I've been following adafruits RPi tutorials (and bought their starter kit)
I had an Sparkfun LCD Kit lying around. (It has an HD44780 controller LCD, a 10K trimpot and a 16 pin male header)
I soldered the header to the LCD, not all that well. I followed the tutorial step by step. This page has the wiring and I started bit by bit.
Symptoms : When I connected the trimpot and turned the knob a random bunch of boxes go dark and then they just slowly lighten and disappear. Even when it happens is intermittent. Sometimes I turn the knob, nothing happens, sometimes it lights a few boxes and on their own they dim out.
Below is what is looks like.
This is the schematic of the whole connection. I doubled checked it a couple times. Nonetheless I ran the code the show stuff on the LCD and it just blinks a little randomly.
- Is something wrong with the LCD? I messed the soldering?
- Is there a possibility of my connections being wrong?
- Could the trimpot be the wrong way in? (I tried both ways)
Could you help me narrow this down please?
Best Answer
Looks like a bad LCD. You can try resoldering your connections to the LCD, they look poorly done. The joints should look like this: http://smartduino.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SMRTM501.jpg
See this guide for troubleshooting bad solder joints: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems