Wiring Harness for the 4x20 LCD Character Panel

This document provides instructions for fabricating a wiring harness for parallel communication between an Arduino and a 4x20 LCD Character panel.

The LCD panel is a kit from Adafruit. The PSU Bookstore has an inventory to supply each students enrolled in EAS 199B with one kit.

It would be good to also read the excellent Adafruit tutorial on connecting the LCD panel to an Arduino. That tutorial shows how to connect the LCD panel via a breadboard.

John Boxall also has an excellent tutorial on connecting LCD panels to an Arduino using different hardware interfaces. We are using the "Four-bit parallel interface" connection, which is the first example in John's tutorial. John's blog is a treasure trove of information on connecting and using peripheral hardware with an Arduino.

On the web pages linked below, we show how to construct a wiring harness to make it easier to connect and move your panel. The wiring harness is designed to fit the fish tank frame.

Fabrication and testing of the wiring harness is divided into these steps: