Introduction: LinkitONE LCD!

About: I build products which solve real world problems.

Wanted to ever make a game with your LinkitONE? Did you got a board and wanted to make something cool other than web servers or blinking LEDs with your Linkit? Then this tutorial is right for you!

Here i'll show you how to make a simple 1-button arcade game on a 16x2 LCD with a LinkitONE!

Step 1: What Do You Need?

1) LinkitONE board

2) LCD (16x2)

3) A Pushbutton

4) Small sized breadboard

5) Battery pack (for powering up the Linkit)

Step 2: Assembling Parts

Here, we will assemble the LCD, and the pushbutton with the arduino.

We will make some pin connections!

First of all, dont power ON your Linkit! just keep it off and do the following connections:

The 16x2 LCD has 16 pins which are-

1) GND - power ground signal

2) VCC - positive power signal

3) V0 - contrast adjust

4) RS - register select

5) R/W - read/write select

6) E - operation enable signal

7) DB0 - data bit 0 (not used here)

8) DB1 - data bit 1 (not used here)

9) DB2 - data bit 2 (not used here)

10) DB3 - data bit 3 (not used here)

11) DB4 - data bit 4

12) DB4 - data bit 5

13) DB4 - data bit 6

14) DB4 - data bit 7

We'll be only using DB4 to DB7 pins for data transfer as we are using 4 bit mode. (We'll just nee 4 wires for daa transfer + 3 for registers + 2 for GND and VCC)

connections:

Connect DB7 to Linkit's pin 3

Connect DB6 to Linkit's pin 4

Connect DB5 to Linkit's pin 5

Connect DB5 to Linkit's pin 6

Connect E to Linkit's pin 9

Connect R/W to Linkit's pin 10 (or to black row at top of breadboard)

Connect RS to Linkit's pin 11

Now you have successfully placed the pin connections! Now lets put the pushbutton

connect the pushbutton to pin 2 of your linkit.

Step 3: Programming the Board

Here we will program the linkit board.

At this point, you should be ready to program the Linkit and test it out.
Start by making sure that you have the Arduino IDE for Linkit installed on your computer. Download the Linkit_LCD_Game.ino file on this page to your computer and open it in the Arduino-Linkit software. Make sure the board is set properly for programming (Tools → Board →Linkit ONE). Connect the Likiy to your computer using the USB cable. This will provide power to the game and allow you to upload your program to the board. At this point, the screen of the LCD display should light up.

If all goes well, the LCD screen should now show the game start screen like in the picture above!!

Step 4: Final Touches

Now add some final touches by putting it inside a box.

First off all, we are powering the board using USB, we can also power it with a battery! so connect your linkit with a battery instead of PC!

Also add a more interactive Pushbutton like in the image above!

Now add a good covering to it as I added in mine one! It'll look great :D

Congrats! You've made your own video game with just an simple arduino!