Recently, I found a local electronics shop that carries 16x2 LCDs that are HD44780 compatible. This type of LCD is really common and it wasn't too hard to get it working with an MSP430.
The hard part was that the LCD expects 5 volts, although the LaunchPad supplies only 3.6 volts. I did some reading and it turns out that the logic part of the LCD can run on as little as 2.7 volts. The contrast, on the other hand, expects 5 volts. Even with the pin that controls contrast connected to ground, nothing can be seen on the LCD. One solution is to feed this pin some negative voltage.
Negative voltage can be generated with a charge pump made of only two capacitors and two diodes. In the picture above you can see them behind the LCD. They need a pulse to work which I generated with my MSP430. This worked well but I began to think that it might be a bad idea to charge capacitors through a microcontroller pin. My first try was to switch the voltage with a transistor. This didn't work because I could only source current. Then I found out about push-pull stages. This is a handy way to sink and source current with only two transistors.
My next plan was to create the pulses for the charge pump externally so the MSP430 wouldn't have to worry about doing it. The 555 timer I bought for the job turned out to be 5 volts also so that didn't help. I tried modifying a circuit I found to flash LEDs using capacitors and transistors but it wasn't very reliable. For now I will stick with doing it with the MSP430.
The hard part was that the LCD expects 5 volts, although the LaunchPad supplies only 3.6 volts. I did some reading and it turns out that the logic part of the LCD can run on as little as 2.7 volts. The contrast, on the other hand, expects 5 volts. Even with the pin that controls contrast connected to ground, nothing can be seen on the LCD. One solution is to feed this pin some negative voltage.
Negative voltage can be generated with a charge pump made of only two capacitors and two diodes. In the picture above you can see them behind the LCD. They need a pulse to work which I generated with my MSP430. This worked well but I began to think that it might be a bad idea to charge capacitors through a microcontroller pin. My first try was to switch the voltage with a transistor. This didn't work because I could only source current. Then I found out about push-pull stages. This is a handy way to sink and source current with only two transistors.
My next plan was to create the pulses for the charge pump externally so the MSP430 wouldn't have to worry about doing it. The 555 timer I bought for the job turned out to be 5 volts also so that didn't help. I tried modifying a circuit I found to flash LEDs using capacitors and transistors but it wasn't very reliable. For now I will stick with doing it with the MSP430.
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