Hi there, I am facing a problem with my LCD Arduino screen and its quite general. There is simply no pins. I need this screen for my school science fair. I have searched for many solutions, including ordering multiple screens that show in the photo that the screen contains pins, just to get it delivered and find no pins at all. I'm aware that soldering is a solution but I have never done it before and am too scared to risk failing as I am on a very short time crunch to get my science project done. I have bought a serial interface adapter as well, just to have the same problem.. where am I supposed to connect this? Please let me know if you have a solution for me, thanks.
It may be the only solution, other than to acquire a unit that comes with the pins already installed.
Did the vendor at least include a set of the pins that are meant to be soldered on?
How many pins are we talking about? Is your LCD an I2C type, which ony needs four connections, or the older fashioned kind which uses quite a few more?
Do you have access to soldering tools and supplies?
If you go very far in this hobby, learning to solder will be worth the time. And it is daunting, especially with its risk of damaging parts.
But it's not that hard, and with practice on scrap parts and wires and PCBs that are no longer in service it doesn't take too long to get good enough. There are many videos that show the basics, getting you own equipment doesn't have to break the bank.
Beware trying to do without soldering. It can be made to work, but not reliably and the last thing you need is having to constantly wonder if your problems are software, hardware or dodgy wiring.
You might like to use the wokwi simulator
to get your code all squared away while you wait for replacements, or for a friend or other to help. This would take an average hobbyist no time at all.
Does anyone at your school have experience soldering?
Adafruit sells a 16x2 that has the header pins pre-soldered https://www.adafruit.com/product/1447. A lot of sellers leave the soldering to the buyer because its cheaper to produce, and it gives the buyer more options, such as solder the pins on, direct wire the display, use a different style of pins (such as right-angle pins, headers that take wires, etc).
So you either need to solder it (I wonder if they also teach soldering in a science school...) or buy a new LCD where the I2C backpack has already been soldered on (a few bucks).
If you're still not confident about soldering the I2C backpack, tell us what country you are in and maybe someone can point you to a quick source of ready-soldered units.
