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Arduino + LCD Shield = Hello World

About two weeks ago I built an interface so that I could connect my Arduino Uno to a 16x2 LCD.  /blog/2011/11/26/arduino-hello-world/

That worked fine but I thought that I would try a couple of other approaches...
1. LCD Shield
2. I2C LCD



So tonight I decided to play with the LCD shield. (It is an ebay special.) The first thing that I ran into was the difference in the pin out between my last example/tutorial and the new LCD shield.  It took about 20 minutes to track down the difference in the pin out and get the code working. 

----
/*
LiquidCrystal Library - Hello World

Demonstrates the use a 16x2 LCD display. The LiquidCrystal
library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the
Hitachi HD44780 driver. There are many of them out there, and you
can usually tell them by the 16-pin interface.

Example from: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal

This sketch prints "Hello World!" to the LCD
and shows the time.

The circuit:
* LCD RS pin to digital pin 8 (formally pin 12)
* LCD Enable pin to digital 9 (formally pin 11)
* LCD D4 pin to digital pin 4 (formally pin 5)
* LCD D5 pin to digital pin 5 (formally pin 4)
* LCD D6 pin to digital pin 6 (formally pin 3)
* LCD D7 pin to digital pin 7 (formally pin 2)
* LCD R/W pin to ground
* 10K resistor:
* ends to +5V and ground
* wiper to LCD VO pin (pin 3)

*/

// include the library code:
#include

// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);

void setup() {
// set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
lcd.begin(16, 2);
// Print a message to the LCD.
lcd.print("hello, world!");
}

void loop() {
// set the cursor to column 0, line 1
// (note: line 1 is the second row, since counting begins with 0):
lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
// print the number of seconds since reset:
lcd.print(millis()/1000);
}

----

So the tutorial/example works again... that is pretty cool. (Small steps when I have a limited amount of time to work these projects.)

73 de NG0R

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CQRLog and LOTW

A couple of days ago I spent the 5-10 minutes that is needed to get CQRLog integrated with LogBook of the World.  It is not hard if you follow the directions to setup TQSL correctly.

Now that I can export/upload and download/import my logs with LOTW from within CQRLOG I am more likely to updated LOTW on a regular basis. It takes all of about 60 seconds to make the updates.

73 de NG0R

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QSOs for Sunday

I worked V21DB (Derrick) on 20m SSB (Antigua)


I worked FG5FR on 17m CW (Guadeloupe Island)




An interesting side note. In a previous career I was photojournalist. One of the stops in that career path was with WFTV Channel 9 based in Orlando, Fl.  As part of the the team at WFTV I regularly traveled the South East United States and the Caribbean as part of our hurricane coverage.

In the early/mid `90's I flew into Antigua on a puddle jumper the day after a major hurricane to shoot a news story. I remember the utter destruction of the storm and flying across the ocean past these little islands thinking about how big that blue ocean really is. (We flew out of San Juan on a charter and St. Kitts was about the half way point of the trip over the open water to Antigua.)  The trip was safe both directions... but I was paying attention to every little spot that might provide safety or rescue in case there was an issue.

73 de NG0R