Character Liquid Crystal Display is a display module used in embedded applications due to its ability to display characters and custom made characters compared to the seven segment displays which only displays limited characters and numbers.
A 16×2 character LCD can display 16 characters and have two lines, a total of 32 characters can be displayed at a time. LCD is controlled by display controller which determines its features. The most common display controller is Hitachi HD44780.
The OpenLab has a two line character LCD and needs two ports for its operation. J24 (LCD port 1) and J23 (LCD Port 2) are two LCD ports and can be connected to the default port J36 (Port D) and J37 (Port A).
The switch SW1 should be turned ON for using the character LCD. The potentiometer can be used to adjust the contrast of the display.
Supported LCD displays
- 16×1
- 16×2 – Default in OpenLab
- 20×1
- 20×2
Default Ports & Pin diagram
Port 1 – Data Port
Port 1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Pin Name |
DB0 |
DB1 |
DB2 |
DB3 |
DB4 |
DB5 |
DB6 |
DB7 |
DB0-DB7: LCD Data Port
Port 2 – Control Port
Port 2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Pin Name |
EN |
R/W |
RS |
NC |
NC |
NC |
NC |
NC |
EN – LCD Enable bit
R/W – Read/ Write bit. High for Read and low for Write
RS – Register Select bit
NC – No connection