So I just had the opportunity to salvage parts from an old CD duplicator, including a LMC-SS2A20 2x20 display. Problem is, I'm still new to hardware hacking and I don't know if this is hitachi (read LiquidCrystal library) compatible.
Does anyone know anything about this display? The internet is pretty vague about it.
As far as I can tell it uses an NT3881 controller which is compatible with the Hitachi HD44780. This means that it should work with the LiquidCrystal library. I suggest that you follow the tutorial at Arduino Tutorial - connecting a parallel LCD and see if you can get it working.
Don
Okay, I can't get it to work but, through some trial and error, i've learned something. Pin 1 is ground, pin 2 is voltage in, and pin 3 is contrast control. Good news is I've got the display logic and back light working fine. Bad news is that it doesn't seem to match up at all with the table here: LCD tutorial - making a 'shield'
I found the datasheet for the nt3881, but I'm not skilled enough to make heads or tails of it.
If I scan the back of the board, would you guys be able to help me figure out the proper pins?
Bad news is that it doesn't seem to match up at all with the table here: LCD tutorial - making a 'shield'
If you are talking about the table where it says "Shave & a haircut - 4 bits!" then I agree with you - it doesn't seem to make sense.. When I get a chance I will try and figure out where they went wrong.
The pin numbers are standard for all of the Hitachi compatible devices. Use the tutorial that I mentioned in my first reply. Your physical setup will look different since your pins are oriented in two parallel rows but the pin numbers will coincide.
Good news is I've got the display logic and back light working fine.
Did you get the single row of blocks and can you vary their intensity with the potentiometer? If yes then you have already completed the hard part. Just connect the other six wires to the Arduino, and make sure to ground pin 5 of the LCD module. You can use any of the Arduino pins for any of the 6 connections to the LCD data and control pins, just make sure that the LiquidCrystal lcd() information matches your connections.
Don
floresta:
Bad news is that it doesn't seem to match up at all with the table here: LCD tutorial - making a 'shield'
If you are talking about the table where it says "Shave & a haircut - 4 bits!" then I agree with you - it doesn't seem to make sense.. When I get a chance I will try and figure out where they went wrong.
The pin numbers are standard for all of the Hitachi compatible devices. Use the tutorial that I mentioned in my first reply. Your physical setup will look different since your pins are oriented in two parallel rows but the pin numbers will coincide.
Alright, I'll give it a shot.
Good news is I've got the display logic and back light working fine.
Did you get the single row of blocks and can you vary their intensity with the potentiometer? If yes then you have already completed the hard part. Just connect the other six wires to the Arduino, and make sure to ground pin 5 of the LCD module. You can use any of the Arduino pins for any of the 6 connections to the LCD data and control pins, just make sure that the LiquidCrystal lcd() information matches your connections.
Don
Yes, I did get the black row (how I knew I got the logic powered), but the rest of the pins didn't make sense. Well, I'll use the pins as specified in the LCD Char tutorial you linked to. Actually, I like that tutorial as it was helpful to me when I bought a 16x2 lcd from adafruit.
Thanks again! I'll update once I get a chance today to try it out.
Glad to help!
If you are talking about the table where it says "Shave & a haircut - 4 bits!" then I agree with you - it doesn't seem to make sense.. When I get a chance I will try and figure out where they went wrong.
I looked into this and it turns out that their particular display does indeed have the pinout as shown in the table. This is exactly backwards from the normal arrangement and I can't help but wonder if the manufacturer just made a mistake when they silk-screened the board and then reworked their datasheet to match.
Don
That is an awesome display with buttons! I'm glad you got it working. Any chance that you can sense those buttons? How many are there? This may be a nice thing to mount on your wall to control stuff like lighting, temperature or garage door.
Yeah, you can sense all eight of them. They all trace to one ribbon cable that connects just perfectly to a breadboard!
I'm going to use this for a nerf turret I'm building. Gonna use the four buttons on the side to control the mode (activate, deactivate, test, Safety Timer start), hook up a PIR module to one of the other analog inputs (in digital input mode) and connect the sweeping servos and LEDs to the remaining digital pins.
I may switch to a Arduino Mega so I can use more LEDs and maybe an audio shield.
That's awesome. Be sure to post some progress on the exhibition forum!
I will! And I was going through your site; you have a lot of really good stuff there! I can guarantee you I'll be using your password example and menu system in the final product of my turret. It's really slick!
This is an old thread but I have the same display (also from a duplicator) and just got it working, quite easily and without a pot to boot.
I followed the guide, sketch, and wiring here http://engineeringlearning.blogspot.com/2013/10/interfacing-lcd-without-potentiometer.html.
If you ignore that the LCD and pins shown there are a different shape than the LMC-SS2A20 and wire it up the same and copy and paste the arduino sketch exactly it should work.
Looking at the diagram, pin 1 is on the left, this corresponds to pin 1 on the back in the lower left of the LMC-SS2A20. Follow across, hooking pin 1 to GND, pin 2 to 5+, pin 3 to ~6, etc. The final 2 pins in the diagram on the far right (pin 15 and 16) don't exist on our LCD so ignore them.
int Contrast=15 controlls the contrast and 15 worked fine for me.
Hope this help someone out.