LCD Display
More microcontroller devices are using 'smart LCD' displays to output visual information. The following discussion covers the connection of a Hitachi LCD display to a PIC microcontroller. LCD displays designed around Hitachi's LCD HD44780 module, are inexpensive, easy to use, and it is even possible to produce a readout using the 8 x 80 pixels of the display. Hitachi LCD displays have a standard ASCII set of characters plus Japanese, Greek and mathematical symbols. For a 8-bit data bus, the display requires a +5V supply plus 11 I/O lines. For a 4-bit data bus it only requires the supply lines plus seven extra lines. When the LCD display is not enabled, data lines are tri-state which means they are in a state of high impendance (as though they are disconnected) and this means they do not interfere with the operation of the microcontroller when the display is not being addressed.
The LCD also requires 3 "control" lines from the microcontroller.
Enable (E) This line allows access to the display through R/W and RS lines. When this line is low, the LCD is disabled and ignores signals from R/W and RS. When (E) line is high, the LCD checks the state of the two control lines and responds accordingly.
Read/Write (R/W) This line determines the direction of data between the LCD and microcontroller. When it is low, data is written to the LCD. When it is high, data is read from the LCD.
Register select (RS) With the help of this line, the LCD interprets the type of data on data lines. When it is low, an instruction is being written to the LCD. When it is high, a character is being written to the LCD.
Logic status on control lines:
E 0 Access to LCD disabled
1 Access to LCD enabled
R/W 0 Writing data to LCD
1 Reading data from LCD
RS 0 Instruction
1 Character
Writing data to the LCD is done in several steps:
Set R/W bit to low
Set RS bit to logic 0 or 1 (instruction or character)
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