TasksOfOhm built a free USB LCD backpack PCB. This board controls LCDs with up to 16 interface pins at 3.3 volts or 5.0 volts. This includes common HD44780 character LCDs and larger graphical LCDs.
Got it working. It wasn’t an electrical problem but a software one. I used the software from another built that was running the PIC with a 20 MHz crystal while I intended to run the board at 16 MHz. Therefore I had to adjust some settings in order get the oscillator set up correctly. Additionally some header were still missing. Below the nearly complete board. One header is still unpopulated.
If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer.
Looks like a cool project