backlight LED and the NPN transistor?

Is it possible to order one of these without the actual lcd?

Is there a possibility in getting the board only or just without the LCD? Have couple of those waiting for to be used, no need for any more, yet :) Or is this the wrong place to ask this kind of question?

Do you offer this board on its own, or the kit without the LCD? It looks like a great kit, especially with the microprocessor ‘integrated’, but some prefer red LCDs…….

Can you order this kit without the display so that you can use a different color or a display with 4 lines instead of 2?

Any chance of getting just the PCB avail for sale?

Is the source code for the ATMega328P available?.
Does this unit work at 3.3V or 5.0V?.
+1 for using an Atmel chip; +1 for breaking out extra pins.
Including a picture of the “white on black” characters in action would be handy. (This has been done for other LCD products).

+1 for the source?
I’m keen to build one!

Is this arduino compatible – or is it more native code? What cable / software do you need to program it?

An ATmega328 seems like massive overkill for a serial-LCD converter, but it’s nice to have all that extra storage for customization, and it’s probably easier than stocking mega8s just for this (and probably not a big price difference).

I like the fact that the SDA/SCL pins are broken out. (same as analog pin 4 and 5) So rewriting the code could open up I2C interface posibilities aswel. However that nokia 5110 display looks like a nice bargain at just under 10 dollar. Unfortunately it needs 5 pins to be fully functional. :( Tough choice.

Does anyone have some sample Arduino code that make use of the LCD backpack? I can’t figure out how do things like set the the cursor to a location or how to set the display to 4 X 20.
Thanks
Art

Thanks for the reply. I’ve been there looking for sample code and all I could find was the code for the backpack itself. I dl’d and install the new code into the backpack but I don’t understand how to sent the special commands to do things like clear the display or set the display for 4X20 I’m using NewSoftwareSerial to connect to the backpack and I can print “Hello World” but when I try to send a special commands it either prints garbage or nothing. Art

Good morning all. I’m still looking for help sending commands to the serial backpack. I found the commands on the github page but not how to send then to the device. Art

Probably a very noob question but can this easily be interfaced with a serial port on a computer? and is it HD44780 compatible?

Had to really dig hard to find out how to use this and the sketch I did find had many errors where special commands were sent which required it to me mostly re-written. Learned a lot however. The documentation is really lacking. For instance, no mention of how to send and display special characters. I would also like to see this kit without the LCD for those of us that would like to use a different color or have and LCD already or have messed up the PCB. Lastly, there is no assembly instructions and the photos don’t show many details that you need to see.

I’ve managed to alter the setup of the Serial Enabled LCD Kit and now I cannot read anything of the diaplay or anything else.
How do I reset it for use at 6900 baud and everything else? What should I send as command (0x7C – ?).
Can anyone help me with a set of code for reseting the backpack, e.g. comm 9600 baud etc. Please?

I would be really cool for the next revision to include the capability to run off of 3.3v logic.
I have creatively soldered a logic level converter to the backpack using some of the broken out pins (leaving the standard three wire port alone) and now I can hook it up to my Fez Panda with 4 wires: 3.3v, 5v, Data (3.3v) and Ground.
A better solution might be to eliminate the 3.3v reference feed with a voltage divider, or just get logic that can handle 3.3v from the get-go.
So ideally I would be able to feed it (through the standard jst 3 pin connector) 5V, Ground, and Data at 3.3+ V.
That would be nice.

My display unit LCD-10097, has accidentally become corrupted. In particular the back light has turned off and since I have not yet been able to communicate with the unit I am unable to debug my code. Is there a way to reset the unit to defaults as shipped?

This this is pretty awesome, but would be even more awesome (awesomer?) if you could upload custom characters over serial. The LCD itself seems to support this, but the Serial LCD firmware does not.
It shouldn’t be too hard to add (after all, the LiquidCrystal library it uses has a function just for this). I guess it’s finally time for me to get an FTDI Basic.

These things are just the bomb. Great price for what you get.
I confess I haven’t been using them as intended – once I have a project all figured out with the arduino and the breadboard etc I order one of these and write my sketch to it. Any time I am using an arduino and the liquidcrystal library and I am ready to go from prototype to finished project, this is my go-to kit. Just wish it included a socket for the IC.
I’ve got it driving my diy networked home thermostat: http://bit.ly/eCzVIW
Cheers!

Are there any instructions or tips for putting this together, or can I just infer where stuff goes by looking at the images above and the labels on the circuit board? I’m not particularly great at reading schematics.
Thanks,
Adam

its awesome! not for convert a lcd to serial, but because you have a arduino in a LCD. maybe sparkfu can sell this as “LCDuino Arduino on a lcd”

I’m trying to use 4-40 metal hex stand-offs to separate the bottom control PCB from the LCD board.
However I can’t screw in any 4-40 thread into the LCD holes. If I try the metal ground points are twisted and nearly stripped off.
What size screws are intended for the LCD board?

can i buy this then get a 20x4 lcd for it? or is their a kit like this with a 20x4 already?

I have ported LiquidCrystal library for use with the serial LCD you can look at my code here. Still working on finishing all the documentation. But putting up for now hopefully someone will find it usefull.
http://arduino.cc/playground/Code/SerLCD
-Thanks

i like this kit allot but it has its challenges, i am trying to figure out how to get the back light back on, it seems to have gotten a command to turn it off. and not much seems to want to turn it back on. the other thing i would like to know is that, can i reflash it with a different firmware using a ftdi without taking the lcd off.

Hi. I’m having trouble with this device. I am sending serial.print text to the LCD, but it seems pretty erratic. I wonder if it was damaged when I soldered it to the board. There is not chip holder in the kit. Sometimes it does not power up:( I’ll have to check it out for bad connections. Should the device should respond to serial.print similar to the way serial monitor works?

The “Serial LCD Kit – retail” (same kit, different packaging), has a quite good tutorial by Jimbo. Strange there’s no link to there from this page, Serial LCD Kit Landing Page http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/289

I love this thing. You can use it for rapid prototyping and then switch to a native interface for the LCD later on… and you still have a use for the serial module as all the pins (or at least most of them) are broken out on the headers. Having a header for the FTDI breakout board is great as well for quick testing… you should like to it at the bottom. Overall a really great product!