PC-016ATE Help with interfaceing

vk2fdgw · Post by **vk2fdgw** » January 18th, 2008, 11:07 am

Hi all,

i am very new to this so i dont rely know much about the lcd's etc. i dont know how to use a soldering iron tho.

i have been given a PC-016ATE LCD screen,

can someone help me with the pin outs to DB9 and i am getting the 5v that is needs from usb if i can.... and can it even connect to usb direct? and i am starting to use lcd smartie

Post by **caesar** » January 18th, 2008, 12:38 pm

Hi and welcome to the forums!

What you have there is a HD44780 LCD. You can connect it to the parallel port by soldering the wires to the lcd like in the schematics from LCDSmartie's website.

For serial or USB connection please look in the forums, but be prepared to do some electronics work, some additional hardware is often necessary - like microprocessor programmers, PCB making and such.

For a start you could use the parallel port and take power from a power cable inside your computer, it is much safer than taking power from USB! (I hope that you have a parallel port - and NO, you can not use usb to parallel adapters, they do not work!)
Here is the link to the schematic, the first one is for your display: http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net/circuits.htm

Good luck!

vk2fdgw · Post by **vk2fdgw** » January 18th, 2008, 1:01 pm

hmm.

it says the lcd display has 16 pins but mine has 14 is the is 15 and 16 needed its VB+ and VB-...

or is it just for the back light?

Post by **mattcro** » January 18th, 2008, 8:18 pm

I think this LCD has separate pins for the backlight (either electro-luminescent [EL] or LED, but there might not be any backlight fitted), so the 14 pins are the data/control/power lines, corresponding to pins 1-14 on the Smartie schematics. Pins 15-16 on the Smartie schematics are just for the LED backlight - some LCD modules don't have any backlight.

If you module turns out to have an EL backlight, you will probably need a special power supply module to provide the high voltage that the EL panel requires.

A bit more info: http://www.serialwombat.com/parts/lcd107.htm

vk2fdgw · Post by **vk2fdgw** » January 19th, 2008, 1:33 am

mattcro wrote:I think this LCD has separate pins for the backlight (either electro-luminescent [EL] or LED, but there might not be any backlight fitted), so the 14 pins are the data/control/power lines, corresponding to pins 1-14 on the Smartie schematics. Pins 15-16 on the Smartie schematics are just for the LED backlight - some LCD modules don't have any backlight.

If you module turns out to have an EL backlight, you will probably need a special power supply module to provide the high voltage that the EL panel requires.

A bit more info: http://www.serialwombat.com/parts/lcd107.htm

i tried hooking my screen up to this diagram with a db9 and nothing happened just the 2 control chips got rely rely rely hot. i think i might of stuffed it

Post by **mattcro** » January 19th, 2008, 7:13 pm

Hmm, hot chips are not good!! Double-check the power supply wiring (Go by the numbers printed on the circuit board). Did you get power from a USB connector? It might well be damaged now - I have mistakenly done this too

You have to be careful to apply only 5 volts - any higher and the LCD will fry!

You can't wire this LCD up to a serial port (DB9 connector), only a parallel port - that's a DB25 printer port connector.

Try just wiring the LCD to the 5V power supply for starters (no port connections), and see if you get one or two rows of solid blocks on the LCD - this is a sign that it works ok internally. You may have to adjust the contrast (the variable resistor connected to LCD pin 3) to see the blocks.

vk2fdgw · Post by **vk2fdgw** » January 20th, 2008, 1:42 am

i used a db 25 and an external power supply @ 4.89~ volts @ 200ma so it works within the limit