LCDs are very common and a great way to have projects report back visually. However, they need 6, 7 or 10, 11 pins to control them plus an additional pin for the backlight. For some projects, it is not easy to find those spare pins. The SR LCD backpack is the board for such applications.
By freeing up to 9 pins when connecting a LCD it is possible to use them on almost any pin constraint application. Need more MIPS in your LCD application, simply use the New LiquidCrystal Library to get the performance you expect. Being almost 5 times faster than the stock LiquidCrystal Library you will have more CPU available to your application.
By freeing up to 9 pins when connecting a LCD it is possible to use them on almost any pin constraint application. Need more MIPS in your LCD application, simply use the New LiquidCrystal Library to get the performance you expect. Being almost 5 times faster than the stock LiquidCrystal Library you will have more CPU available to your application.
Voltage Range
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5V
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Board Layout
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| SR LCD - Rev A |
The SR LCD (ShiftRegister LCD) is a very simple expansion board to use, simply connect the board to two IO pins, for the ShiftRegister Clock and Data, Vdd, GND and an addition pin to drive the backlight.
The board layout is ideal to use as an LCD backpack, small footprint and has a very convenient potentiometer to control its contrast, even while the full assembly is fitted into the final project.
The board layout is ideal to use as an LCD backpack, small footprint and has a very convenient potentiometer to control its contrast, even while the full assembly is fitted into the final project.
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| SR LCD - Rev A - Small footprint |
Input Output
LCD use mode
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| SR LCD - Rev A - Pinout |
For LCD usage, a very convenient potentiometer is connected to control the contrast of the LCD and is accessible even when the LCD and backpacks are assembled on a PCB or final project.
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| SR LCD - Rev A - Assembled backpack |
The only thing required is that the LCD has a standard pin out (16-pin single line connection header at the top). The board also breaks out a pin to be enable LCD backlight control (BL) independently.
The Shift Register control lines (Data and Clock) are broken out into convenient 2.54mm headers that can be inserted into a standard breadboard for prototyping, fitting terminal blocks or simply soldering them directly onto a PCB.
Wiring couldn't be simpler, just connect:
Wiring couldn't be simpler, just connect:
- Vdd: to +5V
- GND: to your controller's GND pin
- D (data): any free general purpose IO pin on your controller.
- CLK (clock): any free general purpose IO pin on your controller.
- BL (backlight): any free general purpose IO pin on your controller.
SW Libraries
If you are using Arduino or Chipkit, we have created an open source library that is backward compatible with the standard LiquidCrystal library supplied with the IDEs.
Furthermore, it is a complete LCD control library that can replace the current LiquidCrystal library and be a one stop LCD library for all your projects. In SR mode, the library is sufficiently performant (almost 5 times faster than the stocked IDE library) to allow for animations. With this library in place, your current projects should just work as the already do.
If you are migrating your sketch from a 4 bit parallel interface to ShirfRegister interface you will only need to change an include file and the name of the object (variable) to what your display uses. The rest will remain the same.
The LCD library supports the following LCD control interfaces all in one package:
- 4 bit parallel LCD control
- 8 bit parallel control
- I2C control (using the I2CLCDextraIO)
- Shift Register control.
The library is freely available, in the project wiki you will find all the details you need to successfully instal it and use it.
Sources and documentation are available here.
Sources and documentation are available here.
Assembly
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| SR LCD - Rev A - Top Assembly |
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| SR LCD - Rev A - Bottom Assembly |
Components and Part Numbers
Qty Value Device Parts
1 M05PTH JP1 2 0.1uF C-EUC0805 C1, C2 1 10nF C-UEC0805 C3 1 1K R-EU_R0805 R1 1 10K TRIMPOT10K_BOURNS VR1 1 220 R-EU_R0805 R2 1 74595 74595 IC1 1 CCBY-SA CCBY-SA U$7 1 LCD-16X2NOHOLES LCD-16X2NOHOLES U1 1 LCD_SHIFT BOARD_INFOVS+ REV_A 1 MBR0520LT DIODESOD-123 D1 |
Licensing
SR LCD by F. Malpartida is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
