Writing custom characters to LCD display

[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,