I2C LCD Screen

I2C LCDs

LCDS Output Screens

• Let’s introduce the humble LCD

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

LCDs

• Output device that display text in rows and columns
• Can be use for simple graphics, but primarily for text
• Relatively cheap
• Passive, low power

LCD Pixels

LCD Come in Many Different Sizes and Colors

Basic wiring

Basic Wiring

• The standard wiring of an LCD uses 16 wires (requiring 12 pins on the Argon)!
• The condensed wiring use 12 wires (requiring 8 pins on the Argon)!
• Writing code to communicate with the LCD is challenging (more on that later)

Basic wiring Condensed

Basic wiring Condensed

• 4 pins for power (2 for LCD, 2 for backlight
• 4 pins for controlling LCD
• 8 (or 4) pins for data (the text you want to display)

Parallel LCD

• There are 8 pins for data when operating in parallel

• Let’s say you want to display the letter Q

• The letter Q is represented on a computer by the binary string 01010001

• Each bit will be transmitted on a separate data pin

Serial LCD

• Thankfully there is a better solution!
• What is a serial communication?
• What serial protocols have used so far?

What is Synchronous Communication?

• Data pin and clock pin

• Clock is an oscillating square wave
• On rising (low to high) or falling (high to low) edge, the receiver samples (“read”) data line

Serial, Synchronous Communication

I2C

• Inter-integrated Circuit (I2C) is a protocol to allow a central device to communicate with multiple “peripheral” chips
• Serial
• Synchronous
• Only two pins
  • Data (SDA)
  • Clock (SCK)

I2C Transmission

I2C Transmission - Part 1 Address

I2C Transmission - Part 2 Data

I2C Addresses

• Since multiple devices might be connected on the same two wires, many devices are “listening” to the communication
• Each device is given a 7-bit address to distinguish it from anyone devices
  • 0000000 - 1111111 (binary)
  • 0 - 127 (decimal)
  • 0x0 - 0x7F (hexadecimal)
• These addresses are often fixed and specified on the hardware device

I2C vs SPI

I2C	SPI
Uses 2 wires	Uses 4 wires; more devices means even more wires
Uses more power	Uses less power
Lower transfer speed	Higher transfer speed
Standardized	Multiple “versions”

I2C Serial Backpack

I2C Serial Backpack

• A “backpack” is a component that is added on another device
• The I2C backpack (black-colored logic board) translates the 8 pin parallel communication to 2 pin serial communication
• The blue potentiometer can be used to adjust the contrast
• Jumper on the left acts like a removeable switch to control LED backlight

Serial I2C LCD Wiring

LCD	Argon	Function	Notes
GND	GND	Ground	Ground
VCC	VUSB	Power	must be 5v
SDA	SDA	data line
SCK	SCK	clock

Special Notes

• SDA and SCL lines need pullup resistors (4.7k or 10k) to 3V3 (not VUSB)
  • Particle documentation reference
• VCC on LCD goes to VUSB (otherwise it will be very light and hard to read)

Exercise 1

• Download project: Go to https://bit.ly/ProjectZip
• Paste the following link into the top right https://github.com/reparke/ITP348-Physical-Computing/tree/main/_exercises/week13/ultrasonic_start
• Connect I2C LCD and run example code
• Recommended library for Argon
  • LiquidCrystal_I2C_Spark

Exercise 2

• Connect ultrasonic range finder and displace distance to object on LCD
  • Trigger: D3
  • Echo: D4
• Use RGB LED to alarm: green for n

Credit

• Sparkfun
• Sparkfun
• Sparkfun