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[on:]

Hello,
Im not affiliated with this ebay seller but though i'd share my bargain with you all,
it's a big 20x4 Alpha Lcd for with black on green characters which i like because i hate those white on blue displays, maybe i got unlucky with the one i have but the refresh on them suck, besides i just prefer back on green.

The char height on these displays is 9mm, good for my eyes, nothing worse than squinting at small characters, anyway heres the link
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320887464436?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_1653wt_932

I got mine next day off him

[Reply #1 on:]

Good for you on that side of the pond. I hate blue displays for the same reason, so do I hate red. FYI, this unit has a display that is 150% as wide and 150% as tall of the regular displays we see. The seller, however, is pretty new to the ebay market

[Reply #2 on:]

yeah, quite los cost, but you got a pretty great quality with the Newhaven display. The : NHD-0420E2Z-NSW-BBW is blue and white caracter. And also into the 40x20 form of 167x62 this time. Little bigger.
 It used the ST7066U controller, but it supposed to be compatible.
 I having quite issus with the init currently and with lot of changing and some wrong cabling in the begining i don't know if it still work .
 I don't know if other have try it ?
 But for sure, i search quite a lot and iT's the biggest caracter lcd available.

[Reply #3 on:]

For comparison top right is 16x2 alpha display, bottom is 2.4" & 3.2" TFT & left is 128x64 graphic,
I know the 20x4 is not exactly discrete it takes most of the breadboard but there are times when a large display is useful, and for the price who cares how much room it takes up

[Reply #4 on:]

That looks like a very nice display at a very good price but something isn't exactly right.

You obviously have it working and you didn't mention anything about the contrast adjustment so I assume that you are using the standard 10K potentiometer between +5V (Vdd) and GND (Vss) to supply voltage to Pin 3 (Vo).

The seller advertises this as a "Wide Operating Range: (-30deg C to + 70 deg C - Industrial Spec)" device and most of those devices require a negative voltage on pin 3 (Vo).  The data sheet also shows that the "Wide Temp Model" requires Vdd - Vo to be at least 5.4 V which would put Vo at -0.4 V with respect to GND.

So it looks like this may actually be a mis-labeled Standard temperature version.

Don

[Reply #5 on:]

Hi Don,
I didn't get read that deeply into the specs but yes there is a pot top left of breadboard, however it is set on full swing towards ground 0v and i've tried just straight grounding pin 3 contrast and it works fine

The only downside to these displays is they seem quite thirsty on power especially when the backlight is used, mine is connected to a Duemilanove and ethernet shield and requires running off an external power supply, otherwise the display is dim, this setup draws 200ma without backlight and 350ma with

Shaun