8 CHARACTER X 2 LINE LCD W/BACKLIGHT

Standard LCD. Pin 3 goes to a pot (can be anything from 1k to 10k) between pwr and gnd to adjust contrast. If you can't figure this one out, Google HD44780 for the info.

The datasheet is ALMOST complete, and if you toy with it, you'll get it.

In response to the person above, there isn't any serial input to the device. It's all very straightforward parallel, so you can literally use any input method you want as long as you have the pins available. I managed to test it out entirely manually using 10 dip switches and one momentary button.

To fully integrate it, you'll need 5V, a couple of resistors, and 11 i/o lines from your microcontroller. The other 5 pins will probably be static in your project, unless you want to use a transistor to turn off the backlight, in which case you'll need 12.

Set pin 6 high with a big resistor (10000+), set your other pins to the correct values (it's easy to figure out with the data sheet), and then pull pin 6 low, then high again. Voila.

The other bit of frustration was from the pin labeled V(L). This is the limiting resistor for the LCD. Use a small resistor (400ish) for 1 line output, and an even smaller (200ish) for two lines.

Works great with N3ZI's Compact Frequency Counter. Backlight only requires 20 mA. See pix at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/N3ZI_kits/photos/album/1264037563/pic/482897745/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc

Here's the data sheet info
http://www.hantronix.com/down/08216l3.pdf

I am totally "dumb" on these? What is required to drive them (robotics/PIC)??? KD5BIH