Interfacing LCD to

8051
Written by Amol Shah, on Nov-2007
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Liquid Crystal Display also called as

LCD is very helpful in providing user
interface as well as for debugging purpose. The most common type of
LCD controller is HITACHI 44780 which provides a simple interface
between the controller & an LCD. These LCD's are very simple to
interface with the controller as well as are cost effective.
The most commonly used ALPHANUMERIC displays are 1x16 (Single
Line & 16 characters), 2x16 (Double Line & 16 character per line) &
4x20 (four lines & Twenty characters per line).
The LCD requires 3 control lines (RS, R/W & EN) & 8 (or 4) data lines.
The number on data lines depends on the mode of operation. If
operated in 8-bit mode then 8 data lines + 3 control lines i.e. total 11
lines are required. And if operated in 4-bit mode then 4 data lines + 3
control lines i.e. 7 lines are required. How do we decide which mode to
use? Its simple if you have sufficient data lines you can go for 8 bit
mode & if there is a time constrain i.e. display should be faster then we
have to use 8-bit mode because basically 4-bit mode takes twice as
more time as compared to 8-bit mode.
Pin

Symbol

Function

Vss

Ground

Vdd

Supply Voltage

Vo

Contrast Setting

RS

Register Select

R/W

Read/Write Select

En

Chip Enable Signal

7-14

DB0-DB7

Data Lines

15

A/Vee

Gnd for the backlight

16

Vcc for backlight

When RS is low (0), the data is to be treated as a command. When RS

is high (1), the data being sent is considered as text data which should
be displayed on the screen.
When R/W is low (0), the information on the data bus is being written
to the LCD. When RW is high (1), the program is effectively reading
from the LCD. Most of the times there is no need to read from the LCD
so this line can directly be connected to Gnd thus saving one controller
line.
The ENABLE pin is used to latch the data present on the data pins. A
HIGH - LOW signal is required to latch the data. The LCD interprets and
executes our command at the instant the EN line is brought low. If you
never bring EN low, your instruction will never be executed.

For Contrast setting a 10K pot should be used as shown in the figure.
Display Data Ram (DDRAM) stores the display data. So when we have
to display a character on LCD we basically write it into DDRAM. For a
2x16 LCD the DDRAM address for first line is from 80h to 8fh & for
second line is 0c0h to 0cfh. So if we want to display 'H' on the 7th
postion of the first line then we will write it at location 87h.
Now as you have noticed two types of data is given to the LCD data to
be displayed, command or special instruction.So now let us write a
subroutine for both the type of data

Data to be Displayed

lcd_datadisplay:

SETB RS
//Telling the LCD that the data which is being
send is to be displayed

MOV P1,A

SETB EN

CLR EN

//High to Low pulse on EN to latch the data

CALL DELAY

//Delay so that LCD finishes its internal operations

ret

//Character to be displayed is in Acc

Command or Special Instruction.

lcd_command:

CLR RS
send is a command

MOV P1,A

SETB EN

CLR EN
data

CALL DELAY

ret

//Telling the LCD that the data which is being

//Character to be displayed is in Acc

//High to Low pulse on EN to latch the

//Delay so that LCD finishes its internal operations

Here I have used delay at the end of both the subroutines this is done to wait until
the instruction is completely executed by the LCD. This will assure that our program
gives the LCD the time it needs to execute instructions and also makes our program
compatible with any LCD, regardless of how fast or slow it is.

"*" - Not Used/Ignored. This bit can be either "1" or "0"

Set Cursor Move Direction:

ID - Increment the Cursor After Each Byte Written to Display if Set
S - Shift Display when Byte Written to Display Enable Display/Cursor
D - Turn Display On(1)/Off(0) C - Turn Cursor On(1)/Off(0)
B - Cursor Blink On(1)/Off(0)

Move Cursor/Shift Display

SC - Display Shift On(1)/Off(0) RL - Direction of Shift Right(1)/Left(0)

Set Interface Length

DL - Set Data Interface Length 8(1)/4(0)
N - Number of Display Lines 1(0)/2(1)
F - Character Font 5x10(1)/5x7(0)
Poll the "Busy Flag" BF - This bit is set while the LCD is processing
Move Cursor to CGRAM/Display
A - Address
Read/Write ASCII to the Display

D - Data
The above Table shows the different commands for the LCD. I wont go
into its details.
Before starting to display on LCD we need to Initialize it. Firstly we
must tell the LCD whether we'll be using 8-bit or 4-bit mode. Also we
will be telling the LCD that we need 5x8 character font. Both these
options are selected using a single command i.e. 38h. So to activate
both these options we must execute following instructions:

MOV A,#38h

CALL lcd_command

Now that we have to Turn On the display & set the cursor option i.e.
cursor ON/OFF & Cursor blinking ON/OFF for that we will use the
command 0Eh i.e. Display On , Cursor ON but Cursor blinking OFF.

MOV A,#0Eh

CALL lcd_command

And the last command we require is to configure the LCD in such a way
that everytime we send a character to it the cursor position
automatically increments by one & moves to right i.e. 06h.

MOV A,#06h

CALL lcd_command

So the lcd_initialize contains the following instructions

lcd_initialize:

MOV A,#38h

CALL lcd_command

MOV A,#38h

CALL lcd_command

MOV A,#38h

CALL lcd_command

ret

Similarly another important instruction that we require is Clearing the

LCD i.e.

lcd_clr:

MOV A,#01h

CALL lcd_command

ret

Now we know all the commands to display on LCD. Let us write a

program that will display 'DNA TECHNOLOGY' on LCD.

ORG 0000h

CALL lcd_initialize

CALL lcd_clr

MOV A,#80h //Location from where Data is to be displayed

CALL lcd_command

MOV A,#'D'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'N'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'A'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#20h

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'T'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'E'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'C'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'H'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'N'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'O'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'L'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'O'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

MOV A,#'G'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

//Hex value for blank space to be displayed

MOV A,#'Y'

CALL lcd_datadisplay

stop:

ajmp stop

For delay subroutine please check the delay subroutines explained in

LED interfacing Article or the 8051 Timer Article.

Debugging Procedure
If the above program does not work then follow these steps:1) Check if the supply is correct.
2) If all connections are correct.
3) Increase the delay time.
Check our CODE LIBRARY section for more code.