LCD display connection and power supply

Driving raw LCDs is a complex business. Microchip have a good appnote on how to create an LCD driver with a PIC microcontroller, the ideas are all transferrable to other devices.

When reverse engineering devices, it's best to gain as much information as possible from a still working unit with a logic analzyer. If you have two units, you can then keep one working while you clone the driver hardware/software for your new system.

If you are lucky, your LCD may be a chip-on-glass module with a driver chip built in. By sniffing the data transactions with this, it might be possible to guess at the device.

Oh, duh, I didn't read your code carefully -- your send SendLcdByte is wrong:

    void SendLcdByte( unsigned char command_0_or_data_1, unsigned char command)
{
    SendLcdUpperNibble( command_0_or_data_1, command);
    // send the lower nibble next
 // AS WRITTEN:
    P1OUT = (command & 0x0F) | (P1OUT & 0xF0);
 // SHOULD BE:
    P1OUT = ((command & 0x0F) << 4) | (P1OUT & 0xF0);
    Strobe( command_0_or_data_1);
}