LCD 4X40 Futurlec

[rixter]

Hello,

I managed to get the Futurlec 4 x 40 LCD working. In my case, I did this with a BASIC Stamp. I hope I'm not escorted to the door from this forum. I found this forum to find a solution for communicating with an LCD. See attached photo.

Bill's initial thread actually had the correct pin assignments that were the key to getting me started, although the Futurlec LCD has no pins 17 & 18. Internet research had consistent documentation on 4 x 40 LCD with two rows of pins having different assignments than those posted on Futurlec's site. Those are clearly WRONG! Also, A and K connections are for the back light and are straightforward.

The second challenge was understanding how to address the 3rd and 4th lines on the display. My experience with LCD displays was limited to 2 x 16 and 4 x 20 serial units that have an entirely different way to address the screen coordinates. The 3rd and 4th lines are addressed with the second enable pin. This forum clued me in on that .. thank you. So I had to initialize both controllers in the LCD and communicate with the device as basically a stack of two 2 x 40 LCDs in one unit. The LCDCMD command in PBASIC allows me to address a set of pins in 4 bit mode while allowing some flexibility on which pin is the enable pin. This permitted me to address both sets of lines by adding the one additional connection to the LCD for the extra enable connection.

I am not versed on PIC language, but I'm sure it's doable if I've done it with the BASIC Stamp.... code attached.

Rick