I'm working on a board that includes a 16x2 LCD. The routing would be a lot easier if the LCD's pins were along the bottom, rather than the top. Is there a way to wire or program an LCD that will let me turn it upside down? I've seen a couple of pictures of LCDs that had pins at both the top and bottom, or just the bottom, but the majority are on top, and it looks like it would be rather hard to source LCDs in any other configuration.
Why are you asking this question ? (Most people solder wires to the LCD PCB and connect them however they want. Why is your situation any different ?
Can you post a photo or something visual to explain why your are asking this usual question ?
That seems to be quite obvious to me.
He did state that
IanJohnson:
The routing would be a lot easier if the LCD's pins were along the bottom, rather than the top.
The word 'routing' means to me he might be creating a PCB, perhaps to fit some case that already exists or is ordered to use.
An answer to the question is:
It's much more likely for you to find a 1602 display that has the pins on the side you desire, than that you will find one that lets you use it in some upside down mode.
This kind of displays has the characters stored in ROM, and has some volatile memory for 8 characters.
This kind of displays has the controller and memory chips soldered to the PCB, without casing.
Those chips are protected by what looks like a blob of black glue, meaning you can't modify it or hack it to do what you like with acceptable difficulty.
I'm designing a PCB that includes Adafruit's LCD Shield - LCD Shield Kit w/ 16x2 Character Display - Only 2 pins used! [BLUE AND WHITE] : ID 772 : $19.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits. It won't be a shield, it will be standalone, and incorporate other components of my project. I wanted the i2c control of the LCD and buttons offered by that shield, and have everything integrated into a single PCB.
Since the pins of the LCD are on the top, there are a lot of traces that need to cross the board taking up space I could use for other components. If the pins were along the bottom, the traces needed for the LCD, buttons and chip could be clustered at the bottom.
The LCD shown on the product page has pins at the top and bottom, but I haven't been able to find one like that for sale anywhere (including Adafruit). It's not the sort of thing that makes it into product descriptions.
Well, then your asking here might yield some tips from users that already have any of those.
To attract these users, you might want to use a very clear topic title (you can change this one).
Is there a way to wire or program an LCD that will let me turn it upside down?
No.
I've seen a couple of pictures of LCDs that had pins at both the top and bottom, or just the bottom,...
If you do find a source for an LCD module with the pins at the lower left make sure that you carefully check the datasheet. The vast majority of those LCDs use a non-standard pinout and there are several different variations.
On the other hand the few LCDs that have pins at both the upper left and lower left seem to use the standard pinout (with pin 1 nearest the outer edge).
Don