Serial LCD

The Serial LCD supports RS-232 serial connections from the Serial Out of the IO-204, the Serial Transmit of the Serial Smart Board, and microcontroller hardware and software serial outputs (Arduino, BasicStamp, Rabbit, etc.).

Send ASCII text straight to the LCD. Text displays in the order it’s received from the cursor position.

All commands start with the BYTE 0xFE / 254 / %FE (URL Encoded). Commands reference in brackets ”[]” indicate options and not sent with the command. Commands may also be grouped together, which means you can set the backlight, move the cursor, and write text all in one command.

Send byte 1 0xFE, then

The brightness of the LCD backlight can adjusted.

%FEB[0-9]

Brightness Options [0-9]

• 9 – Brightest
• 8
• 7
• 6
• 5
• 4
• 3
• 2
• 1 – Very Dim
• 0 – Off

Example Command: %FEB0

This command would turn the LCD backlight completely off.

You can also delay the control of the LCD backlight brightness up to 60 seconds after command is issued.

%FET[0-9]%[01-60]

Time Options [01-60]

Send a number between 01 to 60 control the delay. “01” represents 1 second and the maximum is “60” seconds. (Hexadecimal.)

Example Command: %FET1%30

This command would turn the LCD backlight to “1” (dim) after 48 seconds.

To clear all of the text on screen issue the following command:

%FEC

To clear the screen, scrolling messages, and buffers returning the LCD to its first powered on state, issue the following command:

%FEZ

To move the cursor to the home position, issue the following command:

%FEH

You can move the cursor around the screen and start from any position.

%FEL[01-02][01-16]

Row Options [01-02]

Select a row number from 01 to 02 (top to bottom)

Column Options [01-16]

Select a column from 01 to 16 (left to right)

Example Command: %FEL0201

This command would move the cursor to the second line (row) in the first position (column).

The cursor can be shown or hidden by issuing the following commands:

%FE[J-K]

Display Options [J-K]

“J” turns on the cursor and “K” turns off the cursor.

If you want the cursor to blink or stop blinking, issue the following commands:

%FE[P-Q]

Display Options [P-Q]

“P” starts the curso blinking and “Q” stops the blinking.

You can scroll two different messages – one on each line of the LCD. You can also set the speed at which the messages move across the screen. The message limit is 100 chacters.

%FES[1-2][0-9]____Up to 100 character message____%FE

Row Options [1-2]

Enter “1” to scroll a message on line 1 and “2” on line 2.

Speed Options [0-9]

Enter a speed between 0-9 with 0 being the slowest and 9 being the fastest.

Example Command: %FES16ioBridge.com%FE

This command will scroll “ioBridge.com” on line 1 of the LCD at a speed of 6.

You can draw a horizontal bar graph / gauge on the LCD on either line of the LCD. You can set the extreme labels.

%FEG[1-2][AA-ZZ][AA-ZZ][a-k]

Row Options [1-2]

Enter “1” to place gauge on line 1 and “2” on line 2.

Left Label [AA-ZZ]

Enter a label to placed on the left of the gauge. The label can be any two digit letters from AA to ZZ.

Right Label [AA-ZZ]

Enter a label to placed on the right of the guage. The label can be any two digit letters from AA to ZZ.

Length Options [a-k]

Select a letter between “a” and “k” to control how much of the gauge is filled in from left to right, with “a” being empty and “k” being full.

Example Command: %FEG1LOHId

This command would place the horizontal gauge on line 1 of the LCD, with “LO” on the left, “HI” on the right, and 3 positions filled in the gauge.

You can also draw a vertical gauge from the position of the cursor. This fills in a block from the bottom to the top.

%FEV[0-8]

Fill Options [0-8]

From the bottom (0) to the top (8) you can fill in the space.

Example Command: %FEV5

This command will draw a vertical gauge from the last place the cursor was located with 5 steps filled in.

Here is a chart of the entire character set support by the Serial LCD. To send a special character like the right-arrow, locate the character in the chart. Send ”%” followed by the colmun HEX digital followed by the row HEX digit.

%7E

Visit the Arduino Playground to get the Arduino Demo and Function Library for the ioBridge Serial LCD.

• ioBridge Store
• Shell Script Widget Control API (example)
• Arduino Wiki Entry for ioBridge Serial LCD Screen
• YouTube Video Demo of LCD Screen