Newbie: MIDI controller + Display - which board to choose ? tips ?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi,

This is going to be my first Arduino project, and I will be happy to receive any tips.
I want to build a small MIDI controller, which will have MIDI and a small display.
and I found the following shield:
SparkFun MIDI Shield - DEV-12898 - SparkFun Electronics,
and I thought to start with the "UNO" board.
I've understood that using a "serial" LCD is much simpler than "parallel" LCD,
but the seller at the store said I cannot use "serial" LCD with this shield and UNO, since this shield already using the RX/TX,
(as can be seen here : https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/DevTools/Arduino/MIDI_Shield-v13.pdf )
And he suggested to use MEGA instead.
So I started to Google a bit, and bumped into this LCD shield, which is using other pins:
RGB LCD Shield Kit w/ 16x2 Character Display - Only 2 pins used! [NEGATIVE DISPLAY] : ID 714 : $24.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
And apparently can be used on UNO with the MIDI shield.

I would like to ask, based on your experience,
what do you suggest to do ?
Which combination will be easier to work with ?
"easier" for me is less soldering and less wires (I prefer programming to soldering).
The problem I have now, that I dont know even what questions I need to ask...

Thanks for any help.
Si.

2

Gotta love the editorializing: " antiquated, but still widely used and well supported MIDI communication protocol"

The I2C LCD shield uses pins A4/A5 for communication - you will have to make an extension cable or something as the MIDI shield does not appear as meant to be installed as a mid-stack shield. A4/A5, Power, Gnd, review the doc's & see what else is needed.

Since you're not mounting the LCD on top the MIDI shield, you have other options - for example, look at the Serial Displays at

SPI, I2C, TTL level Serial (software serial) are all available options to you.

3

What are the features you want to have on your MIDI controller when it is finished? If you use an Arduino with only one set of TX/RX pins then you will not be able to use both a serial LCD and the midi shield. So you could use the Arduino Mega but that's a bit of an overkill. They have other LCD's that don't need to use the TX/RX pins.
Overall you won't be doing too much soldering / wiring if you choose another LCD.

4

Hi,
Thanks for the help,
The I2C solves my problem.
Thanks again !
Si.