Writing custom characters to LCD display

[badrad]

Hi all. New to this forum. Tried a search but did not find any answer to my current design task.

My current application is using the pic 16f876a displaying user data onto an Optrex 2x16 display. I would like to display a couple of custom characters, which in the Optrex manual seems to allow, by using the CG RAM area.

I have not been able to find any command in the LCDOUT command that allows me to send data to this RAM area.

Has anyone here tried this before and if so, some code example?

Thanks!

[Ingvar]

Hi badrad,

LCDOUT $FE,$60,$02,$06,$1a,$1a,$1a,$06,$02,$00
LCDOUT $FE,$78,$06,$0f,$0f,$0f,$0f,$0f,$0f,$00

The first line writes a "speaker" character to CGRAM address 4 and the last writes a "battery" to CGRAM addess 7.

To use the character you just write......
LCDOUT $04 'will write the "speaker" symbol.

The addresses(characternumber) are the numbers located right after the $FE.

character 0 = $40
character 1= $48
character 2 = $50
character 3= $58
character 4 = $60
character 5= $68
character 6 = $70
character 7= $78

The character itself is made up by the rest of the numbers following the address. Can't remeber if the bits are arranged horizontally or vertically. Draw it on a paper and have a look.

/Ingvar

[badrad]

Ingvar,
thanks ever so much, that worked out well. that has really save me so much time from having work it all out.

I wanted to display some smiley faces and sad faces on the unit that I have built for kindergarten and primary school kids so that they can learn about energy, without having to deal with large numbers and such.

thanks again.

badrad

[Ingvar]

No worries,

The image of happy kids in my mind makes it worth the effort, all three minutes of it ;-)

Cheers
/Ingvar

[badrad]

BTW, here is smiley and sad face symbol that i am trying out.

LCDOUT $FE,$60,$00,$0a,$0a,$00,$00,$11,$0e,$00 'smiley symbol
LCDOUT $FE,$78,$00,$0a,$0a,$00,$00,$0e,$11,$00 'sad symbol

many thanks again!

ps: the only problem with image of the happy kids was there were 60+ in each classroom, as we had to double up classes for the labs! there was so much energy in that small classroom and they were all so enthusiatic!


badrad

[ants]

Hi,

I have used the character calculator at http://www.geocities.com/dinceraydin/lcd/charcalc.htm to draw some symbols, but cant understand how to implement the in picbasic pro. How did you arrive at those values for the battery symbol?

Sorry if its a stupid question!

Thanks,
Anthony

[Darrel Taylor]

Hi Anthony,

There are 8 Custom Character locations. The location is selected by sending a command with the following format.
%01xxx000 where xxx is the location 0-7

location 0 = %01000000 = $40 = 64
location 1 = %01001000 = $48 = 72
location 2 = %01010000 = $50 = 80
location 3 = %01011000 = $58 = 88
location 4 = %01100000 = $60 = 96
location 5 = %01101000 = $68 = 104
location 6 = %01110000 = $70 = 112
location 7 = %01111000 = $78 = 120

The location is followed by 8 bytes of character data. Each byte represents 1 row of 5 dots from left to right. The upper 3 bits are ignored. You need to send all 8 rows, even if the character doesn't use them all.
The 8th row is normally reserved for the Cursor.

Using the examples from Ingvar & badrad you get these characters

Speaker LCDOUT $FE,$60,$02,$06,$1a,$1a,$1a,$06,$02,$00

$02=%00010     X 
$06=%00110    XX 
$1a=%11010  XX X 
$1a=%11010  XX X 
$1a=%11010  XX X 
$06=%00110    XX 
$02=%00010     X 
$00=%00000

battery LCDOUT $FE,$78,$06,$0f,$0f,$0f,$0f,$0f,$0f,$00

$06=%00110   XX 
$0f=%01111  XXXX
$0f=%01111  XXXX
$0f=%01111  XXXX
$0f=%01111  XXXX
$0f=%01111  XXXX
$0f=%01111  XXXX
$00=%00000

smiley LCDOUT $FE,$60,$00,$0a,$0a,$00,$00,$11,$0e,$00

$00=%00000 
$0a=%01010   X X 
$0a=%01010   X X 
$00=%00000
$00=%00000
$11=%10001  X   X
$0e=%01110   XXX 
$00=%00000

Sad LCDOUT $FE,$78,$00,$0a,$0a,$00,$00,$0e,$11,$00

$00=%00000
$0a=%01010   X X 
$0a=%01010   X X 
$00=%00000
$00=%00000
$0e=%01110   XXX 
$11=%10001  X   X
$00=%00000

To use the values from the Custom Character Generator you mentioned. You can either use the values that it creates, or you can subtract 128 to get values that resemble the examples here. The upper 3 bits of each byte is ignored by the display, so it will work either way.

HTH,

[Darrel Taylor]

I was just playing around with Ingvar's battery icon, and thought this was pretty neat.
It allows you to show the battery level with the same icon.
The demo just runs thru a loop counting backwards from 10, and changes the Custom Character accordingly.

It also demonstrates how you can animate the characters by simply updating the CGRAM.
Any characters that are already on the screen will automatically be updated as well.

BattLevel  var byte     ' 0 - 10, 0=Empty  10=Full
Char       var byte
y          var byte

LCDout $FE,1,"    ",1," ",1," ",1," ",1  ' Show 4 batteries

Loop:    ' Test loop showing all the possible Battery Levels
    for BattLevel = 10 to 0 step -1
        gosub ShowBattery
        pause 500
    next BattLevel
goto Loop


ShowBattery:     ' Show Battery Level  0 - 10, 0=Empty  10=Full
        lcdout $FE,$48,$06
        for y = 5 to 1 step -1
            if BattLevel >= (y * 2 - 1) then
                if BattLevel >= (y * 2) then
                   Char = $0F
                else
                   Char = $0B
                endif
            else
                Char = $09
            endif
            lcdout Char
        next y
        lcdout $0F,$00
return

Darrel

[ants]

Thanks for the really clear explanation, got it working straight away!

Many thanks..

Anthony

[swordman]

I use
OPTREX hd4470A0 LCD
16f877A (4mhz)
pbp2.45


I can't display this string , whats wrong ?

LCDOUT $FE,$60,$00,$0a,$0a,$00,$00,$11,$0e,$00 'smiley symbol

[Darrel Taylor]

Hi swordman,

Sending that string will define the Custom Character at location number 4. Then to actually display the character use this.

LCDOUT 4

HTH,
Darrel

[swordman]

Thanks Darrel !

Working fine

[swordman]

Hi,
How can I display 2 custom char like this:


Lcdout $FE,$85,4
LCDOUT $FE,$60,$1F,$11,$11,$11,$11,$11,$11,$0


Lcdout $FE,$C2,4
LCDOUT $FE,$78,$3,$5,$9,$9,$9,$11,$11,$0


when I write that code lcd display only second

[Darrel Taylor]

Hi Swordman,

The second example uses Address $78 which is Location 7.

To display that Custom Character use this

<font="courier">Lcdout $FE,$C2,7</font>

Darrel

[websmith]

This is fun!
Here are 3 more:

lcdout $FE,$60,$1F,$11,$15,$17,$17,$15,$11,$1F 'copyright sign
lcdout $FE,$70,$0E,$11,$11,$11,$0E,$04,$0E,$04 'female symbol
lcdout $FE,$78,$07,$03,$05,$08,$0E,$11,$11,$0E 'male symbol

Lcdout $FE, $D4, 4, 6, 7

[mister_e]

and the tool to create them + PBP code easy... PicMultiCalc... once again
http://www.mister-e.org/pages/utilitiespag.html

<img src="http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1404&stc=1&d=117207765 7">

[rhino]

and the tool to create them + PBP code easy... PicMultiCalc... once again
http://www.mister-e.org/pages/utilitiespag.html

You're such a stud Steve.

[mister_e]

LMAO, not sure of the meaning of this 'stud' expression but... thanks

To me it's sounds x-rated... but since too much time i'm single so