Access standard characters available on SVP's LCD

Hi,

It’s a bit of an odd question, but I’m simply trying to type a degree sign (°) after an angle value, on the SVP1284.

The Pololu library reference refers to the LCD datasheet for the standard available characters, and sure enough the degree sign is one of them - but when I try:

print_character("°");

…the LCD prints what looks like a minus sign instead. I could store the degree sign as a custom character in PROGMEM, but since it is part of the LCD standard available characters, I figured there should be a way to print it easily, no? How do I go about sending the corresponding bits (“10110000”) for that character?

Thanks,

-A

The character value for the degree symbol may not be the same as the LCD character code, and " " delimits a string, not a character. Try something like

print_character(0xb0);  //hex equivalent of  binary 10110000

Thanks for your reply, Jim.

However, according to the documentation, print_character prints a single ASCII character like in the example:

print_character('A');

…where ’ ’ is used. I did try to send the HEX value of the corresponding pattern as according to the LCD datasheet (0xb0), but it prints a minus sign, again… I’ll rely on creating the custom character and storing it in the program space for now, which works fine, but I am still wondering how to access the library of pre-programmed standard characters in the LCD through the Pololu library.

Hello, A.

The HD44780 interface datasheet lists two different sets of characters. The last time I checked, the LCDs we sell come with the first set of characters (which includes Japanese), not the second one where you saw the 0xB0 character. You should be able to get a character that looks like a degree sign by printing 0xDF to the LCD. Inside a C string, this can be written as “\xDF”.

–David

Thanks David, that works for me!

-Ariel