I don't know if this LCD I found in an electronics heap is compatible with arduino. I am hoping someone could tell me how to figure out how to use it.
It appears the model number is MDLS16268C-02. But when I do a chip search online I can only find something similar from Varitronix:
VL-FS-MDLS16119D-01
at VL-FS-MDLS16119D-01 Datasheet(PDF) - Varitronix international limited
I don't know if this is enough information. It appears to be a nice LCD and a decent size too. Larger than the one I got in the arduino kit.
Thanks in advance for any help with this. I would love to get this to display text.
I attached an image of the LCD with 14 pins next to the Arduino LCD.
I attached an image of the LCD with 14 pins next to the Arduino LCD.
There is no such thing as an 'Arduino LCD'.
There is a good probability that your device is compatible with the Hitachi HD44780U and will therefore work with the LiquidCrystal library. Can you post a nice clear picture of the other side and/or provide us with any information that is back there?
I'll post a better one if you need to read the text.
That's the whole idea.
By the way, be aware that the LCD modules that have the pins in the lower left corner frequently have an unusual pinout. Normally pin 1 is near the edge of the board and pin 14 (or 16) is near the center, yours looks backwards if I am reading the fuzzy numbers correctly.
Also be aware that sometimes the functions of pins 1 and 2 (GND and +5V) are reversed so start with just those two connections and be ready to remove the power at the first sign of heat.
If the device passes the heat test then add the potentiometer and connect pin 3 to see if you can display a row of boxes on the display.
The information you need is on the left hand IC. It looks like you have a Varitronix MDLS 16268C display and you will find the link to a 1 page diagram showing the connections here: MDLS-16268C datasheet & application notes - Datasheet Archive. I can't seem to figure out how to extract the actual link to the datasheet from these screwball datasheet pages that always pop up with a search.
It looks like the power connections are not reversed but remember that pin 1 is near the center of the board. Your backlight connections are at the right hand end of the display, I would start out with a 150 ohm series resistor for the backlight. It's a 16x2 display in case you haven't cracked the code yet.
I was able to open up the pdf and save a ss of it.
I will try to figure something out with the info you have given me.
EDIT: Ok after looking at both schematics. It appears that they are exactly the same. What I don't understand is, physically, they are different. The smaller LCD has 16 pins. This larger LCD(16x2) has only 14. I am going to look at how I connected the smaller lcd and try to hook it up exactly the same way. I am guessing from memory that the potentiometer was what was connected to the two extra pins on the smaller lcd. So I am thinking that that would just not be necessary to add. Gonna check...
EDIT: Nm, nothing was connected to the last two pins. Looks like it's the exact same setup. Wow, that is so awesome! I totally lucked out. I think? Time to find out for sure...
Foolios,
Usually 14 pin LCDs don't have a backlight, and I don't see one in your first pic either.
Still a fun project though, I personally like hacking and salvaging old components.
TomJ
Alright, I gave it a go. Set up the board and the lcd with the exact same jumper configuration to include the potentiometer.
I uploaded the same sketch that worked with the smaller lcd. Adjusted the knob on the pot and I don't get any text on the screen.
Unless there is something else I need to do, I am gonna guess it's a bad screen.
The sketch is the example sketch with no modification so I'm not gonna post the code since it's not likely the problem.
Ok, I see what may have happened. I see that I didn't realize the pin-outs are in reverse order on the data sheet. I am going to try this again.
Didn't you see this:
"By the way, be aware that the LCD modules that have the pins in the lower left corner frequently have an unusual pinout. Normally pin 1 is near the edge of the board and pin 14 (or 16) is near the center, yours looks backwards if I am reading the fuzzy numbers correctly."
Or this:
"... but remember that pin 1 is near the center of the board."
I don't see where the 2 separate pins are for the backlight that Docedison is writing of.
Didn't you see this:
"Your backlight connections are at the right hand end of the display,"
Adjusted the knob on the pot and I don't get any text on the screen.
You have to get the black boxes first, before you even deal with the sketch.
You haven't listed your location. Maybe I can come over and hook it up for you if it isn't too far.
Usually 14 pin LCDs don't have a backlight, and I don't see one in your first pic either.
What makes you say this? Many of the earlier LCD modules had backlights and the connections were typically right where they are for this one. Most of those older backlights were electroluminescent and required >100 volts. There was a backpack type power supply that you could solder right up to those pins.
WHen you wrote of those things, you hadn't seen the data sheet yet. I thought you were making educated guesses. WHen I looked at the data sheet. It looks like everything is in the exact same order.
I didn't realize that the boxes that identified each pin was not how the pins in the schematic are ordered.
I tried it in reverse and it didn't work.
Since I understand now that you intended that pin 1 may not follow the data sheet even after reviewing it now, I will try now to see if pin one is near the center using the 5v,GRND and #3 to potentiometer as you suggested.
This is how I was looking at the pin-outs. Exactly as they had them identified. Both LCD's showed the same order.
They are indeed in the same order - but one goes from left to right and the other goes from right to left.
Your JPEG looks like a composite that consists partly of a diagram from the tutorial and partly of a diagram from the data sheet. You have aligned those two diagrams but you disregarded the fact that the drawing from the data sheet made no mention of pins '15' or '16' but did show 'A' and 'K'. If you look at the remainder of the data sheet, you will find the 'A' and 'K' locations to the right of the display exactly where I said they were.
Your PNG clearly shows the locations of pins 1 and 14 and those numbers also appear on your actual pc board. You will have to make an educated guess to locate the other 12 pins.
