Arduino Projects: Arduino LCD Display

We have used LCD displays in the previous posts with the I2C, but it is possible to use it without an I2C. Let’s see how this is done.

We will take the advantage to visit some of the useful function you can make use of when working with LCDs.

Using the Arduino serial LCD module

Here are the parts we will need

1 x Arduino Uno board
1 x LCD display (We use a 20 x 4 display, but any will do)
1 x Breadboard
Jumper wires
1 x Potentiometer 10k

Follow the sketch below to connect the part together. Make sure the connections are right before powering up the project. A bad connection can easily damage the LCD.

There are 4 pins of the LCD we are not using, those pins are used to read data coming from the LCD which is not needed for this project. We are only using the LCD to write on, nothing more.

The Potentiometer is used to control the contrast of the LCD. In some case, you might need to rotate the potentiometer handle to see anything appearing on the LCD.

The last 2 pins of the LCD are used to light the LCD’s LED. You will need to connect them one pin to 5V and the other to Ground.

When you are done connecting everything, you can upload the following code to the Arduino. But before doing that you need to add the Adafruit_LiquidCrystal.h to your code. To do so, simply navigate to the library manager, search for LCD and it will be right there. Click on it to add it.

The major functions used here are clear, print, setCursor. These are really easy to use and self-explanatory.