Introduction: Nokia 5110 LCD Via Lady Ada

About: Retired Educator, YouTuber, and Maker. 32 years in a middle school classroom teaching STEM. I ❤ Ah-ha Moments!

In a previous Instructable, located here, I taught you how to wire up a Nokia 5110 LCD really quickly.

The code that made it run was not very elegant though.

Lady Ada has a tutorial as well, but I could never get it wired correctly. I did a little investigating though and was able to adapt their code to the simple wiring setup I taught above.

Step 1: The Main Issue

The issue that probably thwarted me most is that my pins do not match the pins that are on the Lady Ada or Spark Fun site.

I finally made a table so I could match them all up and get my mind around the setup.

I used that same technique to get the two different ways to code the Nokia combined as well.

The picture above shows how they compare.

Step 2: Use That Knowledge to Adjust the Program

The Lady Ada training uses a library that you need to add to your IDE.

NOTE: If you do not know how to add a library, here is some training on it.

It can be found here. The graphics library is also required and can be found here.

Once installed, open your IDE and check your examples for Adafruit_PCD8544. In it you will find the pcdtest file we need.

Step 3: Simple Tweak

Use the picture above to find the code and make the simple adjustment.

Voila, you will now have a super powerful, cheap, and fun display at your disposal.

Step 4: Check Us Out @HLModTech

Modular Technology is a class for 8th Graders. We have more than 30 modules that students choose from during the 18 weeks they see me. If you would like to learn more about Mod Tech you can check out our website.

You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook @HLModTech.