Remarks

CharacterDisplay
Status
Source code	GitHub
NuGet package

The CharacterDisplay class represents a multiline liquid crystal character display.

These displays are commonly found in 16x2 and 20x4 character by row configurations. Each character is represented using a grid of 5x7 pixels.

The current driver implementation uses 4 or 8 GPIO pins. It's common to find controller boards with this displays that provide I2C, SPI, or serial control. These will be supported in a future update.

Code Example

The following example shows how to print an incrementing counter every second on the LCD display:

class CharacterDisplayApp : App<F7Micro, CharacterDisplayApp>
{
    CharacterDisplay display;

    public CharacterDisplayApp()
    {
        display = new CharacterDisplay(
            Device,
            pinRS: Device.Pins.D05,
            pinE:  Device.Pins.D07,
            pinD4: Device.Pins.D08,
            pinD5: Device.Pins.D09,
            pinD6: Device.Pins.D10,
            pinD7: Device.Pins.D11,
            rows: 2, columns: 16    // Adjust dimensions to fit your display
            );

        int count = 0;
        display.WriteLine("CharacterDisplay", 0);

        while (true)
        {
            display.WriteLine($"Count is : {count++}", 1);
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
        }
    }
}

Sample projects available on GitHub

Wiring Example

Characteristic	Locus
Inheritance	System.Object > CharacterDisplay
Namespace	Meadow.Foundation.Displays.Lcd
Assembly	CharacterDisplay.dll

Syntax

public class CharacterDisplay : ITextDisplay

Constructors

CharacterDisplay(IDigitalOutputPort, IDigitalOutputPort, IDigitalOutputPort, IDigitalOutputPort, IDigitalOutputPort, IDigitalOutputPort, UInt16, UInt16)

Declaration

public CharacterDisplay(IDigitalOutputPort portRS, IDigitalOutputPort portE, IDigitalOutputPort portD4, IDigitalOutputPort portD5, IDigitalOutputPort portD6, IDigitalOutputPort portD7, ushort rows = 4, ushort columns = 20)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
IDigitalOutputPort	portRS
IDigitalOutputPort	portE
IDigitalOutputPort	portD4
IDigitalOutputPort	portD5
IDigitalOutputPort	portD6
IDigitalOutputPort	portD7
System.UInt16	rows
System.UInt16	columns

CharacterDisplay(IIODevice, IPin, IPin, IPin, IPin, IPin, IPin, UInt16, UInt16)

Declaration

public CharacterDisplay(IIODevice device, IPin pinRS, IPin pinE, IPin pinD4, IPin pinD5, IPin pinD6, IPin pinD7, ushort rows = 4, ushort columns = 20)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
IIODevice	device
IPin	pinRS
IPin	pinE
IPin	pinD4
IPin	pinD5
IPin	pinD6
IPin	pinD7
System.UInt16	rows
System.UInt16	columns

Fields

LCD_D4

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LCD_D4

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

LCD_D5

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LCD_D5

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

LCD_D6

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LCD_D6

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

LCD_D7

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LCD_D7

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

LCD_E

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LCD_E

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

LCD_RS

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LCD_RS

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

LED_ON

Declaration

protected IDigitalOutputPort LED_ON

Field Value

Type	Description
IDigitalOutputPort

Properties

DisplayConfig

Declaration

public TextDisplayConfig DisplayConfig { get; protected set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
TextDisplayConfig

Methods

ClearLine(Byte)

Declaration

public void ClearLine(byte lineNumber)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.Byte	lineNumber

ClearLines()

Declaration

public void ClearLines()

SaveCustomCharacter(Byte[], Byte)

Declaration

public void SaveCustomCharacter(byte[] characterMap, byte address)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.Byte[]	characterMap
System.Byte	address

SetBrightness(Single)

Declaration

public void SetBrightness(float brightness = 0.75F)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.Single	brightness

SetCursorPosition(Byte, Byte)

Declaration

public void SetCursorPosition(byte column, byte line)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.Byte	column
System.Byte	line

Write(String)

Declaration

public void Write(string text)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.String	text

WriteLine(String, Byte)

Declaration

public void WriteLine(string text, byte lineNumber)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.String	text
System.Byte	lineNumber