noob question, re: Arduino

brianx37

New member
greetings. I have what may be a foolish question:

Is there a way to use the Arduino microntroller (and related development environment) to control an LCD display? In particular, is there a way to make it work with the CFAH1601L-TMI-ET 16x1 display? I'm guessing that could be problematic, since I think the Arduino only does serial communication (although this is all very new to me, and I admittedly have no idea what I'm talking about).

If not, is there another microcontroller someone could recommend, particularly one that has some kind of USB interface and works with a standard scripting/programming language like Processing or C?
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CF Support

Administrator
Yes, you can get the Arduino to talk to talk to this display. The Arduino has 14 digital I/O pins you can use to control the display. It does require some programming but no more than any microcontroller would.

http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/1601l/datasheets/51/CFAH1601LTMIET_v1.0.pdf

In the datasheet for this display, page 9 shows the interface pins. Of these pins, 8 are for data and another 3 are for signaling. These can be connected to the Arduino's digital interface. Appendix B has the specifications for the ST7066U controller of this LCD, that map to the interface pins.

With a little bit of programming you should be able to control this LCD. You may be able to find code designed for talking with the Sitronix ST7066U Controller and adapt it for the Arduino.
 
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