I came across this great looking screen on TME one day and decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get it to work on the first attempt.
I found it recently in my things and decided to give it a go. I finally managed to display things on it, and it is beautiful!
Here’s a list of things I used:
- RC1602B5-LLH-JWV screen
- Pololu A-Star 32U4 Micro
- 10kOhm resistor
Wire your screen as I showed on image below made with Fritzing.

Here is what it looks like in my case:



Once you got your screen connected, its the time for coding!
// HelloWorld - simple demonstration of lcd
// Created by Bill Perry 2016-07-02
// bperrybap@opensource.billsworld.billandterrie.com
//
// This example code is unlicensed and is released into the public domain
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Sketch will print "Hello, World!" on top row of lcd
// and will print the amount of time since the Arduino has been reset
// on the second row.
//
// If initialization of the LCD fails and the arduino supports a built in LED,
// the sketch will simply blink the built in LED.
//
#include <Wire.h> // can be left out in arduino.cc IDE 1.6.7 and later
#include <hd44780.h> // can be left out in arduino.cc IDE 1.6.7 and later
#include <hd44780_I2Clcd.h>
//
// enter address of LCD.
// Addresses seen so far include:
// - 0x3a, 0x3b (PCF2119x)
// - 0x3c (unknwon chip)
// - 0x3d (unknwon chip)
// - 0x3e (unknwon chip)
// - 0x3f (unknwon chip)
const int i2c_addr = 0x3c;
hd44780_I2Clcd lcd(i2c_addr);
// LCD geometry
const int LCD_ROWS = 2;
const int LCD_COLS = 16;
void setup()
{
// initialize LCD with number of columns and rows:
if( lcd.begin(LCD_COLS, LCD_ROWS))
{
// begin() failed so blink the onboard LED if possible
#ifdef LED_BUILTIN
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
while(1)
{
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
delay(500);
}
#else
while(1){} // spin and do nothing
#endif
}
// Print a message to the LCD
lcd.print("Hello, World!");
}
void loop()
{
static unsigned long lastsecs = -1; // pre-initialize with non zero value
unsigned long secs;
secs = millis() / 1000;
// see if 1 second has passed
// so the display is only updated once per second
if(secs != lastsecs)
{
lastsecs = secs; // keep track of last seconds
// set the cursor position to column 0, row 1
// note: row 1 is the second row from top,
// since row counting begins with 0
lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
// print uptime on lcd device: (time since last reset)
PrintUpTime(lcd, secs);
}
}
// PrintUpTime(outdev, secs) - print uptime in HH:MM:SS format
// outdev - the device to send output
// secs - the total number of seconds uptime
void PrintUpTime(Print &outdev, unsigned long secs)
{
unsigned int hr, mins, sec;
// convert total seconds to hours, mins, seconds
mins = secs / 60; // how many total minutes
hr = mins / 60; // how many total hours
mins = mins % 60; // how many minutes within the hour
sec = secs % 60; // how many seconds within the minute
// print uptime in HH:MM:SS format
// Print class does not support fixed width formatting
// so insert a zero if number smaller than 10
if(hr < 10)
outdev.write('0');
outdev.print((int)hr);
outdev.write(':');
if(mins < 10)
outdev.write('0');
outdev.print((int)mins);
outdev.write(':');
if(sec < 10)
outdev.write('0');
outdev.print((int)sec);
}