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Basic Electronics » Anyone used a 2 x 20 LCD? Which one?

March 31, 2012
by Ralphxyz
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I need a smaller display so I am looking at these.

The title claims compatibility with HD44780. I believe the controller is a S6A0069 with a SPLC780D driver (what ever that means).

So do you think these will work?

I have the pinout so I "should" be able to connect one up.

Thanks,

Ralph

March 31, 2012
by kle8309
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Ralph

That should work. But my question is: do you really need a 20x2 display? I bought a few 16x2 and they were a whole lot cheaper ~3$/piece including shipping!

Kelvin

April 01, 2012
by Ralphxyz
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kle8309, what is the link to the ones you bought, got any pictures of your setup? I'd like to see the wiring.

Thanks,

Ralph

April 01, 2012
by kle8309
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Ralph

The wiring is the same as the NK lcd you have.

link to ebay

Kelvin

April 02, 2012
by 6ofhalfdozen
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Ralph,

I just ordered two of a very similar LCD from Pololu the other day. It has yet to arrive, but it is HD44780 as well. I have three of these 8x2 guys, which use the HD44780 also and they work very well with the nerdkit. Once you line the pins up correctly, and trim your NK text output to the proper 8x2 size, they work nicely!! They work perfectly in my mini-flowmeter displays that I built for work.

April 02, 2012
by killercow
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Ralph,

I ordered 10 of these last year when I started into the NK arena. I found the data sheet on the web, can't remember where off-hand right now. I hope both links came thru.

HTH,

Kevin

April 02, 2012
by Ralphxyz
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Nice thanks Kevin. The links worked fine!!

Ralph

April 02, 2012
by mongo
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I have a few of those 20x2 modules I salvaged from old equipment. I think they are compatible with the 20x4 protocols, with just a couple of minor alterations. I haven't tried to play with tham yet however.

April 03, 2012
by Rick_S
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I've scavanged several LCD's from old junk equipment. Merlin phones, HP printers, HP Scanners. Stuff that was going to hit the junk. You could try your local Goodwill or Salvation Army resale shop. They tend to have that old "junk" for next to nothing. Every one of the LCD's I've ripped out of stuff has worked with no issue. The 20 x 2's are just like the 20x4's. The only difference is the extra 20 characters are off screen for each line. On a 20x4 they wrap the end of line 1 to line 3 and the end of line 2 to line 4. On a 20x2, they just extend off the display.

Rick

April 09, 2012
by Ralphxyz
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Well I got some 16x2 LCDs off ebay.

And they work right out of the box :-)

I am always so pleased when things just work. All I did was modify the initialload project for 16 characters and two lines and tadah it's working. Of course I also had to solder the header.

Ralph

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