This program shows small text lines on LCD displays with the HD44780 chip connected to the GPIO ports of a Raspberry Pi V2.

Currently the 2 lines a 16 characters display is supported. The neccessary hardware for testing is listed below:

• LCD1602A
• a breadboard
• jumper wires male/female
• a jumper kit
• a 3.3 k resistor
• a 560 ohm resistor

Thanks to Matt Hawkins (http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk) for explaining the wiring.

The program is written in C and uses the bcm2835 lib from Mike McCauley at( http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/bcm2835/ ) So get a copy and compile the lib:

./configure 
make
sudo make install

Once the lib is installed you are ready to compile the test program. Clone this source and run make:

git clone https://github.com/rheikvaneyck/HD44780.git
cd HD44780
make

To print some text on the display call the program with option -1 for text on line 1 and -2 for text on line 2:

sudo ./lcd_test -1 "Hallo Welt" -2 "Wie geht's?"