I2C LCD Controller (the Easy Way)

I am working on an alarm/weather station project and I wanted to use an LCD but dint want to have a lot of wires so I order a controller. This is just a very basic tutorial on how to hook it up, for the beginners like my self.

Parts list:

 

 

 

1. LCD in this case a 16x02

 

1. I2C 1602 LCD Controller ($1.99 on ebay free shipping)

 

4. Jumper wires

 

1. Arduino ( I have a mega)    

 

Now we solder the LCD and the controller. make sure you have the correct pin arrangement. Mine doesn't have a mark for pin one, but I just looked at the 5+ and GND inputs to figure it out.

it is very simple to connect only 4 wire 5+ and GND and  SDA goes to Arduino pin 20 and SCL to pin 21 on my arduino mega. depending on what you have it might be different.

Since the seller doesn't provide any info I neede to find the address for the module so I ran an I2C scanner
 /    /Written by Nick Gammon
// Date: 20th April 2011

#include <Wire.h>

void setup() {
  Serial.begin (115200);

  // Leonardo: wait for serial port to connect
  while (!Serial)
    {
    }

  Serial.println ();
  Serial.println ("I2C scanner. Scanning ...");
  byte count = 0;
 
  Wire.begin();
  for (byte i = 1; i < 120; i++)
  {
    Wire.beginTransmission (i);
    if (Wire.endTransmission () == 0)
      {
      Serial.print ("Found address: ");
      Serial.print (i, DEC);
      Serial.print (" (0x");
      Serial.print (i, HEX);
      Serial.println (")");
      count++;
      delay (1);  // maybe unneeded?
      } // end of good response
  } // end of for loop
  Serial.println ("Done.");
  Serial.print ("Found ");
  Serial.print (count, DEC);
  Serial.println (" device(s).");
}  // end of setup

void loop() {}

the code is very simple..................................but you are going to need F Malpartida's   LCD LIB https://bitbucket.org/fmalpartida/new-liquidcrystal/downloads Once again very basic very simple.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
#include <Wire.h>
#include <LCD.h>
#include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>  // F Malpartida's NewLiquidCrystal library

#define I2C_ADDR    0x20  // Define I2C Address for controller
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN  7
#define En_pin  4
#define Rw_pin  5
#define Rs_pin  6
#define D4_pin  0
#define D5_pin  1
#define D6_pin  2
#define D7_pin  3

#define  LED_OFF  0
#define  LED_ON  1
LiquidCrystal_I2C  lcd(I2C_ADDR,En_pin,Rw_pin,Rs_pin,D4_pin,D5_pin,D6_pin,D7_pin);

void setup() 
{
  lcd.begin (16,2);  // initialize the lcd
// Switch on the backlight
  lcd.setBacklightPin(BACKLIGHT_PIN,NEGATIVE);
  lcd.setBacklight(LED_ON);
}

void loop()  
{

// Reset the display 
  lcd.clear();
  delay(1000);
  lcd.home();
 
// Print on the LCD
  lcd.backlight();  
  lcd.setCursor(0,0); 
  lcd.print("Hello, world!");
  delay(8000);
}