Iam having trouble getting my 16x2 LCD display to work with my Arduino Uno. When I power up the setup, the display turns on, but all I see is a black screen with no text or characters.
I have double-checked my wiring and ensured the contrast potentiometer is adjusted, but the issue persists. Iam using a 5V pin on the Arduino to power the display and have noticed that the backlight sometimes flickers slightly.
Could this be due to an insufficient or unstable power supply? Iam wondering if powering both the Arduino and the display through USB might not be enough.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem? Would an external power source or capacitor help in this case? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I moved your topic to an appropriate forum category @yetabaw.
In the future, please take some time to pick the forum category that best suits the subject of your topic. There is an "About the _____ category" topic at the top of each category that explains its purpose.
Yes, I see the orange wire is where the blue wire was, is that correct?
If you want a more accurate answer it helps if you post an annotated schematic showing exactly how you have wired it. It will also have all power, ground, power sources and other components which you should include links to the appropriate technical information.
The answer to your question is "yes". To say they "just work" is quite wrong as the USB source may not have enough power.
This happened to me when my Uno + 16x2 clock failed after I changed the motherboard in my PC. It is reasonable to expect 500mA out of a USB socket but there is no guarantee of it, and 500mA is a bit marginal anyway.
You might verify all this by turning off the backlight if you can, or use 9v 1A wall wart.