eb-005 not displaying example file

[Darren.Smith]

hi guys am really struggling here, i had a piece of code working the other day on a 16f884 chip with the lcd (005) module. i am now getting nothing out onto the lcd display, so i have switched to a 16f88 pic, and sent LCD-fc4 example to the chip,
settings on eb006 are osc selected, switch to xtal and fast, all the lvp jumpers are set to the left, so by reackoning it should be set up to run on the onboard xtal flashing matrix multimedia on the lcd display connected to port b......my final words are help please.... as there is nothing on the display except black squares...

i was also wondering if a external display using a st7066u chip would work with the flowcode macro's for the lcd, as this is what i am thinking of using when i build the project for real...

cheers
darren

[medelec35]

Hi Darren,

Would you like to post your flowchart so we can see if that looks ok?

If you are getting an uninitialised display then the thing I would do is use LED eblock if you have 1 and connect it to the port you will have LCD connected to.
Then do the 1Hz test.
E.g if connected to port B:

While 1
PortB = 255
delay 500ms
PortB = 0
delay 500ms
Loop

Then make sure LEDs that use the same port pins as LCD do flash at 1Hz.
If not got Eblock then use a Voltmeter/DMM etc to measure voltage on each pin of port in question.
Or
Connect LCD and measure the voltages on the soldered connections that will represent data0, data1.....data4, enable etc.

For anyone that has got LCD connected to portA (although you have got it connected to portB so don't apply):
LCD only works of portB of 16F88 not portA.

Martin

[Darren.Smith]

hi martin, looks like
/e conection is to gnd which is correct for writing to lcd
r/s is at 2.4v
and data 4-7 is at 2.4v
which would say that nothing is initializing
the question is how to fix this, i am guessing that the problem occured yesterday when i changed chips over to program a 12f1840


cheers
dazza

[DavidA]

Hi Darren,

Have you created a simple program yourself to see if the LCD is working? With the correct config settings?

[Darren.Smith]

hi david, have not got that far yet, i have tried martins idea, of basically checking the port b is working, which it does, so code seems to be going to the chips ok, i have now just tried sending the digital clock demostration from the examples and now i have a few characters as vertical lines and a few characters which could be best described as erm......


would i be correct in saying that to write my own simple code i would need to send 3 commands to the display,
function set
Display control
clear display

each command being 2x 4 bit byte's

would it be b4 or b5 that would need to go high then low to send the information as such?
from the data sheet it would be pin b5 that does this as it states "as each byte is sent to the lcd, b5 must go high then low, for the lcd to acknowledge the byte"

[Darren.Smith]

now i am very confused, original project has started to work again....very very puzzeled but not worrying about it at the mo as it is working...cheers for advice given so far people, not that i know which bit helped it to work but hey...thanks anyway

[Darren.Smith]

am back again a little less confused this time, while i have a spare minute i thought i would have a play with the lcd, what i am trying to do is to set the start macro for the lcd component to start the lcd with a blinking cursor, my plan was to change the value in the macro for the display control from 0x2c to 0x2f. which i believed would set the display on, cursor on and blink cursor on. how wrong was i. i also tried the value 0x2d as well just in case. i can only assume my logic is totally fried.

any ideas on this matter would be greatly appreciated,

darren

[medelec35]

Hi Darren,
Have you tried here :
http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/mmforum ... 41&#p22741

Martin

[Darren.Smith]

great link sir, much appreciated

dazza

[Darren.Smith]

@ Martin, would you happen to know of a list of commands and what they do. that was so helpfull it is unbeliveable, took me 5 mins to figure out 0x08 turns it off again though... lol

cheers
Darren

[medelec35]

theses are the commands I use:

Code: Select all

              Function                                                         Dec                         Hex
Scroll display one character right (all lines)	                              28 	                       1E
Scroll display one character left (all lines)	                               24 	                       18
Home (move cursor to top/left character position) 	                          2  	                       02
Move cursor one character left 	                                             16 	                       10
Move cursor one character right 	                                            20 	                       14
Turn on visible underline cursor 	                                           14 	                       0E
Turn on visible blinking-block cursor 	                                      15	                        0F
Make cursor invisible 	                                                      12 	                       0C
Blank the display (without clearing)	                                        8 	                        08
Restore the display (with cursor hidden) 	                                   12 	                       0C
Clear Screen 	                                                               1 	                        01
Set cursor position (DDRAM address) 	                                        128 + addr	                80+ addr
Set pointer in character-generator RAM (CG RAM address) 	                    64 + addr 	                40+ addr

Martin

[Jero]

For anyone that has got LCD connected to portA (although you have got it connected to portB so don't apply):
LCD only works of portB of 16F88 not portA.
Martin

May I ask why this is the case? I found in the data sheet that A5 is only an input, but even with the patch system connecting A6 to ENABLE it does not work..
I'm trying to use the 16f88 for testing the SPI, it would be handy if it could have the LCD connected as well.

[medelec35]

I believe at the time I was referring to LCD Eblock connected to port A,

If you don't mind using the patch for Eb005 and use A0 to A3 for data, A4 for Register select and R6 for Enable.
Connect jumper to A6 & A7 then use internal osc then you should be able to drive EB005 LCD Eblock ok as I have got it working.
Maybe you have not moved the jumper from OSC to A6 & A7?

Martin