I have this LCD out of an old gauge cluster from a car. It has 16 pins. It has no markings except for four color stripes on the very edge of one side. I don't know the pin-out or what voltage it may take to activate an element or two. Or maybe it depends on current, but I think it's voltage.

This is the color bands. My color perception is not all that great so best I can say it looks like Red Blk Yel Blu. (or purple) If that helps.
If I knew what voltage is required to activate an element I can probe line after line and note which leads produce what effect.
At the moment it's sitting on conductive foam but only for protection from damage. I just put it into the foam a few min's ago.

 

Usually standard pin out.

 

OK, I guess I can figure out the data pins. If not - I'll ask. But what's the LED pins? Is this self backlit? Now that I think about it - it probably is. So I'm going to guess 5V on pins 15 & 16, paying attention to the polarity.

 

Normally the back lighting is two connections on one end/side.

 

Far right side of image 1 there's a slight bump. My first guess is it's a seal from when the LCD was made. Perhaps that's the LED ? ? ? What voltage? Can't be more than 12V.

 

There doesn't appear to be any intelligence on the display. So what are the data pins for? Please don't tell me "Data", I could guess that much. Is it digital? Is it a frequency of some sort?

 

See this really good info.
https://lcd-linux.sourceforge.net/pdfdocs/lcd1.pdf
https://lcd-linux.sourceforge.net/pdfdocs/lcd2.pdf

 

There are no identifying marks. Which one is Pin 1? Would it be the same end as the color bands?
Nevermind. I grabbed the board it plugs into. Pin 1 is on the right side. Behind the LCD are three LED's that backlight the display. So perhaps pins 15 & 16 are for something different.

 

On some the 15 & 16 are the backlight.

 

Is there a circuit board behind the display?

If not, this is only an LCD display without driver chips.

 

Is there a circuit board behind the display?

If not, this is only an LCD display without driver chips.

It's from a gauge cluster from an automobile. It has 3 LED's to backlight the display. It's that board that identified pin 1 for me.

 

If so, strange it has the customary 16 pins?
@B-JoJo-S show a pic of the backside.

 

 

Backlit from my ring lamp:

 

That is a raw LCD. The pins are not as shown in this thread, that requires a large chip. Driving them is quite complex, it requires an AC square wave. They are also typically multiplexed.

 

So it's nothing I can easily use elsewhere. It's out of a Toyota Corolla. There IS a large chip (144 pin) on the board that likely controls everything. Speedometer, Tach, Fuel gauge, Temp gauge, lights and warning lights.

 

The 144 pin chip in a microcontroller, probably with dedicated LCD drive circuitry.