raspberry pi lcd display i2c in stock
The principle of the LCD1602 liquid crystal display is to use the physical characteristics of the liquid crystal to control the display area by voltage, that is, the graphic can be displayed.
I2C uses only two bidirectional open-drain lines, Serial Data Line (SDA) and Serial Clock Line (SCL),pulled up with resistors. Typical voltages used are +5 V or +3.3 V although systems with other voltages are permitted. It can be operated as long as it supports the I2C development board.
Features: Easy to use; Less I/O ports are occupied; Support IIC Protocol; The I2C LCD1602 library is easy to get; With a potentiometer used to adjust backlight and contrast; Blue backlight; Power supply: 5v; I2C address is: 0x27.
Internet of things (IoT) is fascinating. I am predominantly a web applications person. But sensors, LED display, chips, soldering and the collage of software with these “things” is exciting.
The credit card sized Raspberry Pi computer gives all the opportunity to experiment and explore IoT. I wrote getting started with IoT using Raspberry Pi and PHP a while back. Now I thought of extending that and write about my hobby projects that I do with Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi is my hobby and I thought of sharing with you about these tiny projects. This will be a multi article series. Let us start with how to connect a I2C LCD display with the Raspberry Pi.
I2C is a serial bus developed by Philips. So we can use I2C communication and just use 4 wires to communicate. To do this we need to use an I2C adapter and solder it to the display.
I2C uses two bidirectional lines, called SDA (Serial Data Line) and SCL (Serial Clock Line) with 5V standard power supply requirement a ground pin. So just 4 pins to deal with.
When you buy the LCD module, you can purchase LCD, I2C adapter separately and solder it. If soldering is not your thing, then it is better to buy the LCD module that comes with the I2C adapter backpack with it.
The above image is backside of a 2004 LCD module. The black thing is the I2C adapter. You can see the four pins GND, VCC, SDA and SCL. That’s where the you will be connecting the Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi GPIO pins are natively of 3.3V. So we should not pull 5v from Raspberry Pi. The I2C LCD module works on 5V power and to make these compatible, we need to shift up the 3.3V GPIO to 5V. To do that, we can use a logic level converter.
You might see RPIs connected directly to a 5V devices, but they may not be pulling power from RPI instead supplying externally. Only for data / instruction RPI might be used. So watch out, you might end up frying the LCD module or the RPI itself.
Why am I recommending the official power adapter! There is a reason to it. The cheap mobile adapters though guarantee a voltage, they do not provide a steady voltage. That may not be required in charging a cellphone device but not in the case of Raspberry Pi. That is the main reason, a USB keyboard or mouse attached does not get detected. They may not get sufficient power. Either go for an official power adapter or use the best branded one you know.
I have a headless setup. I am doing SSH from my MAC terminal and use VIM as editor. VNC viewer may occasionally help but doing the complete programming / debugging may not be comfortable. If you do not prefer SSH way, then you will need a monitor to plug-in to Raspberry Pi.
As you know my language of choice to build website is PHP. But for IoT with Raspberry Pi, let us use Python. Reason being availability of packages and that will save ton of effort. Low level interactions via serial or parallel interface is easier via Python.
Following code imports the RPLCD library. Then initializes the LCD instance. Then print the “Hello World” string followed by new line. Then another two statements. Then a sleep for 5 seconds and switch off the LCD backlight. Finally, clear the LCD screen.
Connecting an LCD to your Raspberry Pi will spice up almost any project, but what if your pins are tied up with connections to other modules? No problem, just connect your LCD with I2C, it only uses two pins (well, four if you count the ground and power).
In this tutorial, I’ll show you everything you need to set up an LCD using I2C, but if you want to learn more about I2C and the details of how it works, check out our article Basics of the I2C Communication Protocol.
There are a couple ways to use I2C to connect an LCD to the Raspberry Pi. The simplest is to get an LCD with an I2C backpack. But the hardcore DIY way is to use a standard HD44780 LCD and connect it to the Pi via a chip called the PCF8574.
The PCF8574 converts the I2C signal sent from the Pi into a parallel signal that can be used by the LCD. Most I2C LCDs use the PCF8574 anyway. I’ll explain how to connect it both ways in a minute.
I’ll also show you how to program the LCD using Python, and provide examples for how to print and position the text, clear the screen, scroll text, print data from a sensor, print the date and time, and print the IP address of your Pi.
I2C (inter-integrated circuit) is also known as the two-wire interface since it only uses two wires to send and receive data. Actually it takes four if you count the Vcc and ground wires, but the power could always come from another source.
Connecting an LCD with an I2C backpack is pretty self-explanatory. Connect the SDA pin on the Pi to the SDA pin on the LCD, and the SCL pin on the Pi to the SCL pin on the LCD. The ground and Vcc pins will also need to be connected. Most LCDs can operate with 3.3V, but they’re meant to be run on 5V, so connect it to the 5V pin of the Pi if possible.
If you have an LCD without I2C and have a PCF8574 chip lying around, you can use it to connect your LCD with a little extra wiring. The PCF8574 is an 8 bit I/O expander which converts a parallel signal into I2C and vice-versa. The Raspberry Pi sends data to the PCF8574 via I2C. The PCF8574 then converts the I2C signal into a 4 bit parallel signal, which is relayed to the LCD.
Before we get into the programming, we need to make sure the I2C module is enabled on the Pi and install a couple tools that will make it easier to use I2C.
Now we need to install a program called I2C-tools, which will tell us the I2C address of the LCD when it’s connected to the Pi. So at the command prompt, enter sudo apt-get install i2c-tools.
Next we need to install SMBUS, which gives the Python library we’re going to use access to the I2C bus on the Pi. At the command prompt, enter sudo apt-get install python-smbus.
Now reboot the Pi and log in again. With your LCD connected, enter i2cdetect -y 1 at the command prompt. This will show you a table of addresses for each I2C device connected to your Pi:
We’ll be using Python to program the LCD, so if this is your first time writing/running a Python program, you may want to check out How to Write and Run a Python Program on the Raspberry Pi before proceeding.
I found a Python I2C library that has a good set of functions and works pretty well. This library was originally posted here, then expanded and improved by GitHub user DenisFromHR.
There are a couple things you may need to change in the code above, depending on your set up. On line 19 there is a function that defines the port for the I2C bus (I2CBUS = 0). Older Raspberry Pi’s used port 0, but newer models use port 1. So depending on which RPi model you have, you might need to change this from 0 to 1.
The function mylcd.lcd_display_string() prints text to the screen and also lets you chose where to position it. The function is used as mylcd.lcd_display_string("TEXT TO PRINT", ROW, COLUMN). For example, the following code prints “Hello World!” to row 2, column 3:
On a 16×2 LCD, the rows are numbered 1 – 2, while the columns are numbered 0 – 15. So to print “Hello World!” at the first column of the top row, you would use mylcd.lcd_display_string("Hello World!", 1, 0).
You can create any pattern you want and print it to the display as a custom character. Each character is an array of 5 x 8 pixels. Up to 8 custom characters can be defined and stored in the LCD’s memory. This custom character generator will help you create the bit array needed to define the characters in the LCD memory.
The code below will display data from a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor. Follow this tutorial for instructions on how to set up the DHT11 on the Raspberry Pi. The DHT11 signal pin is connected to BCM pin 4 (physical pin 7 of the RPi).
By inserting the variable from your sensor into the mylcd.lcd_display_string() function (line 22 in the code above) you can print the sensor data just like any other text string.
These programs are just basic examples of ways you can control text on your LCD. Try changing things around and combining the code to get some interesting effects. For example, you can make some fun animations by scrolling with custom characters. Don’t have enough screen space to output all of your sensor data? Just print and clear each reading for a couple seconds in a loop.
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Afghanistan, American Samoa, Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cuba, Republic of, Côte d"Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Gambia, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Jersey, Korea, North, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mayotte, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, Reunion, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U.S.), Wallis and Futuna, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
LCD screens are useful and found in many parts of our life. At the train station, parking meter, vending machines communicating brief messages on how we interact with the machine they are connected to. LCD screens are a fun way to communicate information in Raspberry Pi Pico projects and other Raspberry Pi Projects. They have a big bright screen which can display text, numbers and characters across a 16 x 2 screen. The 16 refers to 16 characters across the screen, and the 2 represents the number of rows we have. We can get LCD screens with 20x2, 20x4 and many other configurations, but 16x2 is the most common.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to connect an LCD screen, an HD44780, to a Raspberry Pi Pico via the I2C interface using the attached I2C backpack, then we will install a MicroPython library via the Thonny editor and learn how to use it to write text to the display, control the cursor and the backlight.
2. Import four librariesof pre-written code. The first two are from the Machine library and they enable us to use I2C and GPIO pins. Next we import the sleep function from Time enabling us to pause the code. Finally we import the I2C library to interact with the LCD screen.from machine import I2C, Pin
3. Create an objecti2c to communicate with the LCD screen over the I2C protocol. Here we are using I2C channel 0, which maps SDA to GP0 and SCL to GP1.i2c = I2C(0, sda=Pin(0), scl=Pin(1), freq=400000)
4. Create a variableI2C_ADDR,which will store the first I2C address found when we scan the bus. As we only have one I2C device connected, we only need to see the first [0] address returned in the scan.I2C_ADDR = i2c.scan()[0]
5. Create an objectlcdto set up the I2C connection for the library. It tells the library what I2C pins we are using, set via the i2c object, the address of our screen, set via I2C_ADDRand finally it sets that we have a screen with two rows and 16 columns.lcd = I2cLcd(i2c, I2C_ADDR, 2, 16)
6. Create a loopto continually run the code, the first line in the loop will print the I2C address of our display to Thonny’s Python Shell.while True:
8. Write two lines of textto the screen. The first will print “I2C Address:” followed by the address stored inside the I2C_ADDR object. Then insert a new line character “\n” and then write another line saying “Tom’s Hardware" (or whatever you want it to say). Pause for two seconds to allow time to read the text.lcd.putstr("I2C Address:"+str(I2C_ADDR)+"\n")
9. Clear the screenbefore repeating the previous section of code, but this time we display the I2C address of the LCD display using its hex value. The PCF8574T chip used in the I2C backpack has two address, 0x20 and 0x27 and it is useful to know which it is using, especially if we are using multiple I2C devices as they may cause a clash on the bus.lcd.clear()
12. Turn the backlight back onand then hide the cursor. Sometimes, a flashing cursor can detract from the information we are trying to communicate.lcd.backlight_on()
13. Create a for loopthat will print the number 0 to 19 on the LCD screen. Note that there is a 0.4 second delay before we delete the value and replace it with the next. We have to delete the text as overwriting the text will make it look garbled.for i in range(20):
Save and runyour code. As with any Python script in Thonny, Click on File >> Saveand save the file to your Raspberry Pi Pico. We recommend calling it i2c_lcd_test.py. When ready, click on the Green play buttonto start the code and watch as the test runs on the screen.
This is a 2*16 character RGB LCD+Keypad plate for Raspberry Pi. We made improvements in the wiring connection based on the previous LCD display as well as left out the contrast adjustment function, so the product can be pretty easy to use, and users can spend time focusing on the most important projects.
The RGB LCD1602 display is integrated on the shield. It leads out Raspberry Pi’s GPIO ports for connecting more device. Besides, the shield adopts I2C interface, so you can realize the 16 million color combination of the LCD, backlight brightness adjustment, display control etc. To convenient your use on Raspberry Pi, there are 5 push-buttons integrated on the board to help you to switch display and configure functions, then you can easily build up your data monitor and small operating platform.
Raspberry Pi 16×2 LCD I2C Interfacing and Python Programming– I have been using 16×2 LCD for quite a long time in different Arduino and IoT related projects. You know we have two types of the 16×2 LCD, the normal one used more wires and the other one is based on the I2C interface which needs only two wires.
If you have the plain version of this display then this tutorial is not for you. The plain version is not practical anyway it would use a lot of GPIO Pins and it has a complicated programming requirement.
With this version you need only four pins and the programming model is very simple. Other than the display you will need some wires. This is what I will be using.
The right-hand side matches the backpack pins, while the left hand-side will go to a breadboard. You also need a small Phillips screwdriver to adjust the contrast.
The backpack module uses the I-squred-C (or I2C) protocol to communicate with the Raspberry Pi, which uses only two wires: SDA and SCL (data and clock). Please note that the display is a 5 volt device, and it is powered by 5 volts, but due to design of the I2C protocol, and the fact that the Raspberry Pi is the controlling device, it is safe to connect such display to the Raspberry Pi directly.
I suggest using wires of different colors to connect the LCD display. This minimizes the risk of damage due to incorrect connections. For example, I’m using
I use the cobbler connector with a breadboard, but the display can be connected to the GPIO headers directly, you’ll just need to use different wires. 5 volts and ground connections are close to each other here, while the SDA and SCL line are connected on the opposite side.
Before you start using the I2C 16×2 LCD display with Python, you need to make sure that the I2C protocol is enabled on your Raspberry Pi. You can use the sudo raspi-config utility to take care of that. This program is navigated using keyboard arrows, tab and the Enter key. Look for I2C in the interfacing options and enable it. Enabling I2C requires a reboot.
Once the system is back you can check whether the I2C bus is active, I2C protocol supports multiple devices connected to the same bus, and it identifies each device by their hardware address. The i2cdetect command can be used to see what is connected and what the addresses are.
And you can also adjust the contrast using a small Phillips screwdriver. Set it somewhere in the middle. Be careful not to short anything with the screwdriver while you make the adjustment. Looks like my display is ready to go.
The 27 hexadecimal addresses happen to be the most common, but your display’s address may be different. For example, it could be 3f. This will depend on the chip version of the backpack module. As long as the i2cdetect command shows the display is connected, you are good to go.
The easiest way to program this 16×2 I2C LCD display in Python is by using a dedicated library. There are many to choose from. I like things simple, so the library I recommend is rpi_lcd.
This library has the default 27 address hard-coded. If your display has a different address you will need to change it. You need to find the library on your system and the following command should do that for you.
I use the clear function at the end of the program, otherwise the message will stay on the display after the program ends. The two numbers (1 and 2) at the end of the text function indicate which line of the display to use.
This is an opportunity to adjust the contrast, especially if the display does not show anything, if you don’t see the “Hello, Raspberry Pi!” message. The adjustment only affects the letters, not the backlight. The backlight in this model is not adjustable, it’s always on, but you can turn it off by removing the jumper on the backpack.
LCD displays are a fun way to learn how to code with a Raspberry Pi, Arduino and most development boards, however they usually come with a lot of pin connections and a single backlight colour.
This Waveshare LCD1602 version of the classic 16x2 LCD Display has an RGB backlight, allowing you to select up to 16 million different colours for your project. It also features an I2C interface requiring just 4 pin connections, making wiring your project much easier and reducing cable spaghetti!
This is a 2*16 character RGB LCD+Keypad plate for Raspberry Pi. We made improvements in the wiring connection based on the previous LCD display as well as left out the contrast adjustment function, so the product can be pretty easy to use, and users can spend time focusing on the most important projects.
The RGB LCD1602 display is integrated on the shield. It leads out Raspberry Pi’s GPIO ports for connecting more device. Besides, the shield adopts I2C interface, so you can realize the 16 million color combination of the LCD, backlight brightness adjustment, display control etc. To convenient your use on Raspberry Pi, there are 5 push-buttons integrated on the board to help you to switch display and configure functions, then you can easily build up your data monitor and small operating platform.
The i2c bus allows several devices to use the same two wires for communication. You specify which device address you want to talk to, and the other devices stay quiet.
In this project, we"ll see how to hook up a 16x2 Character I2C LCD module with a ProtoStax Enclosure for Raspberry Pi to display interesting information like the Pi"s IP Address, Date & Time, or any other information you would like to display!
TheProtoStax LCD Kit V2is a new Extension Kit from ProtoStax. It can be used to add a 16x2 Character I2C LCD module to any ProtoStax Enclosure. You simply replace the top of your existing ProtoStax Enclosure with the one from the kit with the LCD module installed, and you"ll have an enclosure with an LCD screen!
Firstly, mount the LCD screen from the kit to the Top Plate from the kit using the mounting hardware. Then, unscrew and remove the Top Plate from your ProtoStax Enclosure Raspberry Pi (A+/B+, 4B/Zero) and replace it with the LCD Kit Top Plate.
Since the LCD module that is used has an I2C adapter, you only need 2 I2C pins to communicate with it. Wiring is super easy.RPi 5v pin (physical pin 2) - LCD VCC
Next, we want to enable I2C on the Raspberry Pi (if it is not already enabled). You can do that using the raspi-config utility. Here are the steps to do so. You will first run$ sudo raspi-config
We are going to interact with the LCD using Python. To do that, we are going to use the install the necessary python packages - we use RPLCD and smbus (to use I2C to communicate with the LCD module).$ sudo pip3 install RPLCD
We"ll demonstrate printing the IP address and Date and Time on the LCD screen, using the Python program below. You can find the source code on the GitHub link below.
Assuming you"ve installed it in ProtoStax_RPi_LCD_Example/ under your home directory, launch the program thus:$ python3 /home/pi/ProtoStax_RPi_LCD_Example/lcd_ip.py
This displays the Date and Time on the first line, and the second line of the 16x2 display shows the IP address and hostname of the Raspberry Pi in a scrolling fashion (as the character count is longer than 16 characters, we have to resort to scrolling). The
If the network is down on unreachable, then the IP address and hostname will be empty - therefore with a quick glance you can tell about the connection status of your Raspberry Pi as well as know how to connect to it, if it is headless. Just use the IP address or use
Now we want to make sure that this script gets run when we boot up the computer. We therefore create a service (which we call lcd.service) and make sure that the service is enabled (this assumes that the lcd_ip.py Python script is in the /home/pi/ProtoStax_RPi_LCD_Example directory - adjust the path accordingly in the WorkingDirectory below)
When shutting down the computer, the service gets stopped, and the python script as part of cleanup will clear the LCD screen and turn off the backlight.
Of course, you can also use the LCD display to display other information. For example, you cancreate a stock ticker that shows a scrolling ticker of stock prices you are interested in
We are going to setup our 16×2 I2C LCD using the raspberry pi in this post. These LCD’s are cheap and is very useful in showing information in any of your Internet of Things (IOT) projects. We will show as well how to drive this component together with some sample code on how to show information on its screen.
The LCD modules that we are using is powered by the PCF8574 CMOS silicon circuit. This module provides most microcontroller with two-line bidirectional bus Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C). This makes your microcontroller use only two wires (SDA/SCL) when communicating with any device that use this module.
You should have installed the latest Raspberry Pi OS in your unit. If not then please check out this postwhere I installed the latest Raspberry Pi OS in Headless Mode.
It is a good idea to update your Raspberry Pi OS to the latest version whenever you start working on it and to that just execute the following command. This might take sometime so allow it to finish its process.
The following is the wiring of our I2C 16X2 LCD Display to out Raspberry Pi. We are powering up our LCD with the 5V output. The 2 wire I2C pins are connected with each other.
If everything is okay then the address should be displayed like my image above. In this case it is 0x27. This will be used by our Python script later on so take note of this value.
The installer will install dependent packages so we don’t need to install anything. Your raspberry pi will auto reboot. Wait for your unit to go back online again before going into testing.
We have powered up our I2C LCD Display in this post using a very good python library. We have wired it to our Raspberry Pi and is able to display any string information that we want. That’s it!
Ms.Josey 
Ms.Josey