Useful LCD display for Arduino with 16 symbols and 2 lines. Display background LED is connected to potentiometer regulating screen brightness and contrast. You can control switching on/off with a sketch.

The display has a BLUE colour.

LCD display uses standard HD44780-compatible driver. Arduino "LiquidCrystal" library is used for display programming and can be found in the Arduino IDE  coding environment. You can use standard characters or make your own characters.

LCD display uses digital Arduino digital outputs: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Initialization string in sketch seems as: LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);
   *( RS - D8; Enable - D9; LCD4 - D4; LCD5 - D5; LCD6 - D6; LCD7 - D7)

Under LCD there are 5 navigation buttons: Up, Down, Left, Right.

Option. Buttons are connected with A0 analogue input only, so you can monitor button status using just one Arduino input. Pay attention: status monitoring is unavailable when several buttons are pressed.

The Module includes blocks of digital and analogue inputs/outputs and also it has A1-A5 analogue input blocks (5V/GND/IN) for quick connection to the periphery.

The module is powered with Arduino 5V output.

Sample Code

Example use of LiquidCrystal library

//Sample using LiquidCrystal library
#include 

/*******************************************************

This program will test the LCD panel and the buttons
Mark Bramwell, July 2010

********************************************************/

// select the pins used on the LCD panel
LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);

// define some values used by the panel and buttons
int lcd_key     = 0;
int adc_key_in  = 0;
#define btnRIGHT  0
#define btnUP     1
#define btnDOWN   2
#define btnLEFT   3
#define btnSELECT 4
#define btnNONE   5

// read the buttons
int read_LCD_buttons()
{
 adc_key_in = analogRead(0);      // read the value from the sensor
 // my buttons when read are centered at these valies: 0, 144, 329, 504, 741
 // we add approx 50 to those values and check to see if we are close
 if (adc_key_in > 1000) return btnNONE; // We make this the 1st option for speed reasons since it will be the most likely result
 // For V1.1 us this threshold
 if (adc_key_in < 50)   return btnRIGHT;
 if (adc_key_in < 250)  return btnUP;
 if (adc_key_in < 450)  return btnDOWN;
 if (adc_key_in < 650)  return btnLEFT;
 if (adc_key_in < 850)  return btnSELECT;

 // For V1.0 comment the other threshold and use the one below:
/*
 if (adc_key_in < 50)   return btnRIGHT;
 if (adc_key_in < 195)  return btnUP;
 if (adc_key_in < 380)  return btnDOWN;
 if (adc_key_in < 555)  return btnLEFT;
 if (adc_key_in < 790)  return btnSELECT;
*/


 return btnNONE;  // when all others fail, return this...
}

void setup()
{
 lcd.begin(16, 2);              // start the library
 lcd.setCursor(0,0);
 lcd.print("Push the buttons"); // print a simple message
}

void loop()
{
 lcd.setCursor(9,1);            // move cursor to second line "1" and 9 spaces over
 lcd.print(millis()/1000);      // display seconds elapsed since power-up


 lcd.setCursor(0,1);            // move to the begining of the second line
 lcd_key = read_LCD_buttons();  // read the buttons

 switch (lcd_key)               // depending on which button was pushed, we perform an action
 {
   case btnRIGHT:
     {
     lcd.print("RIGHT ");
     break;
     }
   case btnLEFT:
     {
     lcd.print("LEFT   ");
     break;
     }
   case btnUP:
     {
     lcd.print("UP    ");
     break;
     }
   case btnDOWN:
     {
     lcd.print("DOWN  ");
     break;
     }
   case btnSELECT:
     {
     lcd.print("SELECT");
     break;
     }
     case btnNONE:
     {
     lcd.print("NONE  ");
     break;
     }
 }

}