20x4 LCD screen help

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1

Hey, so Im brand new at this and just received my Sparkfun serial enabled, 20x4 LCD screen. Going back and reading the reviews this is not the friendliest one I could have bought but here I am. I have the Arduino UNO, and have it wired to GRD, +5V, and Analog pin 3. When I plug it in, i get the message Sparkfun.com, SERled, then it goes away but the backlight stays on. This is good. Im trying to get anything displayed on it. Ive been trying the Hello world routine -

#include <NewSoftSerial.h>

NewSoftSerial sLCD =  NewSoftSerial(3, 3); /* Serial LCD is connected on pin 14 (Analog input 0) */
 
void setup() {
  sLCD.begin(9600);              /* Setup serial LCD and clear the screen */
  sLCD.print(0xFE, BYTE);
  sLCD.print(0x01, BYTE);
  sLCD.print("Hello");
}
 
void loop() {}

Thanks
but even with this it compiles and uploads and does nothing.

2

Welcome to Arduino land,

The serial should be on digital pin 3 not the analog pin 3 ... and please remove the comment "... pin 14 analog 0 ..." etc because that is not correct either :wink:

That should fix it...

Which version of the IDE are you using?

3

lol, I forgot to change the comment when I typed in pin 3. It is hooked up to digital pin 3. It does compile and upload but I still get nothing on the display. Ive attached a picture of my connection. I am using version 0022 of the arduino IED. I believe there is one newer but i didnt think that that would be an issue

photo(1).JPG
photo(1).JPG478×640 115 KB

4

use (3,4) Don't use (3,3). I don't know if the soft serial works the same pin as input and output.

5

I am using version 0022 of the arduino IED. I believe there is one newer but i didnt think that that would be an issue

have used 0.22 with NSS so that should work. The new IDE 1.0 has incorporated NSS in its core.

Liudr might have a point, I know you can set the RX (receive) pin to -1 so the NSS uses only one pin for TX (transmit) .

Have you tried the LCD without the clearscreen command ?
Are there jumpers on the back?