Bought this one and it was perfect for what I wanted. Basic inexpensive LCD that worked great with the Arduino.

Any tips on getting the 4.2V for the backlight? A simple voltage divider circuit isn’t ideal because the load from the backlight.
Is 5V gonna kill the backlight?

This was very easy to use with an arduino; if you are interested I have written a tutorial on how to do so:
http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/getting-started-with-arduino-chapter-two/

The easiest way would be to stick a transistor inline with the power lead of the lcd and turn it off just before the cpu goes into the low power state.
-Mike

This product worked great. I wrote a tutorial about manually writing data to the display using dips switches and push buttons. http://volatileinterface.com/2015/05/30/using-a-hd44780-lcd-display-in-4-bit-mode/

Completely useless, I have no idea what happened but when I wire it up according to the tutorial on arduinos site for the Hello World! LCD program, nothing but the backlight comes on. Also the pins are flipped from where they are in the schematic. Total cluster fuck of a product. EDIT: So apparently the product works fine, and I apologize to all those at sparkfun. I should be on the arduino forums tell them that the tutorial is a cluster F**k and not this item. for those who had the same problem, you have to connect pin 15 Vin and pin 16 to GND, everything on the tutorial is correct.

Does anyone know about the six extra pins on the right side

I just realized I forgot the bridge connections over the cnter of the breadboard to actually connect the data lines to the LCD. It works now I think I need to adjust the contrast or something. The text on the display is more visible when looking at the display from an angle.

I just bought this and thought it had the HD44780 chipset but now I started looking at the datasheet for the pin interface descriptions and I realize that it has the KS006U chipset? Is the datasheet wrong or is the sparkfun description wrong? Or maybe they are basically the same chipset? I’m confused right now. Do I need to buy a different LCD? Steve

Can be found for less than 3 $ incl. shipping on Ebay: http://i.imgur.com/PReQE.png

Search “16x2 LCD” and tick “Worldwide shipping”, “Buy it now”, and select “Price + shipping: lowest first”.

What if: You purchased this part, the item received is a red sparkfun pcb, and the sticker on the back reads: ADM1602k-FSY-YBS/Z. Plugged 5V into it according to the example code within the arduino IDE, and one of the LCD drivers burned up. (the larger circle).

I’m trying to figure this out, but I can’t verify that the board is actually supposed to take 5V or 3.3V. Maybe next revision should have this printed on the pcb :0)

Thanks for any help

New to LCDs? Use the LCD 16x2 simulator availavle here:

http://www.bobtech.ro/tutoriale/componente-electronice/57-lcd-16x2-simulator

You can simulate data on each pin of the HD44780 compatible LCD and see how it works, or if you are more advanced you can write directly your own scripts in the web browser to control the LCD, same as you would use them in the MCU code

if somebody wants a good tutorial how to interface this lcd to a microcontroller visit this link

for microchip pic mcu http://www.circuitvalley.com/2011/09/hd44780-16x2-char-lcd-interfacing-with.html

for TI MSP430 microcontroller http://www.circuitvalley.com/2011/12/16x2-char-lcd-with-ti-msp430-launch-pad.html

hi if sombody want a good tutorial on how to interface this lcd to diffrent microcontoller visit this link

with TI MSP430 Microcontroller http://www.circuitvalley.com/2011/12/16x2-char-lcd-with-ti-msp430-launch-pad.html

with microchip pic micrcontroller http://www.circuitvalley.com/2011/09/hd44780-16x2-char-lcd-interfacing-with.html

When will these be in stock?

Is there a flat cable assembly available for these? I’m OK using the 0.1" headers, but the electronics I need to hook up requires a cable interconnect. And I’d like it so that I can replace the LCD without desoldering it.

I?m considering using this in a battery powered device that will experience long periods of inactivity. During the inactive periods all system components will enter a low power stand-by or sleep state. This display does not appear to have a low power (uA) state.
The Kent display has a low power state but it?s two large for my application. Does anyone know of a LCD display with a low power state?

works great! still trying to figure out a good way to mount it though…Any Suggestions?

Totally useless product