Complete Guide for Nokia 5110 LCD with Arduino

This post aims to be a complete guide for Nokia 5110 LCD with Arduino. I’ll explain what it does, show its specs and share an Arduino project example that you can take and apply to your own projects.

I have more complete guides for other popular sensors and Arduino modules, check them below:

• Complete Guide for Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04
• Complete Guide for nRF24L01 – 2.4GHz RF Transceiver Module With Arduino
• Complete Guide for DHT11/DHT22 Humidity and Temperature Sensor
• Complete Guide for RF 433MHz Transmitter/Receiver Module
• Arduino with PIR Motion Sensor

Description

The Nokia 5110 LCD is very popular among the Arduino tinkerers. These modules are used on wide variety of applications that require some sort of interface or display data to the user.

These modules are very cheap and you can use them with any microcontroller (MCU).

Specifications Nokia 5110 LCD

• 84*48 dot matrix LCD (shows 4 lines of characters)
• Price: $2/$3
• Voltage: 3.3V
• Module size: 45.2mm x 43.1mm
• Model: Nokia 5510
• Controller: PCD8544

Where to buy?

You can purchase these modules from eBay for just a few dollars. Click here to see Nokia 5110 LCD for Arduino on eBay.

Arduino with Nokia 5110 LCD

You need the following components to make this example:

• 1x Arduino (eBay)
• 1x Nokia 5110 LCD (eBay)
• 1x Potenciometer
• 4x 10K Ohm Resistors
• 1x 1k Ohm Resistor
• 1x 330 Ohm Resistor
• Breadboard (eBay)

Library download

Here’s the library you need for this project:

1. Download the PCD8544 library
2. Open your Arduino IDE
3. Go to Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library

Pinout

1) RST – Reset
2) CE – Chip Enable
3) D/C – Data/Command Selection
4) DIN – Serial Input
5) CLK – Clock Input
6) VCC – 3.3V
7) LIGHT – Backlight Control
8) GND – Ground

Schematics

The Nokia 5110 LCD operates at 3.3V. So you can’t connect the Arduino Uno digital pins directly. Read this blog post to learn how you can level shift the signals from 5V to 3.3V.

I’ll be adding some resistors in series with the data signals to protect the 3.3V lines.

Using Logic Level Converters to switch from 5V to 3.3V is the best option to interact with this LCD.

Uploading Sketch

After installing the PCD8544 library in your Arduino IDE, you can find the sketch below in File > Examples > PCD8544 > HelloWorld.

/*
 * PCD8544 - Interface with Philips PCD8544 (or compatible) LCDs.
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2010 Carlos Rodrigues <cefrodrigues@gmail.com>
 *
 * To use this sketch, connect the eight pins from your LCD like this:
 *
 * Pin 1 -> +3.3V (rightmost, when facing the display head-on)
 * Pin 2 -> Arduino digital pin 3
 * Pin 3 -> Arduino digital pin 4
 * Pin 4 -> Arduino digital pin 5
 * Pin 5 -> Arduino digital pin 7
 * Pin 6 -> Ground
 * Pin 7 -> 10uF capacitor -> Ground
 * Pin 8 -> Arduino digital pin 6
 *
 * Since these LCDs are +3.3V devices, you have to add extra components to
 * connect it to the digital pins of the Arduino (not necessary if you are
 * using a 3.3V variant of the Arduino, such as Sparkfun's Arduino Pro).
 */

#include <PCD8544.h>

// A custom glyph (a smiley)...
static const byte glyph[] = { B00010000, B00110100, B00110000, B00110100, B00010000 };

static PCD8544 lcd;

void setup() {
  // PCD8544-compatible displays may have a different resolution...
  lcd.begin(84, 48);

  // Add the smiley to position "0" of the ASCII table...
  lcd.createChar(0, glyph);
}


void loop() {
  // Just to show the program is alive...
  static int counter = 0;

  // Write a piece of text on the first line...
  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
  lcd.print("Hello, World!");

  // Write the counter on the second line...
  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  lcd.print(counter, DEC);
  lcd.write(' ');
  lcd.write(0);  // write the smiley

  // Use a potentiometer to set the LCD contrast...
  // short level = map(analogRead(A0), 0, 1023, 0, 127);
  // lcd.setContrast(level);

  delay(200);
  counter++;
}