Crystalfontz 20/4 LCD display

[Sefi]

Hello,

I am new to Flowcode and have a problem with driving a CrystalFontz 4 line 20 character alphanumeric LCD display using a PIC 18F4320.

This set up works perfectly well using PROTON Plus compiler but the same code on FlowCode produces garbage on the screen.

My set up is as follows:

I am using porte.0 to send serial data to the LCD. The LCD expects to receive data at 19200 baud. I cant see how I can adjust the rate of sending the data to the LCD in flowcode. I am using a 10Mhz oscillator. The circuit works using simple LEDs to check timings etc. But all I see on the LCD is garbage.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

Many thanks for your help.

Sefi

[Sean]

Hello Sefi,

The Flowcode LCD component is compatible with devices that support the HD44780 style 4-bit parallel interface. You seem to have a component with a serial (RS232) interface. It might still be possible to use this component with Flowcode, but you would need to use the RS232 component to send raw data.

If the LCD device has a logic (TTL) level serial interface it will be possible to connect it directly to the USART I/O lines (RXD, TXD) of the PIC. Otherwise you will need an RS232 level converter (example available as E-Block EB-015).

[Sefi]

Thanks Sean for your reply. As the circuit is already built, I have no option but to use the pin already assigned to the LCD output (pin porte.0). Is there anyway around this? The circuit works perfectly well using PROTON PLUS (basic). (You may ask why I am changing to using FlowCode

I thought it would be easier than coding!

Thanks.

Sefi

[Benj]

Hello

Check out the bit banged rs232 out code available from here.

http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/Flowcode_Examples.php

This will allow you to use your existing hardware via a software UART. Then simply use the bit bang routine to transmit the required data to the display.