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Software / API Bindings / LabVIEW / API Reference and Examples / Bricklets (Discontinued) / LCD 16x2 Bricklet

LabVIEW - LCD 16x2 Bricklet

This is the description of the LabVIEW API bindings for the LCD 16x2 Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the LCD 16x2 Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.

An installation guide for the LabVIEW API bindings is part of their general description.

API

Generally, every function of the LabVIEW bindings that outputs a value can report a Tinkerforge.TimeoutException. This error gets reported if the device did not respond. If a cable based connection is used, it is unlikely that this exception gets thrown (assuming nobody plugs the device out). However, if a wireless connection is used, timeouts will occur if the distance to the device gets too big.

The namespace for all Brick/Bricklet bindings and the IPConnection is Tinkerforge.*.

Basic Functions

BrickletLCD16x2(uid, ipcon) → lcd16x2
Input:
  • uid – Type: String
  • ipcon – Type: .NET Refnum (IPConnection)
Output:
  • lcd16x2 – Type: .NET Refnum (BrickletLCD16x2)

Creates an object with the unique device ID uid. This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected.

BrickletLCD16x2.WriteLine(line, position, text)
Input:
  • line – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 1]
  • position – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 15]
  • text – Type: String, Length: up to 16

Writes text to a specific line with a specific position. The text can have a maximum of 16 characters.

For example: (0, 5, "Hello") will write Hello in the middle of the first line of the display.

The display uses a special charset that includes all ASCII characters except backslash and tilde. The LCD charset also includes several other non-ASCII characters, see the charset specification for details. The Unicode example above shows how to specify non-ASCII characters and how to translate from Unicode to the LCD charset.

BrickletLCD16x2.ClearDisplay()

Deletes all characters from the display.

BrickletLCD16x2.BacklightOn()

Turns the backlight on.

BrickletLCD16x2.BacklightOff()

Turns the backlight off.

BrickletLCD16x2.IsBacklightOn() → backlight
Output:
  • backlight – Type: Boolean

Returns true if the backlight is on and false otherwise.

Advanced Functions

BrickletLCD16x2.SetConfig(cursor, blinking)
Input:
  • cursor – Type: Boolean, Default: F
  • blinking – Type: Boolean, Default: F

Configures if the cursor (shown as "_") should be visible and if it should be blinking (shown as a blinking block). The cursor position is one character behind the the last text written with WriteLine().

BrickletLCD16x2.GetConfig() → cursor, blinking
Output:
  • cursor – Type: Boolean, Default: F
  • blinking – Type: Boolean, Default: F

Returns the configuration as set by SetConfig().

BrickletLCD16x2.IsButtonPressed(button) → pressed
Input:
  • button – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 2]
Output:
  • pressed – Type: Boolean

Returns true if the button is pressed.

If you want to react on button presses and releases it is recommended to use the ButtonPressedCallback and ButtonReleasedCallback callbacks.

BrickletLCD16x2.SetCustomCharacter(index, character)
Input:
  • index – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 7]
  • character – Type: Byte[8], Range: [0 to 31]

The LCD 16x2 Bricklet can store up to 8 custom characters. The characters consist of 5x8 pixels and can be addressed with the index 0-7. To describe the pixels, the first 5 bits of 8 bytes are used. For example, to make a custom character "H", you should transfer the following:

  • character[0] = 0b00010001 (decimal value 17)
  • character[1] = 0b00010001 (decimal value 17)
  • character[2] = 0b00010001 (decimal value 17)
  • character[3] = 0b00011111 (decimal value 31)
  • character[4] = 0b00010001 (decimal value 17)
  • character[5] = 0b00010001 (decimal value 17)
  • character[6] = 0b00010001 (decimal value 17)
  • character[7] = 0b00000000 (decimal value 0)

The characters can later be written with WriteLine() by using the characters with the byte representation 8 ("\x08" or "\u0008") to 15 ("\x0F" or "\u000F").

You can play around with the custom characters in Brick Viewer since version 2.0.1.

Custom characters are stored by the LCD in RAM, so they have to be set after each startup.

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

BrickletLCD16x2.GetCustomCharacter(index) → character
Input:
  • index – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 7]
Output:
  • character – Type: Byte[8], Range: [0 to 31]

Returns the custom character for a given index, as set with SetCustomCharacter().

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

BrickletLCD16x2.GetIdentity() → uid, connectedUid, position, hardwareVersion, firmwareVersion, deviceIdentifier
Output:
  • uid – Type: String, Length: up to 8
  • connectedUid – Type: String, Length: up to 8
  • position – Type: Char, Range: ["a" to "h", "z"]
  • hardwareVersion – Type: Byte[3]
    • 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
  • firmwareVersion – Type: Byte[3]
    • 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
  • deviceIdentifier – Type: Int32, Range: [0 to 216 - 1]

Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.

The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' or 'h' (Bricklet Port). A Bricklet connected to an Isolator Bricklet is always at position 'z'.

The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.

Callbacks

Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a function to a callback property of the device object. The available callback property and their type of parameters are described below.

Note

Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.

event BrickletLCD16x2.ButtonPressedCallback → sender, button
Callback Output:
  • sender – Type: .NET Refnum (BrickletLCD16x2)
  • button – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 2]

This callback is triggered when a button is pressed. The parameter is the number of the button.

event BrickletLCD16x2.ButtonReleasedCallback → sender, button
Callback Output:
  • sender – Type: .NET Refnum (BrickletLCD16x2)
  • button – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 2]

This callback is triggered when a button is released. The parameter is the number of the button.

Virtual Functions

Virtual functions don't communicate with the device itself, but operate only on the API bindings device object. They can be called without the corresponding IP Connection object being connected.

BrickletLCD16x2.GetAPIVersion() → apiVersion
Output:
  • apiVersion – Type: Byte[3]
    • 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]

Returns the version of the API definition implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.

BrickletLCD16x2.GetResponseExpected(functionId) → responseExpected
Input:
  • functionId – Type: Byte, Range: See constants
Output:
  • responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.

For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled, because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by SetResponseExpected(). For setter functions it is disabled by default and can be enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_WRITE_LINE = 1
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_CLEAR_DISPLAY = 2
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_BACKLIGHT_ON = 3
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_BACKLIGHT_OFF = 4
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_SET_CONFIG = 6
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_SET_CUSTOM_CHARACTER = 11
BrickletLCD16x2.SetResponseExpected(functionId, responseExpected)
Input:
  • functionId – Type: Byte, Range: See constants
  • responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_WRITE_LINE = 1
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_CLEAR_DISPLAY = 2
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_BACKLIGHT_ON = 3
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_BACKLIGHT_OFF = 4
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_SET_CONFIG = 6
  • BrickletLCD16x2.FUNCTION_SET_CUSTOM_CHARACTER = 11
BrickletLCD16x2.SetResponseExpectedAll(responseExpected)
Input:
  • responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.

Constants

BrickletLCD16x2.DEVICE_IDENTIFIER

This constant is used to identify a LCD 16x2 Bricklet.

The GetIdentity() function and the IPConnection.EnumerateCallback callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.

BrickletLCD16x2.DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME

This constant represents the human readable name of a LCD 16x2 Bricklet.