[SOLVED] LCD behaves erratically?

I've connected my Arduino Uno to an LCD 16-pin display (The one from the starter kit). I've checked my connections three times, and I'm using an example sketch, yet the LCD still displays random characters at random times. One moment it will be working fine, and the next it will start behaving randomly.

I've looked this up and found that noise, and loose wire, or a slow LCD may be causing these. How would I fix this?

Get rid of the noise, tighten the wires and use a faster display.

OR

Post a photo of your connections, a photo of the 'random' characters, and a copy of the code that produces those characters.

Don

Wait-actually-I found the problem - a faulty row in my breadboard. Sorry :slight_smile:

So in effect you 'tightened' the wires.

There's nothing to be sorry about. Your explanation of your problem and the fact that you found a solution may be helpful to others in the future.

By the way I am still using my original EL Instruments solderless breadboards that I bought around 30 years ago. As I recall they cost over $20 (1980s dollars) each. You have discovered one reason why the Ebay breadboards are a lot less expensive.

Don

The only problem I have had with the eBay breadboards - I have purchased quite a few, but have only about four actually in use - was in fact with the male-male jumpers in the 65 pack - not "Dupont" type - which had lacquer coating (presumably, glue) leaking down the pins which needed to be flaked off.

And some badly crimped "Dupont" jumpers.

The real difference is in the springiness of the contacts and how well they can recover from the abuse that occurs when oversize wires or device pins are inserted.

This was more of a problem back in the days of plentiful 1/2 watt resistors but still occurs with some commonly used components.

Don