arduino counter lcd display quotation

I am making a bidirectional counter. I want the screen to display two pieces of information, A total visit count on the first line and a current visit count on the second. for example:

However I can not get the two to display simultaneously, each time the IR sensor detects an object. The "Total entry" text disappears. I have attached the code that just displays "person in room" on the second line. If someone could please let me know how to have the two messages displayed at the same time it would be greatly appreciated.

This tutorial includes everything you need to know about controlling a character LCD with Arduino. I have included a wiring diagram and many example codes. These displays are great for displaying sensor data or text and they are also fairly cheap.

The first part of this article covers the basics of displaying text and numbers. In the second half, I will go into more detail on how to display custom characters and how you can use the other functions of the LiquidCrystal Arduino library.

As you will see, you need quite a lot of connections to control these displays. I therefore like to use them with an I2C interface module mounted on the back. With this I2C module, you only need two connections to control the LCD. Check out the tutorial below if you want to use an I2C module as well:

These LCDs are available in many different sizes (16×2 1602, 20×4 2004, 16×1 etc.), but they all use the same HD44780 parallel interface LCD controller chip from Hitachi. This means you can easily swap them. You will only need to change the size specifications in your Arduino code.

For more information, you can check out the datasheets below. The 16×2 and 20×4 datasheets include the dimensions of the LCD and in the HD44780 datasheet you can find more information about the Hitachi LCD driver.

Most LCDs have a built-in series resistor for the LED backlight. You should find it on the back of the LCD connected to pin 15 (Anode). If your display doesn’t include a resistor, you will need to add one between 5 V and pin 15. It should be safe to use a 220Ω resistor, but this value might make your display a bit dim. You can check the datasheet for the maximum current rating of the backlight and use this to select an appropriate resistor value.

After you have wired up the LCD, you will need to adjust the contrast of the display. This is done by turning the 10 kΩ potentiometer clockwise or counterclockwise.

Plug in the USB connector of the Arduino to power the LCD. You should see the backlight light up. Now rotate the potentiometer until one (16×2 LCD) or 2 rows (20×4 LCD) of rectangles appear.

In order to control the LCD and display characters, you will need to add a few extra connections. Check the wiring diagram below and the pinout table from the introduction of this article.

We will be using the LCD in 4-bit mode, this means you don’t need to connect anything to D0-D3. The R/W pin is connected to ground, this will pull the pin LOW and set the LCD to WRITE mode.

To control the LCD we will be using the LiquidCrystal library. This library should come pre-installed with the Arduino IDE. You can find it by going to Sketch > Include Library > LiquidCrystal.

The example code below shows you how to display a message on the LCD. Next, I will show you how the code works and how you can use the other functions of the LiquidCrystal library.

After including the library, the next step is to create a new instance of the LiquidCrystal class. The is done with the function LiquidCrystal(rs, enable, d4, d5, d6, d7). As parameters we use the Arduino pins to which we connected the display. Note that we have called the display ‘lcd’. You can give it a different name if you want like ‘menu_display’. You will need to change ‘lcd’ to the new name in the rest of the sketch.

In the loop() the cursor is set to the third column and first row of the LCD with lcd.setCursor(2,0). Note that counting starts at 0, and the first argument specifies the column. If you do not specify the cursor position, the text will be printed at the default home position (0,0) if the display is empty, or behind the last printed character.

Next, the string ‘Hello World!’ is printed with lcd.print("Hello World!"). Note that you need to place quotation marks (” “) around the text. When you want to print numbers or variables, no quotation marks are necessary.

The LiquidCrystal Arduino library has many other built-in functions which you might find useful. You can find an overview of them below with explanation and some code snippets.

Clears the LCD screen and positions the cursor in the upper-left corner (first row and first column) of the display. You can use this function to display different words in a loop.

This function turns off any text or cursors printed to the LCD. The text/data is not cleared from the LCD memory. This means it will be shown again when the function display() is called.

Scrolls the contents of the display (text and cursor) one space to the left. You can use this function in the loop section of the code in combination with delay(500), to create a scrolling text animation.

This function turns on automatic scrolling of the LCD. This causes each character output to the display to push previous characters over by one space. If the current text direction is left-to-right (the default), the display scrolls to the left; if the current direction is right-to-left, the display scrolls to the right. This has the effect of outputting each new character to the same location on the LCD.

The following example sketch enables automatic scrolling and prints the character 0 to 9 at the position (16,0) of the LCD. Change this to (20,0) for a 20×4 LCD.

With the function createChar() it is possible to create and display custom characters on the LCD. This is especially useful if you want to display a character that is not part of the standard ASCII character set.

Technical info: LCDs that are based on the Hitachi HD44780 LCD controller have two types of memories: CGROM and CGRAM (Character Generator ROM and RAM). CGROM generates all the 5 x 8 dot character patterns from the standard 8-bit character codes. CGRAM can generate user-defined character patterns.

/* Example sketch to create and display custom characters on character LCD with Arduino and LiquidCrystal library. For more info see www.www.makerguides.com */

After including the library and creating the LCD object, the custom character arrays are defined. Each array consists of 8 bytes, 1 byte for each row. In this example 8 custom characters are created.

In this article I have shown you how to use an alphanumeric LCD with Arduino. I hope you found it useful and informative. If you did, please share it with a friend that also likes electronics and making things!

I would love to know what projects you plan on building (or have already built) with these LCDs. If you have any questions, suggestions, or if you think that things are missing in this tutorial, please leave a comment down below.

In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to set up an LCD on an Arduino and show you all the different ways you can program it. I’ll show you how to print text, scroll text, make custom characters, blink text, and position text. They’re great for any project that outputs data, and they can make your project a lot more interesting and interactive.

The display I’m using is a 16×2 LCD display that I bought for about $5. You may be wondering why it’s called a 16×2 LCD. The part 16×2 means that the LCD has 2 lines, and can display 16 characters per line. Therefore, a 16×2 LCD screen can display up to 32 characters at once. It is possible to display more than 32 characters with scrolling though.

The code in this article is written for LCD’s that use the standard Hitachi HD44780 driver. If your LCD has 16 pins, then it probably has the Hitachi HD44780 driver. These displays can be wired in either 4 bit mode or 8 bit mode. Wiring the LCD in 4 bit mode is usually preferred since it uses four less wires than 8 bit mode. In practice, there isn’t a noticeable difference in performance between the two modes. In this tutorial, I’ll connect the LCD in 4 bit mode.

Here’s a diagram of the pins on the LCD I’m using. The connections from each pin to the Arduino will be the same, but your pins might be arranged differently on the LCD. Be sure to check the datasheet or look for labels on your particular LCD:

Also, you might need to solder a 16 pin header to your LCD before connecting it to a breadboard. Follow the diagram below to wire the LCD to your Arduino:

All of the code below uses the LiquidCrystal library that comes pre-installed with the Arduino IDE. A library is a set of functions that can be easily added to a program in an abbreviated format.

In order to use a library, it needs be included in the program. Line 1 in the code below does this with the command #include . When you include a library in a program, all of the code in the library gets uploaded to the Arduino along with the code for your program.

Now we’re ready to get into the programming! I’ll go over more interesting things you can do in a moment, but for now lets just run a simple test program. This program will print “hello, world!” to the screen. Enter this code into the Arduino IDE and upload it to the board:

There are 19 different functions in the LiquidCrystal library available for us to use. These functions do things like change the position of the text, move text across the screen, or make the display turn on or off. What follows is a short description of each function, and how to use it in a program.

TheLiquidCrystal() function sets the pins the Arduino uses to connect to the LCD. You can use any of the Arduino’s digital pins to control the LCD. Just put the Arduino pin numbers inside the parentheses in this order:

This function sets the dimensions of the LCD. It needs to be placed before any other LiquidCrystal function in the void setup() section of the program. The number of rows and columns are specified as lcd.begin(columns, rows). For a 16×2 LCD, you would use lcd.begin(16, 2), and for a 20×4 LCD you would use lcd.begin(20, 4).

This function clears any text or data already displayed on the LCD. If you use lcd.clear() with lcd.print() and the delay() function in the void loop() section, you can make a simple blinking text program:

Similar, but more useful than lcd.home() is lcd.setCursor(). This function places the cursor (and any printed text) at any position on the screen. It can be used in the void setup() or void loop() section of your program.

The cursor position is defined with lcd.setCursor(column, row). The column and row coordinates start from zero (0-15 and 0-1 respectively). For example, using lcd.setCursor(2, 1) in the void setup() section of the “hello, world!” program above prints “hello, world!” to the lower line and shifts it to the right two spaces:

You can use this function to write different types of data to the LCD, for example the reading from a temperature sensor, or the coordinates from a GPS module. You can also use it to print custom characters that you create yourself (more on this below). Use lcd.write() in the void setup() or void loop() section of your program.

The function lcd.noCursor() turns the cursor off. lcd.cursor() and lcd.noCursor() can be used together in the void loop() section to make a blinking cursor similar to what you see in many text input fields:

Cursors can be placed anywhere on the screen with the lcd.setCursor() function. This code places a blinking cursor directly below the exclamation point in “hello, world!”:

This function creates a block style cursor that blinks on and off at approximately 500 milliseconds per cycle. Use it in the void loop() section. The function lcd.noBlink() disables the blinking block cursor.

This function turns on any text or cursors that have been printed to the LCD screen. The function lcd.noDisplay() turns off any text or cursors printed to the LCD, without clearing it from the LCD’s memory.

This function takes anything printed to the LCD and moves it to the left. It should be used in the void loop() section with a delay command following it. The function will move the text 40 spaces to the left before it loops back to the first character. This code moves the “hello, world!” text to the left, at a rate of one second per character:

Like the lcd.scrollDisplay() functions, the text can be up to 40 characters in length before repeating. At first glance, this function seems less useful than the lcd.scrollDisplay() functions, but it can be very useful for creating animations with custom characters.

lcd.noAutoscroll() turns the lcd.autoscroll() function off. Use this function before or after lcd.autoscroll() in the void loop() section to create sequences of scrolling text or animations.

This function sets the direction that text is printed to the screen. The default mode is from left to right using the command lcd.leftToRight(), but you may find some cases where it’s useful to output text in the reverse direction:

This code prints the “hello, world!” text as “!dlrow ,olleh”. Unless you specify the placement of the cursor with lcd.setCursor(), the text will print from the (0, 1) position and only the first character of the string will be visible.

This command allows you to create your own custom characters. Each character of a 16×2 LCD has a 5 pixel width and an 8 pixel height. Up to 8 different custom characters can be defined in a single program. To design your own characters, you’ll need to make a binary matrix of your custom character from an LCD character generator or map it yourself. This code creates a degree symbol (°):

Hi guys in this tutorial we will see how to make counter using motion detection sensor (PIR) and output will be shown on LCD display. It will count how many times object passed over it. So let’s get started. For this you will need

Do connection as shown in diagram. I have used 2.2K ohms resistor for LCD backlight. Depending upon your need of brightness of display you can increase or decrease the resistance.

You can watch previous tutorial for PIR sensor as a counter only difference in this tutorial  is we are using LCD so that we will get output on LCD not on serial monitor.

Include Liquid crystal library which is preinstalled in Arduino IDE. Initialize library with the numbers of interface pins. You can see in circuit diagram 2,3,4,5 and 11, 12 pins are connected to LCD.

In setup function declare pinmode of LED and PIR. Lcd.begin will define dimension of LCD in this case it is 16 columns and 2 rows. I am Setting cursor at little bit right side. That’s why I took 5th column but its index number is 4. Similarly for first row its index number is 0. We can see in LCD array picture.

We want to count when there is motion detection therefore if currentsate is equal to 1 it will count 1. Initially counter value is set to zero. We have set cursor for counter value in second row. Lcd.print will print the counter value.

Hello friend welcome to “Techno-E-Solution” in this article we are going to learn how to connect LCD display with Arduino Uno and print "Hello World!" on LCD using Arduino Uno. The 16x2 LCD is most popular LCD in electronics projects. In upcoming project we need this display in our project so it"s the beginners level tutorial learn this tutorial with fun. So friends let"s get started..........

Strings are used to store text. They can be used to display text on an LCD or in the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor window. Strings are also useful for storing the user input. For example, the characters that a user types on a keypad connected to the Arduino.

In this chapter, we will learn Strings, objects and the use of strings in Arduino sketches. By the end of the chapter, you will learn which type of string to use in a sketch.

The following example shows what a string is made up of; a character array with printable characters and 0 as the last element of the array to show that this is where the string ends. The string can be printed out to the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor window by using Serial.println() and passing the name of the string.

New characters overwrite "cak" of the word "cake" with the word "tea". This is done by overwriting individual characters. The "e" of "cake" is replaced with a new null terminating character. The result is that the string is actually terminated with two null characters, the original one at the end of the string and the new one that replaces the "e" in "cake". This makes no difference when the new string is printed because the function that prints the string stops printing the string characters when it encounters the first null terminator.

In this project we are going to construct a bidirectional visitor counter circuit using Arduino which registers the number of people who made entry and exit at schools, library, offices, commercial buildings etc. in a given period of time, set by an operator and automatically stores the data in a SD at the instant of closing with date and time.

The LDR is connected to a “logic NOT gate” IC 7404 with a pull-up resistor 10K. The IC 7404 is here to output a proper digital signal to Arduino by receiving a noisy LDR input.

The Arduino pins 2 and 3 are configured as interrupts, an interrupt is generated when the voltage level turns from high to low and a count is incremented internally in the microcontroller.

The collected data during closing time is stored to a SD card, but interfacing Arduino to a SD card is not that straight forward until you use a SD card module using which you can easily interface a SD to any variant of Arduino.

A SD card module is illustrated in the above image. The SD card must be inserted in its socket in the correct direction and the pins that connect to Arduino are labeled at the backside.

The module can be supplied with 5V, however the SD card operates only at 3.3V, fortunately the module comes with an on-board 3.3V regulator to supply 3.3V to the SD card. The module also comes with a level shifter IC which takes 5V signal from Arduino or any other microcontroller and converts it to 3.3V signal which is compatible with the SD card; otherwise 5V will kill it.

The SD card utilizes SPI protocol to communicate with Arduino and generates a text file containing data of entry and exit count with date and time. An operator has to insert the SD card to his/her computer to read the data. The logged data is illustrated in the below image:

DS3231 / DS1307 utilizes I2C protocol to communicate with Arduino, it can track time and date up to year 2100 with leap year compensation and it comes with a 3V coin cell which keep the RTC running even when you disconnect the main power supply to the circuit and it can run on the coin cell for more than 2 years.

3) Once you upload the code, you will see date and time on the display. Now disconnect the power for 10 seconds and reconnect it, you should see correct date and time are displayed and running.

This project utilizes an I2C LCD adapter module which is connected to a 16 x 2 LCD display. The I2C LCD module helps the project to prototype it quickly by reducing the number of wires that connects from LCD to four; otherwise we have to connect a bunch wires from Arduino to LCD.

It utilizes I2C protocol hence its name and can be soldered on the back of the LCD or can be connected on a breadboard as illustrated in the above image. It shares the same I2C bus as RTC does. Use the on-board trim potentiometer to adjust the contrast of the display.

After you prototype the circuit in a breadboard, the main construction can be done using a well-designed PCB and use Arduino pro mini for the main construction.

3) To set start time press the menu button and press enter. Now the LCD will ask you to set (starting) hours and use INC and DEC buttons to select an hour (0 to 23) and press enter. Now the LCD will ask you to set minutes (0 to 59), use INC and DEC buttons to select a minute and press enter, the LCD will say start time is saved.

Strings, objects and how to use strings in Arduino sketches are fully explained in this part of the Arduino programming course. The question of which type of sting to use in a sketch is answered at the end of this article.

New characters overwrite "cak" of the work "cake" with the word "tea". This is done by overwriting individual characters. The "e" of "cake" is replaced with a new null terminating character. The result is that the string is actually terminated with two null characters – the original one at the end of the string and the new one that replaces the "e" in "cake". This makes no difference when the new string is printed out because the function that prints the string stops printing string characters when it encounters the first null terminator.

A String object is much easier to use than a string character array. The object has built-in functions that can perform a number of operations on strings which are fully documented in the reference section on the Arduino website.

The main disadvantage of using the String object is that it uses a lot of memory and can quickly use up the Arduino"s RAM memory which may cause the Arduino to hang, crash or produce unexpected behaviour. This is especially true for the smaller Arduinos such as the Arduino Uno.

When the Wemos D1 mini receives power it checks its memory if it has previously connected to a Wi-Fi access point. If not, it creates an access point itself for you to connect to. The name and password are then displayed on the LCD. In this case the name is "Koterijsubs" and the password is "subscribers".

There is a timer function in the code that does this every 15 seconds. When the result is higher than the previous one, it lights up the LEDs for two seconds and displays the number on the LCD.

Most of the time we use the serial plotter of the Arduino IDE to visualize our solutions or output of a sketch. This is great and a big time saver when you are doing prototyping. But there is a time when your system will go live. If you are for example only sending data from sensors to a database on a Raspberry Pi, than you are able to view the output remote from your PC by connecting to the database. But there are use cases like an indoor weather station, where you want to see the output like the current temperature directly and not when you are on you PC.

Than displays are the way to go. There are different kinds of displays like 7 Segment LED display, 4 Digit 7 Segment display, 8×8 Dot Matrix display, OLED display or the easiest and cheapest version the liquid crystal display (LCD).

Most LCD displays have either 2 rows with 16 characters per row or 4 rows with 20 characters per row. There are LCD screen with and without I2C module. I highly suggest the modules with I2C because the connection to the board is very easy and there are only 2 instead of 6 pins used. But we will cover the LCD screen with and without I2C module in this article.

The LCD display has an operating voltage between 4.7V and 5.3V with a current consumption of 1mA without backlight and 120mA with full backlight. There are version with a green and also with a blue backlight color. Each character of the display is build by a 5×8 pixel box and is therefore able to display custom generated characters. Because each character is build by (5×8=40) 40 pixels a 16×2 LCD display will have 16x2x40= 1280 pixels in total. The LCD module is able to operate in 8-bit and 4-bit mode. The difference between the 4-bit and 8-bit mode are the following:

If we use the LCD display version without I2C connection we have to add the potentiometer manually to control the contrast of the screen. The following picture shows the pinout of the LCD screen.

Also I added a table how to connect the LCD display with the Arduino Uno and the NodeMCU with a description of the LCD pin. To make it as easy as possible for you to connect your microcontroller to the display, you find the corresponding fritzing connection picture for the Arduino Uno and the NodeMCU in this chapter.

3VEEPotentiometerPotentiometerAdjusts the contrast of the display If this pin is grounded, you get the maximum contrast. We will connect the VEE pin to the potentiometer output to adjust the contrast by changing the resistance of the potentiometer.

4RSD12D2Select command register to low when we are sending commands to the LCD like set the cursor to a specific location, clear the display or turn off the display.

8Data Pin 1 (d1)Data pins 0 to 7 forms an 8-bit data line. The Data Pins are connection to the Digital I/O pins of the microcontroller to send 8-bit data. These LCD’s can also operate on 4-bit mode in such case Data pin 4,5,6 and 7 will be left free.

Of cause we want to try the connection between the microcontroller and the LCD display. Therefore you find an example sketch in the Arduino IDE. The following section shows the code for the sketch and a picture of the running example, more or less because it is hard to make a picture of the screen ;-). The example prints “hello, world!” in the first line of the display and counts every second in the second row. We use the connection we described before for this example.

Looks very complicated to print data onto the LCD screen. But don’t worry like in most cases if it starts to get complicated, there is a library to make the word for us. This is also the case for the LCD display without I2C connection.

Therefore the next step is to install the library “LiquidCrystal”. You find here an article how to install an external library via the Arduino IDE. After you installed the library successful you can include the library via: #include < LiquidCrystal.h>.

Like I told you, I would suggest the LCD modules with I2C because you only need 2 instead of 6 pins for the connection between display and microcontroller board. In the case you use the I2C communication between LCD and microcontroller, you need to know the I2C HEX address of the LCD. In this article I give you a step by step instruction how to find out the I2C HEX address of a device. There is also an article about the I2C communication protocol in detail.

The following picture shows how to connect an I2C LCD display with an Arduino Uno. We will use exact this connection for all of the examples in this article.

To use the I2C LCD display we have to install the required library “LiquidCrystal_I2C” by Frank de Brabander. You find here an article how to install an external library via the Arduino IDE. After you installed the library successful you can include the library via: #include < LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>.

The LiquidCrystal library has 20 build in functions which are very handy when you want to work with the LCD display. In the following part of this article we go over all functions with a description as well as an example sketch and a short video that you can see what the function is doing.

LiquidCrystal_I2C()This function creates a variable of the type LiquidCrystal. The parameters of the function define the connection between the LCD display and the Arduino. You can use any of the Arduino digital pins to control the display. The order of the parameters is the following: LiquidCrystal(RS, R/W, Enable, d0, d1, d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7)

If you are using an LCD display with the I2C connection you do not define the connected pins because you do not connected to single pins but you define the HEX address and the display size: LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(0x27, 20, 4);

xlcd.begin()The lcd.begin(cols, rows) function has to be called to define the kind of LCD display with the number of columns and rows. The function has to be called in the void setup() part of your sketch. For the 16x2 display you write lcd.begin(16,2) and for the 20x4 lcd.begin(20,4).

xxlcd.clear()The clear function clears any data on the LCD screen and positions the cursor in the upper-left corner. You can place this function in the setup function of your sketch to make sure that nothing is displayed on the display when you start your program.

xxlcd.setCursor()If you want to write text to your LCD display, you have to define the starting position of the character you want to print onto the LCD with function lcd.setCursor(col, row). Although you have to define the row the character should be displayed.

xxlcd.print()This function displays different data types: char, byte, int, long, or string. A string has to be in between quotation marks („“). Numbers can be printed without the quotation marks. Numbers can also be printed in different number systems lcd.print(data, BASE) with BIN for binary (base 2), DEC for decimal (base 10), OCT for octal (base 8), HEX for hexadecimal (base 16).

xlcd.println()This function displays also different data types: char, byte, int, long, or string like the function lcd.print() but lcd.println() prints always a newline to output stream.

xxlcd.display() / lcd.noDisplay()This function turn on and off any text or cursor on the display but does not delete the information from the memory. Therefore it is possible to turn the display on and off with this function.

xxlcd.scrollDisplayLeft() / lcd.scrollDisplayRight()This function scrolls the contents of the display (text and cursor) a one position to the left or to the right. After 40 spaces the function will loops back to the first character. With this function in the loop part of your sketch you can build a scrolling text function.

Scrolling text if you want to print more than 16 or 20 characters in one line, than the scrolling text function is very handy. First the substring with the maximum of characters per line is printed, moving the start column from the right to the left on the LCD screen. Than the first character is dropped and the next character is printed to the substring. This process repeats until the full string is displayed onto the screen.

xxlcd.autoscroll() / lcd.noAutoscroll()The autoscroll function turn on or off the functionality that each character is shifted by one position. The function can be used like the scrollDisplayLeft / scrollDisplayRight function.

xxlcd. leftToRight() / lcd.rightToLeft()The leftToRight and rightToLeft functions changes the direction for text written to the LCD. The default mode is from left to right which you do not have to define at the start of the sketch.

xxlcd.createChar()There is the possibility to create custom characters with the createChar function. How to create the custom characters is described in the following chapter of this article as well as an example.

xlcd.backlight()The backlight function is useful if you do not want to turn off the whole display (see lcd.display()) and therefore only switch on and off the backlight. But before you can use this function you have to define the backlight pin with the function setBacklightPin(pin, polarity).

xlcd.moveCursorLeft() / lcd.moveCursorRight()This function let you move the curser to the left and to the right. To use this function useful you have to combine it with lcd.setCursor() because otherwise there is not cursor to move left or right. For our example we also use the function lcd.cursor() to make the cursor visible.

xlcd.on() / lcd.off()This function switches the LCD display on and off. It will switch on/off the LCD controller and the backlight. This method has the same effect of calling display/noDisplay and backlight/noBacklight.

Show or hide a cursor (“_”) that is useful when you create a menu as navigation bar from the left to the right or from the top to the bottom, depending on a horizontal of vertical menu bar. If you are interested how to create a basic menu with the ESP or Arduino microcontroller in combination with the display, you find here a tutorial.

The following code shows you the Arduino program to use all three LCD display functions of the library divided into three separate functions. Also the video after the program shows the functions in action.

The creation of custom characters is very easy if you use the previous mentioned libraries. The LiquidCrystal and also the LiquidCrystal_I2C library have the function “lcd.createChar()” to create a custom character out of the 5×8 pixels of one character. To design your own characters, you need to make a binary matrix of your custom character from an LCD character generator or map it yourself. This code creates a wiggling man.

In the section of the LCD display pinout without I2C we saw that if we set the RS pin to how, that we are able to send commands to the LCD. These commands are send by the data pins and represented by the following table as HEX code.

Almost every electronic hobbyist must have faced a scenario where he or she must measure the frequency of signal generated by a clock or a counter or a timer.  We can use oscilloscope to do the job, but not all of us can afford an oscilloscope. We can buy equipment for measuring the frequency but all these devices are costly and are not for everyone. With that in mind we are going to design a simple yet efficient Frequency Counter using Arduino Uno and Schmitt trigger gate.

This Arduino Frequency Counter is cost effective and can be easily made, we are going to use ARDUINO UNO for the measuring the frequency of signal, UNO is the heart of project here.

With everything in place we will have a Arduino Frequency meter and a square wave generator. Arduino can also be used to generate other kind of waveforms like sine wave, saw tooth wave etc.

The circuit diagram of the Frequency Measurement using Arduino is shown in below figure. Circuit is simple, a LCD is interfaced with Arduino to display the measured frequency of signal. ‘Wave Input’ is going to Signal Generator Circuit, from which we are feeding signal to Arduino. A Schmitt trigger gate (IC 74LS14) is used to ensure that only rectangular wave is fed to Arduino. For filtering the noise we have added couple of capacitors across power. This Frequency Meter can measure frequencies up to 1 MHz.

First of all we will talk about 555 IC based square wave generator, or should I say 555 Astable Multivibrator.  This circuit is necessary because, with the Frequency Meter in place we must have a signal whose frequency is known to us. Without that signal we will never be able to tell the working of Frequency Meter. If we have a square have of known frequency we can use that signal to test the Arduino Uno Frequency Meter and we can tweak it for adjustments for accuracy, in case of any deviations. The picture of Signal Generator using 555 Timer IC is given below:

Code for this frequency measurement using arduino is quite simple and easily understandable. Here we are explaining the pulseInfunction which is mainly responsible measuring the frequency. The Uno has a special function pulseIn,which enables us to determine the positive state duration or negative state duration of a particular rectangular wave:

Frequency Counter, as the name indicates, is an electronic device or component, which is used to measure the frequency of a signal. In case of a repetitive electronic signal, a frequency counter measures the number of pulses in that signal.

The design of the Frequency Counter using Arduino UNO can be divided in to two parts: The Arduino part, where the processing of the signal’s information takes place and the Signal Generator part, where the signal whose frequency to be measured is generated.

Arduino part of the project consists of Arduino UNO board and a 16 X 2 LCD Display. Pins 1 and 2 of the LCD (Vss and Vdd) are connected to ground and 5V supply respectively. Pin 3 (Vee), which is used to adjust the contrast of the display, is connected a Potentiometer.

Pins 11 to 14 (D4 to D7) i.e. the data pins of the LCD are connected to the digital I/O pins 4 to 7 of Arduino. Pins 15 and 16 of the LCD are supply pins of the backlight LEDs and are connected to ground and 5V (Pin 16 to 5V through a 1KΩ resistor) respectively.

A simple frequency counter, using simple components is designed that can be used to measure the frequency of a pulse without the need of an oscilloscope.