LCD Serial Issue

I wanted to learn about LCDs and I realised that i have (probably) the wrong LCD for Arduino

This is it. And my issue here, is that there are zero tutorials for how to connect LCD serial with Arduino. I've searched the web and I've found only one video with the same LCD as mine and the conlcusion is that I have to install a new library, and this is something that I don't want to because I want to learn through LiquidCrystal library. So I am asking you, am I right? Is there any way to connect lcd serial with aruino and work with Arduino's library LiquidCrystal? Or I have to buy a LCD display with pins ?

Nice picture.
Now, tell us something about it.
Words are preferred, links even better

I see some markings that say SDA and SCL so it seems safe to assume that it can be connected to the I2C bus but that doesn't help much. Does the liquidChristal library even support i2c devices?

@valkongr you really must give us a clue on the model.

It's a simple LCD display (now the problem begins) with serial interface board attached in the back of it

Yes it can support i2c devices

And this is my LCD without the serial interface (i've found it on the web)

doing a quick google of 1602a lcd (since it's so clearly printed on the board) I came up with this PDF.

Looking at page 6 it seems you have everything there to use the wire.h library to do anything you need. The only thing I can't find is the address. It's fairly simple, however, to connect it and then run a sketch to scan the i2c bus to detect which address it is using.

Other than that it seems like job's a good'n.

With a bit more digging, searching on "lcm1602" as printed on the little orange board, I found this post. It may be worth you reading through it.

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php/topic,158312.0.html

Thanks, also i've found this now http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php/topic,128635.0.html

Here is reference to a more up to date tutorial which includes use of Bill Perry's i2cLCD guesser to determine the appropriate constructor for your i2c adaptor if you do not know it.

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=260510

valkongr:
I wanted to learn about LCDs and I realised that i have (probably) the wrong LCD for Arduino
. . .
This is it. And my issue here, is that there are zero tutorials for how to connect LCD serial with Arduino. I've searched the web and I've found only one video with the same LCD as mine and the conlcusion is that I have to install a new library, and this is something that I don't want to because I want to learn through LiquidCrystal library. So I am asking you, am I right? Is there any way to connect lcd serial with aruino and work with Arduino's library LiquidCrystal? Or I have to buy a LCD display with pins ?

There's no problem using either of the two LCDs that you pictured (original post and reply #3) with your Arduino either by connecting them directly or by using either of the serial I2C adapters shown. You do face a little preliminary work if you use the I2C adapters.

The two LCDs that you pictured are different but there is no problem interfacing either of them directly to the Arduino or to any other microcontroller for that manner. This is because their interface is standard and the basic 14-pin interface to the LCD controller has remained unchanged for decades. The connections to the LED backlight via pins 15 and 16 may be slightly different but that is easily figured out.

The scarcity of tutorials for the serial I2C interface is due to the fact that there is no such standardization among the various I2C adapters that are on the market and although the two that you have shown both use the same interface to the Arduino the similarity stops there. The chip on the device is set to a specific address and even if the two chips have identical part numbers the addresses may be different due to the wiring of the pc boards. Also those chips have several pins that interface to the LCD and the relationship between those connections was determined by the person (or program) that laid out the wiring on the pc board.

It is because of those unknown factors, typically poorly documented (if you are lucky) or undocumented (if you are not), that the various sketches mentioned in the previous posts were written. Even after you have used those sketches to determine the address of the chip and the connections between the chip and the LCD you still have to deal with the pull-up resistors that may or may not be required on the SDA and SCL lines.

This may seem like a lot of work but you only have to do it once (for each I2C adapter) and then you can interface your LCD with only 2 Arduino I/O pins instead of 6.

[Edit]: You will have to use a different library if you use a serial adapter of any kind, you just can't get around that. Fortunately the recommended library uses the same syntax as the regular LiquidCrystal library so any sketches you run across that are designed for the 'official' library will still work with the new one. You will be installing that library before you run Bill Perry's i2cLCD guesser.

Don