LCD Not Working

[girlpantz]

I bought the "CFAH1602B-TMC-JP" LCD the other day in blue - backlight and am connecting it to a parallel cable. I know parallel questions are not generally answered here but it's more to do with the LCD. I wired all 16 pins up correctly and can get the backlight to come on but that is it - I cannot get the 16 x 2 lights to work. I see on one side of the display that there is A and K, each having 2 pins - what are these for and should I connect another 4 wires to them? Really I need to know just how to get power to these lights.

Hope you can help.

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[CF Tech]

You need to check the data sheet for the backlight current and voltage, and then use this thread as a guide to calculate the backlight resistor.

 

[girlpantz]

I can get the backlight working by connecting 5V to Pin 15 and GND to Pin 16. However, I cannot get the 32 individual character displays to come on. Is there something I should be connecting to these?

 

[CF Tech]

> . . . connecting 5V to Pin 15 and GND to Pin 16 . . .

This will likely damage the backlight.

As far as connecting a CFAH* to a PC, about all we can offer is:

Check your wiring, again.

Good wiring guides for HD44780 compatible LCD's can be found:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/~mwp/cc/guides/setup-hd44780.htm

http://www.myrolypoly.com/lcd_project/lcd_project.html

http://www.icehw.net/article.asp?id=104

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/1495/ee_lcd.html

http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/a_diy_lcd/

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=248302

You can also go to http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?threadid=5582 and search for "assuming alphanumeric" and you will find a short Q/A post on parallel displays.

 

[girlpantz]

OK. Thanks for the links.

Just one last thing though... can you tell me what pins "A" and "K" are for?

Thanks.