LCD Modules

[dbemowsk]

So I have a bunch of these LCD modules, 10 of them to be exact, that I salvaged from some old electronics. I am looking for some input on good ideas on uses for them. They are begging to be MySensorized. They would be better if they had backlights, but unfortunately they don't.

If anyone is interested in one or two, I'd be willing to part with a few. Message me if interested. They are 40x4 panels with no backlight. I have not tried yet, but you can supposedly get them to work with an arduino with a library called LiquidCrystal440. My understanding of them is that they are 44780 based and act like 2 20x4 panels side by side. They have an 8 bit data bus, R/W, RS and contrast adjust lines like a standard 44780 module, but it has 2 enable lines. That's about all I know about them.

[Nca78]

@dbemowsk said in LCD Modules:

44780

Looks like those no ?
http://www.buydisplay.com/default/40x4-lcd-module-datasheet-commands-arduino-pinout-hd44780-black-on-yg

They have datasheet for both the controller and the module, with pin configuration that seems very similar to the "classic" 16x02 or 20x04 LCD modules.
I think you just need to make an adaptater board from the connector pinout to 2 "FC113" I2C LCD adapters, each connected to a different EN pin, and you're good to go with 2 20x04 I2C LCDs ?

[dbemowsk]

@Nca78 I am pretty sure they are indeed a 44780 clone as I mentioned in the OP. I am just wondering what kind of creative things I can do with them. 4x40 is a lot of information real estate.

[Nca78]

Advantage is you have dual controllers so you can use different sets of custom chars on the two sides of the board.

You could use it as a display for your weather station, I started to make a MySensors clock project including a temperature sensor. I use a smaller LCD to make a bar graph of temperature history using custom chars but I was pretty limited with the custom chars on a single screen (all were used for the bar graph) and "display real estate" to display temperature for the selected bar.
Here you could use one half to display graph, either one or two (on top of each others) bar graphs with up to 20 points, and still have enough space on the other screen to display additionnal info: numerical value, period displayed, min/max in that period, custom icon, ...

I'll try to dig up to find the circuit and the attached code.

[wallyllama]

Message for postman or other daytime visitors. A drag racing game in the vein of the old mattell electronic football(not really mysensor). With redefined characters it could display a good amount of rrd or other graph data, vertical a very accurate battery level.

Do they fit close enough to create an 8 line display? All of them together would be 40x40.

These arent great ideas, but maybe they will inspire better ones.

[wallyllama]

@wallyllama i should have read @Nca78's post before adding mine.

[dbemowsk]

@wallyllama As you probably figured out, they wouldn't fit close enough together. Thanks for the ideas. As I was digging in some junk I found 2 more of them, so I have 12 of them now.

[Nca78]

Hello @dbemowsk,

found my old mysensors alarm clock I was talking about, so here is a video of the display screens/menus on a 1602 LCD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xFFBNHUylU

PS: you can also enjoy the sound of the glorious karaoke singers downstairs in the street, really high (alcohol) level today :D