16×2 Character LCD (Parallel Interface)

3.750 KD

This 16-character, 2-line parallel liquid crystal display achieves a large viewing area in a compact package. It features a yellow-green LED backlight and uses the commonHD44780 interface (330k pdf), so sample interface code is widely available for a variety of microcontrollers. This LCD is also available without a backlight.

The DDRAM address 0x00 corresponds to the first character of the top line, address 0x0F corresponds to the last character of the top line, address 0x40 corresponds to the first character of the second line, and address 0x4F corresponds to the last character of the second line.

You can find sample HD44780 LCD interface code written for a variety of AVR microcontrollers as part of the Pololu AVR library.

Pinout

Pin Symbol Function

1 Vss ground (0 V)

2 Vdd 5 V logic supply voltage

3 Vo contrast adjustment

4 RS H/L register select signal

5 R/W H/L read/write signal

6 E H/L enable signal

7-14 DB0 – DB7 H/L data bus for 4- or 8-bit mode

15 A (LED+) backlight anode

16 K (LED-) backlight cathode

Using Contrast and the Backlight

The backlight in this LCD is composed of LEDs in series. The total voltage drop across these LEDs is typically 4.2 V and the recommended current through the LEDs is 120 mA. You should use a current limiting resistor RLIMIT as shown above where:

RLIMIT = (VBACKLIGHT – 4.2V) / 0.12A

Note: No cables or connectors are included with this product, but a 40×2-pin 0.100" male header strip and 20", 16-conductor ribbon cable can be purchased separately. You can break a 7×2 segment from the header strip and solder it to the 14 through-holes on the left side of the LCD PCB; the ribbon cable will then plug into the header pins (leaving two holes empty). The header pins won’t enforce proper orientation of the cable, so you will need to take care to plug it into the correct pins. The 8×2 shrouded box header can be used with this LCD if you use pliers to pull out connector pins 15 and 16, effectively turning it into a 7×2 keyed receptacle for a 16-conductor ribbon cable.