Need Help with My Arduino Crystal Ball Project - Weird Yellow Squares on Display

[3konverts]

Hey everyone,

I'm working on the Arduino Crystal Ball project where it's supposed to act like a magic crystal ball. But there's a problem. Every time I turn it on, instead of showing cool messages, all I get are these yellow squares on the bottom row of the screen. I think there might be something wrong with my code or maybe how I hooked everything up.

Here's the code I'm using:

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1);
const int switchPin = 6;
int switchState = 0;
int prevSwitchState = 0;
int reply;
void setup() {
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  pinMode(switchPin, INPUT);
  lcd.print("Ask the "); 
  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  lcd.print("Crystal Ball!");
}
void loop() {
  switchState = digitalRead(switchPin);
  if (switchState != prevSwitchState) {
    if (switchState == LOW) {
      reply = random(8);
      lcd.clear();
      lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
      lcd.print("The ball says:");
      lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
      switch(reply){
        case 0:
        lcd.print("Frog in my soup!");
        break;
        case 1:
        lcd.print("Oops, wrong chat!");
        break;
        case 2:
        lcd.print("Not my circus!");
        break;
        case 3:
        lcd.print("Outlook good!");
        break;
        case 4:
        lcd.print("Unsure");
        break;
        case 5:
        lcd.print("Ask again");
        break;
        case 6:
        lcd.print("Doubtful");
        break;
        case 7:
        lcd.print("No");
        break;
      }
    }
  }
  prevSwitchState = switchState;
}

If anyone can help me figure out why it's not working and how to fix it, that would be awesome. I really want to get this project working properly.

Thanks!

-3Konverts

[gordonhart]

@3konverts

LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1);

Why do you have seven inputs in the LCD opening statement:
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1);
The standard is six, i.e.
LiquidCrystal lcd(rs, en, d4, d5, d6, d7);
Perhaps you just need to delet the ", 1" from the opening statement?

[alto777]

Yes, if it's the same project #11 Crystal Ball:

LiquidCrystal lcd(12,11,5,4,3,2); // generates an instance in the lcd

a7

[3konverts]

It works now, thank you for your help!