I've just got my first LCD sketch working with a 40 column, two row LCD. The backlight isn't wired up yet, but the text shows up OK. The setup as a whole:
Closeup of the power connection, showing the 4.7k Ohm preset potentiometer. I also added a three-socket Berg connector to duplicate the 5V and Ground pins when the LCD is plugged in:
The sketch is simply a version of the standard LCD code from the Reference:
Glad to hear that your LCD is working! Trouble is, I tried a different LCD (one row of 16 chars), and it didn't work. Just showed junk characters, and different each time I hit RESET. Wish I knew why!
Nice! - Have you seen the inverse blue LCDs? They look great!
If you'd like to post the spec/part no. of your lcd, and the code I could probably help out a bit. Also, is it a possibility the RX pin of the LCD is not connected?
Check the LCD datasheet for the data rate and suchlike, all sorts of wonderful garbage gets displayed if this kind of setting is amiss.
It's a parallel interface, four bits wide plus three control pins. The code is simply the same as the sketch I linked to above, from the Reference section of the Arduino web-site.
