LabVIEW - LCD 20x4 Bricklet – Tinkerforge

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# LabVIEW - LCD 20x4 Bricklet

This is the description of the LabVIEW API bindings for the LCD 20x4 Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the LCD 20x4 Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.

An installation guide for the LabVIEW API bindings is part of their general description.

## Examples

The example code below is Public Domain (CC0 1.0).

### Hello World

Download (Example Hello World.vi)

### Button Callback

Download (Example Button Callback.vi), Download (Example Button Callback - ButtonReleased Callback.vi), Download (Example Button Callback - ButtonPressed Callback.vi)

## API

Generally, every method of the LabVIEW bindings that outputs a value can report a `Tinkerforge.TimeoutException`. This error gets reported if the device did not respond. If a cable based connection is used, it is unlikely that this exception gets thrown (assuming nobody plugs the device out). However, if a wireless connection is used, timeouts will occur if the distance to the device gets too big.

The namespace for all Brick/Bricklet bindings and the IPConnection is `Tinkerforge.*`.

### Basic Functions

`BrickletLCD20x4`(uid, ipcon) → lcd20x4

  Input:

  - uid -- String
  - ipcon -- .NET Refnum (IPConnection)

  Output:

  - lcd20x4 -- .NET Refnum (BrickletLCD20x4)

  Creates an object with the unique device ID `uid`. This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected (see examples above).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``WriteLine`(line, position, text)

  Input:

  - line -- Byte
  - position -- Byte
  - text -- String

  Writes text to a specific line (0 to 3) with a specific position (0 to 19). The text can have a maximum of 20 characters.

  For example: (0, 7, "Hello") will write Hello in the middle of the first line of the display.

  The display uses a special charset that includes all ASCII characters except backslash and tilde. The LCD charset also includes several other non-ASCII characters, see the charset specification for details. The Unicode example above shows how to specify non-ASCII characters and how to translate from Unicode to the LCD charset.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``ClearDisplay`()

  Deletes all characters from the display.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``BacklightOn`()

  Turns the backlight on.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``BacklightOff`()

  Turns the backlight off.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``IsBacklightOn`() → backlight

  Output:

  - backlight -- Boolean

  Returns true if the backlight is on and false otherwise.

### Advanced Functions

`BrickletLCD20x4.``SetConfig`(cursor, blinking)

  Input:

  - cursor -- Boolean
  - blinking -- Boolean

  Configures if the cursor (shown as "_") should be visible and if it should be blinking (shown as a blinking block). The cursor position is one character behind the the last text written with `WriteLine()`.

  The default is (false, false).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetConfig`() → cursor, blinking

  Output:

  - cursor -- Boolean
  - blinking -- Boolean

  Returns the configuration as set by `SetConfig()`.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``IsButtonPressed`(button) → pressed

  Input:

  - button -- Byte

  Output:

  - pressed -- Boolean

  Returns true if the button (0 to 2 or 0 to 3 since hardware version 1.2) is pressed. If you want to react on button presses and releases it is recommended to use the `ButtonPressed` and `ButtonReleased` callbacks.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``SetCustomCharacter`(index, character)

  Input:

  - index -- Byte
  - character -- Byte[8]

  The LCD 20x4 Bricklet can store up to 8 custom characters. The characters consist of 5x8 pixels and can be addressed with the index 0-7. To describe the pixels, the first 5 bits of 8 bytes are used. For example, to make a custom character "H", you should transfer the following:

  - `character[0] = 0b00010001` (decimal value 17)
  - `character[1] = 0b00010001` (decimal value 17)
  - `character[2] = 0b00010001` (decimal value 17)
  - `character[3] = 0b00011111` (decimal value 31)
  - `character[4] = 0b00010001` (decimal value 17)
  - `character[5] = 0b00010001` (decimal value 17)
  - `character[6] = 0b00010001` (decimal value 17)
  - `character[7] = 0b00000000` (decimal value 0)

  The characters can later be written with `WriteLine()` by using the characters with the byte representation 8 ("x08") to 15 ("x0F").

  You can play around with the custom characters in Brick Viewer version since 2.0.1.

  Custom characters are stored by the LCD in RAM, so they have to be set after each startup.

  New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetCustomCharacter`(index) → character

  Input:

  - index -- Byte

  Output:

  - character -- Byte[8]

  Returns the custom character for a given index, as set with `SetCustomCharacter()`.

  New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``SetDefaultText`(line, text)

  Input:

  - line -- Byte
  - text -- String

  Sets the default text for lines 0-3. The max number of characters per line is 20.

  The default text is shown on the LCD, if the default text counter expires, see `SetDefaultTextCounter()`.

  New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetDefaultText`(line) → text

  Input:

  - line -- Byte

  Output:

  - text -- String

  Returns the default text for a given line (0-3) as set by `SetDefaultText()`.

  New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``SetDefaultTextCounter`(counter)

  Input:

  - counter -- Int32

  Sets the default text counter in ms. This counter is decremented each ms by the LCD firmware. If the counter reaches 0, the default text (see `SetDefaultText()`) is shown on the LCD.

  This functionality can be used to show a default text if the controlling program crashes or the connection is interrupted.

  A possible approach is to call `SetDefaultTextCounter()` every minute with the parameter 1000*60*2 (2 minutes). In this case the default text will be shown no later than 2 minutes after the controlling program crashes.

  A negative counter turns the default text functionality off.

  The default is -1.

  New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetDefaultTextCounter`() → counter

  Output:

  - counter -- Int32

  Returns the current value of the default text counter.

  New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetAPIVersion`() → apiVersion

  Output:

  - apiVersion -- Byte[3]

  Returns the version of the API definition (major, minor, revision) implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetResponseExpected`(functionId) → responseExpected

  Input:

  - functionId -- Byte

  Output:

  - responseExpected -- Boolean

  Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.

  For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled, because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by `SetResponseExpected()`. For setter functions it is disabled by default and can be enabled.

  Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is send and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

  See `SetResponseExpected()` for the list of function ID constants available for this function.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``SetResponseExpected`(functionId, responseExpected)

  Input:

  - functionId -- Byte
  - responseExpected -- Boolean

  Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled and callbacks it is always disabled.

  Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is send and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

  The following function ID constants are available for this function:

  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_WRITE_LINE = 1
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_CLEAR_DISPLAY = 2
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_BACKLIGHT_ON = 3
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_BACKLIGHT_OFF = 4
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_SET_CONFIG = 6
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_SET_CUSTOM_CHARACTER = 11
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_SET_DEFAULT_TEXT = 13
  - BrickletLCD20x4.FUNCTION_SET_DEFAULT_TEXT_COUNTER = 15

`BrickletLCD20x4.``SetResponseExpectedAll`(responseExpected)

  Input:

  - responseExpected -- Boolean

  Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.

`BrickletLCD20x4.``GetIdentity`() → uid, connectedUid, position, hardwareVersion, firmwareVersion, deviceIdentifier

  Output:

  - uid -- String
  - connectedUid -- String
  - position -- Char
  - hardwareVersion -- Byte[3]
  - firmwareVersion -- Byte[3]
  - deviceIdentifier -- Int32

  Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.

  The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd'.

  The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.

### Callbacks

Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a function to a callback property of the device object. The available callback property and their type of parameters are described below.

Note

Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.

event `BrickletLCD20x4.``ButtonPressed`(sender, button)

  Input:

  - sender -- .NET Refnum (BrickletLCD20x4)
  - button -- Byte

  This callback is triggered when a button is pressed. The parameter is the number of the button (0 to 2 or 0 to 3 since hardware version 1.2).

event `BrickletLCD20x4.``ButtonReleased`(sender, button)

  Input:

  - sender -- .NET Refnum (BrickletLCD20x4)
  - button -- Byte

  This callback is triggered when a button is released. The parameter is the number of the button (0 to 2 or 0 to 3 since hardware version 1.2).

### Constants

`BrickletLCD20x4.``DEVICE_IDENTIFIER`

  This constant is used to identify a LCD 20x4 Bricklet.

  The `GetIdentity()` function and the `EnumerateCallback` callback of the IP Connection have a `deviceIdentifier` parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.

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