I did add 2 more calling modes with allow a user-written test of the LCD busy flag. I tried to keep using it simple but it is necessarily more complex than the previous version, I put the new version on the server at:
http://healthriskappraisal.org/LiquidCrystalBusy.zip
The previous version is still available.
Modifications to LiquidCrystal with callback busy test
I made several modifications to the LiquidCrystal library module from Arduino17:
40x4 LCDs
I added support for an LCD of 4 LInes and 40 characters. I think that if 24x4, 32x4 LCDs exist, they would also work with the software as I have modified it although I have not had the opportunity to test that. The 40x4 LCD (and any HD44780 based LCD with between 81 and 160 characters) will have 2 enable lines. To use an LCD with 4 lines and 40 columns you would declare your LiquidCrystal object as:
LiquidCrystal lcd(RS,RW,Enable1,Enable2, data3,data2,data1,data0); at this time I don't support 8 data lines. (You can pass 255 as the RW item, ground RW and save an Arduino pin.)
Then in the setup function you would call:
lcd.begin(40,4);
Linewrap
When you declare the dimensions of the LCD in your begin call, the LiquidCrystal library remembers how long the lines are. Now when it reaches the end of line 1, text wraps onto line 2 (not line 3 as previously).
println
Although print has worked properly in the past, println has not. Now the '\r' and '\n' characters are not sent to the screen as though they were visible characters and the '\r' resets the character position to the top of the next line.
16x4 LCDs
The begin statement also correctly positions text at the beginning of the line on 16x4 (and 40x4) LCDs, which were not correctly handled before.
setCursor
In the past setCursor selected a location in the HD44780's RAM not actually a screen location. If you use any of the commands that shift the display left or right with the previous routines, then setCursor and print, text appears in an unexpected location on the screen. With the new software, if you call either scrollDisplayLeft() or scrollDisplayRight(), the LiquidCrystal package keeps track of the relationship between RAM and the LCD so that setCursor coordinates are pegged to a specific spot on the screen, rather than a spot in RAM. The sotware does not handle autoScroll, however. Call home() after autoScroll to restore the expected relationship between setCursor and the LCD screen.
Speed testing
All of the interface modes go faster than the eye can follow. I compared the speeds of the different interfaces--writing 80 characters to the screen then 80 blanks and looping through that 20 times. The results are:
4 data pins 732 milliseconds
8 data pins 647 milliseconds
busy test 432 milliseconds
The 4 data pin option is significantly faster than the previous LIquidCrystal which takes 1076 milliseconds because of an unnecessary delay between sending the high and low data nibbles.
Crazy 8 Addressing
16x1 LCDs often have an unusual address layout; these modules often have two 8 character halves and work best with this software if you declare them as lcd.begin(8,2); if you do that, then you can print(“abcdefghilklmno”); and have all the characters appear as you would like across the screen. If you use any of the scrolling commands, the bizarre addressing of these modules will manifest itself. For details follow the LCD Addressing link at web.alfredstate.edu/weimandn
User callback busy test
Get LiquidCrystal running without this first; setting up this complicated option is error-prone and this should be left for last, if implemented at all.
The LCD has a busy flag which is intended to notify the processor when it is ready to accept a new command. Testing it involves manipulating almost all the pins in the interface and is not really practical inside the library routine because of the overhead of pinMode,digitalRead and digitalWrite. If the pin and ports were always the same, faster manipulation would be possible. In fact, the port to pin correspondence hasn't remained constant across boards, so even if everyone used the same pin numbers, code that manipulated ports would fail:
Arduino 8 Arduino 168/328 Arduino Mega
Digital Pin Port Port Port
0 PD0 PD 0 PE 0
1 PD1 PD 1 PE 1
2 PD2 PD 2 PE 4
3 PD3 PD 3 PE 5
4 PD4 PD 4 PG 5
5 PD5 PD 5 PE 3
6 PD6 PD 6 PH 3
7 PD7 PD 7 PH 4
8 PB0 PB 0 PH 5
9 PB1 PB 1 PH 6
10 PB2 PB 2 PB 4
11 PB3 PB 3 PB 5
12 PB4 PB 4 PB 6
13 PB5 PB 5 PB 7
The way to be able to test the busy flag and know the pin/port numbers is to use a callback function and let the testing be done in the user's code rather than inside the library.
if you've ever used attachInterrupt on the Arduino, you've used a callback function. You write a function and pass the address of the function to another routine in a function call. In this case, I've added a couple more forms of the (very overloaded) LiquidCrystal object. Now you can specify your callback function like this for the common case of displays up to 20x4:
LiquidCrystal lcd(49,45, 35,33,31,29,&checkBusyFlag);//RS,EN,D0,D2,D1,D3
Notice that in this case, RW must be attached to a digital output pin and the user code must set that pin LOW before calling LiquidCrystal. The busy routine will be manipulating the status of RW but the main LiquidCrystal routine doesn't manipulate it or know which pin it is. (These pin numbers will likely look unfamiliar to you; on my Mega, I like to plug the LCD into the socket on the board directly with pin 1 in a ground, pin 2 into socket 53, pin 3 in socket 51 and so on.)
You would declare your LiquidCrystal object like this for a 40x4 LCD :
LiquidCrystal lcd(48,47,46,52, 41,40,39,38,&checkBusyFlag);//RS,RW,EN,EN2,D0-D3
Then you can modify the macro definitions which are immediately below (busy is the data3 item in your call to LiquidCrystal):
//LiquidCrystal lcd(49,45, 35,33,31,29,&checkBusyFlag) //RW is pin 47
#define set_data_pins_to_read DDRC&=~0b01010100,DDRA&=~0x80;//d0,d1,d2,d3 pins35,33,31,29
#define set_data_pins_to_write DDRC|=0b01010100,DDRA|=0x80; // C2,C4,C6,A7
#define set_EN_high PORTL |= 0b00010000; //port L4 pin45
#define set_EN_low PORTL &= ~(1<<4);
#define set_EN2_high PORTL |= (1<<4); //portL4 the EN2 if you have a 40x4 LCD
#define set_EN2_low PORTL &= ~(1<<4);
#define set_RW_high PORTL |= (1<<2);
#define set_RW_low PORTL &= ~(1<<2); //port L bit 2 pin47
#define set_RS_high PORTL |= (1<<0); //port L bit 0 pin 49
#define set_RS_low PORTL &= ~(1<<0);
#define read_busy PINA & (1<<7); //port A7 pin29 the last pin number spec'd to LiquidCrystal
//You DON'T have to modify the subroutine itself:
void checkBusyFlag(int8_t chip) {
uint8_t busy; // = 0x04;
set_data_pins_to_read;
set_RW_high; //RW to read
set_RS_low;
if (chip == 0) { //the if and else can be eliminated if only one hd44780 chip eg 20x4
do {
set_EN_high;
delayMicroseconds(1);
busy = read_busy; // read busy flag
set_EN_low;
delayMicroseconds(1);
set_EN_high;
delayMicroseconds(1); //pulse the second nibble--discard it;
set_EN_low;
}while (busy);
} else {
do {
set_EN2_high;
delayMicroseconds(1);
busy = read_busy; // read busy flag
set_EN2_low;
delayMicroseconds(1);
set_EN2_high;
delayMicroseconds(1); //pulse the second nibble--discard it;
set_EN2_low;
} while (busy);
}
set_data_pins_to_write; // data pins to write
set_RW_low; //RW to write
set_RS_high;
}
Again, this is complicated and you can expect to make some mistakes in the define statements at first. The payoff is about 37%-40% faster operation than with the 4 data pin option. It does cost you one Arduino pin for RW. I have not created 8 data pin versions of these. I am in favor of deprecating 8 pin mode.
Thanks
Certainly my efforts would not have been possible without the help and prior efforts of David Mellis, Limor Friede, and Donald Weiman. Don was particularly patient in guiding me through the idiosyncracies of the HD44780 based LCDs and especially in supplying an example of how the busy flag could be tested.