Electric Imp + LCD Display

Hardware
1

This discussion was created from comments split from: Electric Imp with April Board + LCD.

2

Related to the same project:

I followed this instructable

Purchased this LCD from sparkfun / Microcenter
http://www.microcenter.com/product/389835/Serial_LCD_with_Cable

I emailed sparkfun to find out if it was the same listed in the specs of the instructables

Sparkfun Email Reply
Yes you can. They’re the same product, one’s just in clamshell packaging and comes with a cable.

On the back of this LCD it says 5V, but according to the instructable
Connect the power pin (incorrectly marked 5v on the screen. This is a 3.3v device) to the 3v3 on the Imp Breakout board.

What happens when powered up
When powered up the side lcd light is lit but the screen itself is Black I have tried to adjust the contrast but that didn’t help.

Could this infact be a 5V and not a 3V model? And if So how can I Access a 5v Pin?

Device Log Not sure what line 2 Means at all (I’m not a programmer)
2014-04-04 21:49:51 UTC-4: [Status] Device booting; 8.38% program storage used
2014-04-04 21:49:51 UTC-4: [Device] imp.configure command is deprecated

3

It looks like you do indeed have a 5V version of the board. In the description it says:

Communication with SerLCD requires 5V TTL serial at a default baud rate of 9600bps (8-N-1).

You will probably need to do the following:

  1. Power the imp with 5V (this is what USB uses)
  2. Connect the Imp’s vin pin to the 5V pin on the display
  3. Use a FET or a logic level translator to step the TTL line up to 5V.

The second log line is due to some old code in the example. As the log message says, the command imp.configure is deprecated (it was used to control some old functionality that no longer exists in the imp).

If you remove the following line from you code (which will have no effect on the code) the message will go away:

imp.configure("LCD Examples", [], []);

4

beardedinventor
Thank you for the reply, wasn’t sure why my comments disappeared wanted to keep everything in one place Some sort of notification would be helpful. In any case. I will look at your instructions and report back.

There is no way for me to delete my repost

Regards,

5

I have hooked up the LCD directly to its own 5v power supply,

Do I still need to do the following?
2) Connect the Imp’s vin pin to the 5V pin on the display
3) Use a FET or a logic level translator to step the TTL line up to 5V.

I’ve adjusted the contrast and now see the Sparkfun splash screen However no test message on the screen.

Regards,