16×2 LCD Display (Green Backlight)

16×2 LCD Display

The 16×2 lcd display green backlight arduino is widely favored by both hobbyists and professionals due to its cost-effectiveness and simplicity of use. As the name implies, the 16×2 Alphanumeric LCD can display 16 Columns and 2 Rows, which amounts to a total of 32 characters. Each character can be a letter, a number, or even a custom character. This specific LCD has a green backlight, but there’s also a Blue Backlight LCD available that can make your projects more visually appealing. Regardless of the backlight color, both LCDs have the same specifications and can share the same circuit and code. If your projects require more characters to be displayed, you can consider the 20×4 Graphical LCD, which has 20 Columns and 4 Rows, and can display up to 80 characters.

Specifications :

• Operating Voltage: 4.7V to 5.3V
• Operating Current: 1mA (without backlight)
• Can display (16×2) 32 Alphanumeric Characters
• Supports Custom Characters
• Operates in both 8-bit and 4-bit Mode

LCD Module Control Pins and Power Configuration:

The 16×2 LCD pinout diagram is also provided. As you can see, the module has two power pins, Vss and Vcc, to power the LCD. Typically, Vss should be connected to ground and Vcc to 5V, but the LCD can also operate from voltage between 4.7V to 5.3V. Next, we have the control pins namely Contrast (VEE), Register Select (RS), Read/Write (R/W), and Enable (E). The Contrast pin is used to set the contrast (visibility) of the characters, normally it is connected to a 10k potentiometer so that the contrast can be adjusted. The Read/Write pin is usually grounded because we will only be writing characters to the LCD and not reading anything from it. The Register Select (RS) and Enable pin (E) are the control pins of the LCD and will be connected to the digital pins GPIO pins of the microcontroller. These pins are used to instruct the LCD where to place a character, when to clear it, etc.

From DB0 to DB7, we have our eight Data Pins which are used to send information about the characters that have to be displayed on the LCD. The LCD can operate in two different modes, in the 4-bit Mode only pins DB4 to DB7 will be used and the pins DB0 to DB3 will be left idle. In 8-bit Mode, all the eight-pin DB0 to DB7 will be used. Most commonly the 4-bit mode is preferred since it uses only 4 Data pins and thus reduces complexity and GPIO pin requirement on the microcontroller. Finally, we have the LED+ and LED- pins which are used to power the backlight LED inside our Display module. Normally the LED+ pin is connected to 5V power through a 100 ohm current limiting resistor and the LED- pin is connected to Ground.

PIN DESCRIPTION OF 16X2 LCD DISPLAY: