No text showing up on LCD (16x2)

Other Hardware Displays
1

Hello,

I am attempting to get my lcd up and running to print out a simple hello world. I am able to get the display to turn on, but whenever I upload the program to the board it will not display text. I have attached pictures of my wiring on the breadboard and on the Arduino, picture of the lcd being on, the code I am running, and a link to the schematic I used.

Any help would be great !!

Link to schematic and code: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HelloWorld?from=Tutorial.LiquidCrystal

EDIT: Sorry guys, I thought I changed my picture format. This should be viewable now!! Also, When I initially turn it on it will display boxes on half of the screen that will slowly fade, almost as if it is "dying" unsure if thats useful.

arduinoLCD.JPG
arduinoLCD.JPG2300×2023 1.2 MB

2

Your image can not be opened.
Try adjusting the brightness of LCD. If still not work, please double check your wiring diagram and code. See full Arduino - LCD tutorial

3

Sorry, the image file you attached cannot be displayed either in the browser or with IrfanView.

Please try again or at least explain what - if anything - appears on the display.

IoT_hobbyist:
Try adjusting the brightness of LCD. If still not work, please double check your wiring diagram and code.

There is no "brightness" adjustment. You are referring to the contrast potentiometer. It will generally show "blocks" at least when near one end of its travel.

4

He's got his iPhone set to save his photos in the HEIF format.

Don

5

Check your +5v and Gnd connections to the display. As I can see both are connected (yellow wire) to your 5v buss.
Remove the +5v connection to the potentiometer - this will make the contrast adjustment a lot easier.

/ffur

6

riptidegamesceo:
Just skip using the potentiometer. You don't really need it. Without the pot., the Arduino should set the LCD to max brightness and you shouldn't have any issues with the display.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Don

7

floresta:
He's got his iPhone set to save his photos in the HEIF format.

Ah! OK, let's see:
arduinoLCD.jpg

ffur is correct - the yellow wire needs to go from pin 1 to the ground (blue) bus and while it is not preventing it from working, the potentiometer should not be connected to 5 V. Just move the black wire from positive to negative bus - both ends of the potentiometer to ground!

Finally, it is not clear but I hope your four data pins are connected to pins 2,3,4,5 which should match the code you have failed to post (see point 7 of the instructions). :astonished:

arduinoLCD.jpg
arduinoLCD.jpg2300×2023 944 KB

8

It looks like he has his four data lines exactly wrong - but we can't be sure without seeing his constructor.

Edit: He did post a link to the code that he supposedly used and this photo does not match that code.

Don

9

Modified my comment. The last one seems to line up with pin 5. I think it is the parallax that makes the first line up with pin 1. :grinning:

Photo too close, light too dim.

floresta:
Edit: He did post a link to the code that he supposedly used and this photo does not match that code.

Didn't check.

Either he tells us it's now working, or we want to see his actual code!