Fixing the Sparkfun 4X20 LCD Display

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
8,311
................................
06/29/18 SEE REVISED CODE AND WORD ATTACHMENT AT POST #4

This project has been discussed here: https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/sparkfun-4x20-lcd-redo.148031/

In brief, awhile back I bought the Sparkfun 4x20 LCD display (LCD-09568, https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9568 ) with a 1-wire interface good up to "38,400" baud .

It was finicky and locked up frequently. That problem is noted in several of the reviews.

SparkFun offered to refund my whole cost. However, when I noticed the display used the 18-pin PIC16F88 chip that is pin compatible with the 18-pin 16F1826/27 chips, I declined their kind offer and proceeded to develop a "fixed" LCD. Only two changes were made to the hardware.

First, a PIC16F1827 was substituted for the PIC16F88 MCU. It is important to use the 16F1827 instead of the very similar 16F1826, as the latter does not have PWM output on pin RA4. That output is required to have dimming control of the backlight. If you do not want the feature, the 16F1826 will work fine (cost about $1. 55). Second, the crystal was changed from 10 MHz to 16 MHz. Most of my MCU projects are done with an oscillator at 4 MHz or doublings of that. The 16 MHz crystal allows the same baud rates for the display and MCU, and any error is of the same magnitude and direction. Bill of materials: PIC16F1827: Microchip PIC16F1827T-I/SO ($1.51 each)
16 MHz crystal: Abracon ABLS-16.000MHZ-B2-T (\$0.30 each)

Attachments:

1) HD44780 Control Codes (Word document)

I kept to the standard Hitachi control codes. One or two of the LSB's of several coded are ignored. In a few cases, I reassigned those codes to other functions. Those codes are shaded in the Word document. Not all of the original Hitachi codes have been tested.

2) Schematic

The schematic was reverse engineered from an actual SparkFun display. There are some parts of unknown function. I did not identify a pull-up resistor on MCLR (RA5) and set MCLR off in the configuration. RA4 (BL dim) also did not seem to have a pull-up resistor. A picture of the front and back of the modified SparkFun PCB is attached. The unmodified board looks similar.

3) Program Code

Assembly code is attached and was written using MPLab 8.92 IDE. As a note of caution, the default baud rate is set to 19200 (See: EEPROM initialization at the start of the code, DATAEE at 0xF000). When that baud rate is changed by the user, the new variables for the SPBRGH:L register pair are saved to the same EEPROM addresses. If you subsequently reprogram the chip, you must check "Preserve EEPROM" in the programmer settings menu (MPLab 8.92) if you do not want to revert back to the default 19200 baud.

Backlight dimming is achieved by using hardware PWM. Frequency is 500 Hz, and duty cycle is set by the value in register CCPR4L. Full on is attained by setting the duty cycle to zero, as that turns on the PNP control transistor (Q1). Off is attained by setting the PWM duty cycle to 100%. As noted before, there does not appear to be a pull-up resistor on that pin. The default setting for "dim" is 30% on.

The display seemed stable and worked well to above 76800 baud. I did not determine a maximum baud, as I did not have a device to send a continuous stream of bytes. The best I could do was to send ascii codes using a series of "movlw 0xnn, call send byte" instructions with a transmitter MCU at 16 MHz. In order to minimize spacing delays, no loop was used. Reliable display of 30 characters was obtained with SPBRGL setting of 16 or greater (about 235,000 baud). Note, assuming 40 us per ascii character (per Hitachi datasheet), the theoretical maximum baud would be 250,000 baud (i.e., 1/(4X10^-5). Failures were noted with an SPBRGL value of 14 (about267,000 baud). I do not consider those observations of very high baud values reliable, as they probably are affected by pauses in my transmitter's data stream. At a baud rate of 115,200 (SPBRGL = 34), the display did seem stable, and that baud rate seems reasonably attainable (about 86 us per ascii characcter).

This material is copyrighted under the Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ ) conditions for attribution and non-commercial use (Attribution-NonCommercial , CC BY-NC ). Portions of the code are from Mike McLaren (K8LH), and I believe he follows that same practice; although, I have not confirmed that with him.

Regards, John

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Last edited:

MMcLaren

Joined Feb 14, 2010
842
A couple questions, if I may, John...

Did you actually replace the 16F88 with a 16F1827 on your Sparkfun display?

Since your code fixes many of the problems on this Sparkfun display with its 16F88 chip, could your program be re-written for a 16F88 and provided as an upgrade or fix for other owners of this display?

Trying not to sound condescending, I like your program. It feels complete, cohesive, and comprehensive. Displaying the 'saved' baud rate setting during power-up initialization is just one of many nice features that I'd like to borrow for my backpack design.

Cheerful regards, Mike

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
8,311
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the complement.
1) Yes, I replaced the 16F88 with the 16F1827. Initially, I installed the 16F1826, but that doesn't have PWM on RA4, so did not allow backlight dimming. Then I re-read the datasheet more carefully. I also changed the crystal to 16 MHz, which is not essential, but makes calculating compatible baud rates a little easier.
2) I think my code could be re-written for the 16F88. I am not very familiar with that chip, however. I do use your stack-based print routine, but I think that can also be done using FSR. At least, I have some test code that does that with an enhanced midrange chip. In C, that is probably a non-issue.
3) You can borrow and use whatever you want however you want. A lot of code from you is already there.

Regards, John

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
8,311
REVISED 06/29/18

Mike McLaren kindly offered several suggestions to improve this project and clean up the code. I incorporated most of his suggestions and am posting the revised code and Control Codes (Word Document) here. The revisions have been tested and work, but the code has not been challenged as much as the previous versions was. I also did a short video (about 45 seconds) demonstrating each of the features added to the regular Hitachi controls (LCD dimming, baudrate change, clear line, and special characters), but it is in AVI. If someone can suggest a free and safe way to convert to MP4, I will add it (WIN 7 Pro).

I extend my sincere appreciation to Mike for his generous help on this and other projects I have undertaken over the past decade.

Summary of changes:

1) Changed Cmd1 table to use direct PutCmd goto's for most branches.
2) Changed baudrate module from using just an index in EEPROM to having the SPBRGH/L variables there as well. That allowed eliminating the "SavSPBRG" routine.
3) Used XORLW to calculate backlight CCPR4 values serially instead of branching to subroutines. Saved a few steps.
4) Similarly, replaced an earlier calculation to remove the 0x40 line offset of the erase line routine with a shorter XORLW version.
5) Revised loop number used in DelayCy macro to remove a few nop's.

Net changes reduced program words from 0x1F3 (499) to 0x1BA (442) words.
Modified "Control Codes" table and program are attached.

Regards, John

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