Serial LCD is Killing Me! Just garbage

[Dwayne]

Hello MSLaney,

MSLKaney>>pause 1000 ' wait for the LCD to startup

serout PortB.2,4,[$FE,$01] ' clear the screen<<

I notice you are using SEROUT, instead of LCDout.... I am assuming that you are using some kind of Serial LCD....

Many LCD's have to be initialized before they will work...

LCDout does this automatically for you....
SEROUT does NOT!!!


Thus, make up your mind... either use LCDout, and let PBP do all the work for you (but this also means you must use at least 4 pins for data, and a few others for Command/Data, Clock, etc.

Or using a serial backpack type LCD... you may need to initalize manually and do the overhead yourself.



Try sending a Dec 13 to your LCD to "Initialize" it ok??? Then try writing to it...

serout PortB.2,4,[13] ' Initialize LCD

or

serout PortB.2,4,[$0D] ' Initialize LCD

Dwayne

[Luciano]

Hi,

This is the Basic Stamp 2 sample you can find in your LCD manual.

Changes for PBP:

- SEROUT Pin,Mode,[Item{,Item...}]
Mode is 6 (9600 Driven Inverted)

- Declare variable b2
b2 VAR byte

Serial LCD manual:
http://www.seetron.com/pdf/bpp423.pdf

In order to run the sample code below you will have to set the
DIP Switch of the LCD module as following:

1=OFF (Normal mode)
2=ON (9600 baud)

Regards,

Luciano

' Program: 420DEMO.BS2 (Demonstrate 4x20 Serial LCD with Stamp II)
' This program demonstrates many of the features of the 4x20 Serial
' LCD Module from Scott Edwards Electronics. Set the module to
' 9600 bps (S1: switch 1 down; 2 up). Connect the serial input
' of the module to BS2 pin P0, GND to GND and +5V to +5V.
' Run this program.
' =========Define names for LCD instructions, bps=======
noCurs con 4 ' Make cursor invisible.
ulCurs con 5 ' Show underline cursor.
clrLCD con 12 ' Clear entire LCD screen.
posCmd con 16 ' Position cursor.
clrCol con 17 ' Clear column.
wedge con 128 ' Wedge-shaped symbol.
bigNums con 2 ' Begin big numbers.
N9600 con $4054 ' Baudmode for inverted, 9600-bps output.
' The constants "bell" and "bksp" are predefined in PBASIC2.
' =================Begin demonstration=================
pause 1000

serout 0,N9600,[clrLCD] ' Clear the screen.

for b2 = 0 to 79
  serout 0,N9600,[wedge] ' Fill screen with wedges.
next

pause 1000 ' Wait 1 second.

serout 0,N9600,[posCmd,68] ' Move to position 4 (64+4= 68).

for b2 = 1 to 12 ' Clear a 12-character swath with
  pause 350 ' ...the clear-column feature.
  serout 0,N9600,[clrCol,bell] ' Ring bell (if available) each loop.
next

' Turn on the underline cursor, move to pos. 26, and show message.
serout 0,N9600,[ulCurs,posCmd,90,"4x20 LCD"]

pause 1000 ' Wait 1 second.

for b2 = 1 to 8
  pause 100 ' Backspace to erase message.
  serout 0,N9600,[bksp,bell] ' Ring bell (if available) each loop.
next

pause 1000 ' Wait 1 second.

serout 0,N9600,[noCurs] ' Turn cursor off.

' Print the numbers 0 to 99 in big numbers in the middle of
' the screen. Pause a half second between numbers.

for b2 = 0 to 99
  serout 0,N9600,[posCmd,70,bigNums,dec b2]
  pause 500
next

END ' Finished.

[mslaney]

Thank you guys!
In the meantime, i took a long fast ride on my motorcycle and came back with a clear head. I got it working...
All this time I was looking in the manual when I should have been looking at the datasheet.
When I get to trying to make the code more elegant, I'll be back!
Thanks.