Hi everyone,
This is my first time trying to hook arduino to an LCD screen and working with electronics in general.
I am doing to the tutorial LiquidCrystal and my LCD screen won't even light up.
Here's what I am trying do to:
I would appreciate any input!
Thanks,
Steph.
How do I connect them do the LCD screen then? Sorry, this is my first time playing with hardware... 
I just wanted to make sure your soldered the headerpins to the LCD Board, they need to be soldered, your picture looks like they are just pushed into the board.
-Carl
Thank you guys, I will try later.. I guess I need to buy a soldering gun hhaha
You also appear to be connecting up the back light LED without any current limiting resistor. This will normally burn it out so you are lucky you don't have any connectivity. Check the data sheet for your display but typically these are 10 to 20R (ohms)
It will work without wiring up the back light by the way.
How do I connect them do the LCD screen then? Sorry, this is my first time playing with hardware...
Take a look at this tutorial:
http://www.ladyada.net/learn/lcd/charlcd.html
I guess I need to buy a soldering gun
Aarggh. You need a low power soldering iron with a small tip.
Don
Buy this:
It's the right one for the project. First heat it up for at least 3 minutes. Then keep the pins on the breadboard, disconnect arduino. Put your lcd on top and sit flat, prop if needed. Go from pin 1. Heat the pin till it can melt solder. Don't use the iron to melt solder. This could take 10 seconds or longer since the whole row of pins is cold. Once you get the first pin, the next is quicker since they are all warmed up. Make sure solder is sucked into the holes instead of staying on the pin's tip.
BTW, did you buy your lcd from adafruit?
I bought one from them just like yours, blue. It sucks, slow and hard to read. Next time you may just buy one off ebay. Fast and clear.
Before you try soldering on the LCD, I'd suggest you try it out on a little circuit board you can get at radioshack. for a couple dollars
Also a few other things I strongly suggest to someone starting out, they will avoid some frustration in gettting started
Flux is impartant, I like the kind that comes in a pen and I don't think radio shack carries them; This is just an example I found in a few seconds on ebay:
it's not as much of a mess as the kind that you see in a bottle and need to apply with a brush, it cant spill, and it only goes where you want it. Even though it says no-clean liquid flux, I also suggest getting a flux cleaning pen too; the solder you use will be rosin core which will leave residue, usually you can find it where you find the flux pens, but I couldn't seem to find any on ebay. you can also use alcohol and you'll want a brush for that, you'll usually find them at radioshack.
Also as I mentioned, rosin core solder
also you'll inevitably run into instances where you put too much solder on there and need to remove the excess, in which case I suggest a good spring loaded solder sucker, such as this:
for if you need to get rid of a lot of solder
and desoldering braid, for when your joint have a little too much.
it has flux in a braided copper wire, when you heat it on top of the excess solder it is sucked into the braid.
this is a fairly good video on youtube there's likely hundreds of others this was just the first I came across:
Whatever happens don't get discouraged, it takes a little getting used to; it's a bit of an art, keep trying it on the small printed circuit boards you can get at radio shack, until you are comforable tackling your LCD.
Again, don't get discouraged
Peace-
Carl
Guys, Thank you so much!