gmcmurry:
I am doing pretty good with your suggested code but in implementing it with other code I have written, I have a couple of issues.Do I really need:
I was just going to replace it all with "lcd.begin(16,2)" but thought I would see why you suggested I use these few lines before jumping ahead.
You don't need anything but lcd.begin()
The hd44780 library returns a status from begin().
You can look at that status to see if the lcd initialization has failed. If the return status is non zero initialization has failed.
The example checks for lcd initialization failure and calls a routine that blinks an LED forever.
That is what these lines do:
if(istatus < 0)
istatus = -istatus;
lcd.fatalError(istatus); // blinks error if LED_BUILTIN is defined
but you can whatever you want when initialization fails, including nothing or even ignore the return status by not even looking at the return value from begin().
--- bill