I decided to cannibalise my old broken washing machine for components and would like to hook up the LCD display to the Arduino. There's also three little buttons I could probably use too.
I'm a complete newbie, (still waiting for my arduino to arrive in the post!) and I'm not too sure where to start. If anyone's got any ideas, please let me know
Also, if you think of other uses of this board or its components that could be interesting then also let me know.
With all the components on the board my guess is that this board does more than just control the display.
To be usefull you really need the datasheet for the display i self. This may not be available because it could be a display / PCB that was custom built for the washing machine.
Try to locate any information printed on the display itself, you might have to desolder it to find it, if it is there at all.
I'm thinking the board is the main brain of the washing machine. I've looked all over the board and the LCD and not found an ID number. I'll desolder it when I get home tonight. It's bound to have something written on the back of it (I hope!)
Can you tell/remember if it was just a digit display or if it displayed 'static' icons? It looks like that type of LCD.
I'd find the ground trace and then hook up a small power source (3v or so) and see if anything lights up with any of the pins.
Ok I didn't manage to desolder it as I don't yet have a solder sucker. But I did manage to get it to light up all the elements of the display.
I think it is backlit, but I didn't get that to light up.
What I did find by touching combinations of pins with 5V is that it's a combination of a digit display 8888 followed by washing machine specific icons.
Although it seemed that most pin combinations showed all value "onon" in the numeric part activated all the icons. Other combinations caused it to flicker very quickly.
Once I've got my desoldering tool I'll maybe find the serial number and maybe find a datasheet!
Hi phil, that display may be useful if you want to build a washing machine but if it can't display letters then it may not be worth spending too much time with it, 2 line by 16 character full alphanumeric lcd displays are pretty inexpensive.
But there is a real pleasure in repurposing discarded electronics so don't let me discourage you if you are having fun :).
Ok I didn't manage to desolder it as I don't yet have a solder sucker. But I did manage to get it to light up all the elements of the display.
I think it is backlit, but I didn't get that to light up.
I thought that would be the case.
Your best bet for the backlight is to figure out which pins control it and see what they are connected to.
If possible, power up the circuit to see what kind of voltage is required.
It may just be normal 5v, negative voltage or high voltage.
but if it can't display letters then it may not be worth spending too much time with it, 2 line by 16 character full alphanumeric lcd displays are pretty inexpensive.