16x2 LCD Showing gibberish

I have a 16x2 LCD screen and I'm using some of the examples from the LCD library but it keeps printing weird characters like you can see in the picture. I had a previous LCD screen and that worked fine, has anybody had this problem before? Maybe I just have a faulty screen. It's wired up as instructed in the examples. Thanks.

dfitz1000:
. . .
Maybe I just have a faulty screen. It's wired up as instructed in the examples.

I doubt both of those possibilities.

  • Have you checked the continuity of your connecting wires?
  • Is the soldering done properly?
  • What characters were you trying to display?
  • Were you trying to display anything on the second line?
  • Do you get the same results each time you run your program?

Obviously we need more information.

Don

Yes I have checked continuity and there's no problem there.

The screen came with pre-soldered header pins and they all look good.

It doesn't matter what I try to display, it shows these random characters that are scrolling and changing by the way, not static.

Can you think of any other information that you could possibly provide in order for us to evaluate your situation?

Hint: Think of the things that you can observe that we can't.

Don

I'm simply asking if anybody else has had this problem and if so, how did they solve it.

Hint: have you had this problem before?

No, I haven't had this problem but I have helped dozens of those who have. They were usually able to solve their problem when they supplied the needed information.

Unfortunately without a crystal ball no one can provide more than some guesses about the cause(s) of your problem.

Here are some of the things we don't know:

  • Which LCD you are using
  • How the LCD is interfaced with your Arduino
  • What program code you are using
  • What library you are using
  • Whether or not your wiring matches your program code
  • Whether or not there are some other devices (motors, relays, etc) present that you haven't mentioned

Don