Ok, I know I am new here, but I looked EVERYWHERE to find out how to send the control code to reset.
It says, during the splash screen, send r. When I go into my handy ASCII character set ^r is 0x12. When I do that... nothing happens. I have e-mailed spark fun support, but god knows how long that is going to take. Anyone else know how to get the SerLCD back to the way it was when they sent it to me?
Nick
Greetings Nick,
Welcome to the forum! I'm assuming you read all this:
Regards,
David
I'm also curious about this.
Here's a stab at it:
-Create a sketch that repeatedly sends the control R
-Plug everything in with the exception of the power to the LCD
-flip on the arduino
-wait a bit so that you know it's trying to send stuff via serial.
-the power on the lcd so that the splash screen shows up
???
Will something like this work:
//resets the serial LCD to its factory settings
//Leave power to the LCD unpluged
//turn on arduino (ie plug it into USB)
//turn on serial monitor on arduino IDE
//once you see the control r character being sent plug in the power to the LCD
void setup(){
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop(){
Serial.print(0x7C, BYTE); //special character
Serial.print(0x12, BYTE); //reset character
delay(50);
}
I did a little testing just now and this seems to work:
//resets the serial LCD to its factory settings
//Leave power to the LCD unplugged and serial to the LCD plugged in
//turn on arduino (ie plug it into USB)
//wait a few moments
//plug in power to the LCD
//if successful you will get a "Reset to 9600" message
void setup(){
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop(){
//Serial.print(0x7C, BYTE); //special character
Serial.print(0x12, BYTE); //reset character
//delay(50);
}
I did this and was presented with the message "Reset to 9600". woot!
I'll definitely give this a shot. Thanks so much.
Nick
For the past couple of days my LCD has been shown random character unless I plug it in after the sketch has started. This reset procedure fixed that problem.
good luck.
Okay... didn't work. It shows solid bars on line 1 and 3 then eventually clears and then flashes the backlight and says Splash Changed.
Thats what showed the first time I plugged in the power. I talked to Spark Fun support and they said that this behavior isn't normal and that I must have screwed everything up and I should send the 0x12 reset character. Of course, this doesn't work for some reason.
I have told them that the Spark Fun splash page never showed and according to them I can get a refund, but then I never received an e-mail back from the returns department. Another message I received from support was that the second I plug it in I void the warranty. Hopefully they are debating on this because it would really suck to have spent $40 on a brick. My other option would be to re-flash the pic, but I don't have a programmer, or I could just buy another backpack.
I am frustrated and I hope they can get it sorted out. If anyone here has some friends there that can pull some strings that would be awesome.
Nick
Not be a jerk or anything, but did you follow my instructions exactly. (Flash the board without the LCD plugged in...turn off the arduino...plug in the serial line from the lcd to the arduino but not the power lines...turn on the arduino...wait a few moments...plug in the power lines for the LCD).
Second, Sparkfun reserves the right to refuse a refund if you have plugged in a device, because they have no way of knowing if you messed it up. On the other hand, I have found them to be genuinely nice guys who do (on a case by case basis) sometimes take returns or exchanges. Try emailing returns again.
I did follow exactly, yes.
Don't get me wrong, Sparkfun has been nice to me. I am just frustrated because I can't get it to work normally. Its kind of a catch 22 though. You can't tell if its screwed up until you plug it in, and your warranty is void when you plug it in. I'll e-mail returns again and see if they can help me out.
Nick.
This may be slightly off topic, but I'm adding it here in the hopes of helping someone out in the future.
I have also had problems with the SF SerLCD, but probably of my own making. I uploaded a sketch while I had the LCD connected and lost the second line of the display. I tried several variants of the code supplied by sti robot but could not get the "Reset to 9600 Baud" message to display, or the second line to resurrect itself. Finally, I used the following and it reset and the second line will display now. Note that I am NOT sending the 0x7c (124) control character in the sketch, but it seems to work anyway!?!
Code:
//resets the serial LCD to its factory Two Line settings
//Leave power to the LCD unplugged and USB to the LCD plugged in
//Upload the program, pull the USB, then reconnect USB
//Connect power, GND and RX
//Should see "Reset to 9600 Baud" followed by square dots
//now on both lines
void setup(){
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop(){
//Serial.print(0x7C, BYTE); //special character
Serial.print(18, BYTE); // Reset to 9600 Baud
Serial.print(6, BYTE); //Reset character for 2 Lines on LCD
delay(50);
}