LCD Pin descriptions
The LCD discussed in this section has 16 pins. The function of each pin is given in Table.
Pin Symbol I/O Description
1 Vss - Ground
2 Vcc - +5V Power supply
3 VEE - Power supply to control Contrast
4 RS I RS = 0 to select command register RS = 1 to select data register
5 R/W I R/W = 0 for write, R/W = 1 for read
6 E I/O Enable
7 DB0 I/O The 8-bit data bus
8 DB1 I/O The 8-bit data bus
9 DB2 I/O The 8-bit data bus
10 DB3 I/O The 8-bit data bus
11 DB4 I/O The 8-bit data bus
12 DB5 I/O The 8-bit data bus
13 DB6 I/O The 8-bit data bus
14 DB7 I/O The 8-bit data bus
15 LED- I Ground for LED backlight
16 LED+ I +5v for LED backlight
44780 BACKGROUND
The 44780 standard requires 3 control lines as well as either 4 or 8 I/O lines for the data bus. The user may select whether the LCD is to operate with a 4-bit data bus or an 8-bit data bus. If a 4-bit data bus is used, the LCD will require a total of 7 data lines (3 control lines plus the 4 lines for the data bus). If an 8-bit data bus is used, the LCD will require a total of 11 data lines (3 control lines plus the 8 lines for the data bus).
The three control lines are referred to as EN, RS, and RW.
The EN line is called "Enable." This control line is used to tell the LCD that you are sending it data. To send data to the LCD, your program should first set this line high (1) and then set the other two control lines and/or put data on the data bus. When the other lines are completely ready, bring EN low (0) again. The 1-0 transition tells the 44780 to take the data currently found on the other control lines and on the data bus and to treat it as a command.
The RS line is the "Register Select" line. When RS is low (0), the data is to be treated as a command or special instruction (such as clear screen, position cursor, etc.). When RS is high (1), the data being sent is text data which sould be displayed on the screen. For example, to display the letter "T" on the screen you would set RS high.
The RW line is the "Read/Write" control line. When RW is low (0), the information on the data bus is being written to the LCD. When RW is high (1), the program is effectively querying (or reading) the LCD. Only one instruction ("Get LCD status") is a read command. All others are write commands--so RW will almost always be low.
Finally, the data bus consists of 4 or 8 lines (depending on the mode of operation selected by the user). In the case of an 8-bit data bus, the lines are referred to as DB0, DB1, DB2, DB3, DB4, DB5, DB6, and DB7.