Custom characters on LCD in Arduino - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Custom characters on LCD

📖 Scenario: You have a small LCD screen connected to an Arduino. You want to show special smiley faces and symbols that are not in the default LCD set.

🎯 Goal: Create custom characters on the LCD and display them on the screen.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a byte array for a custom character

Use the LCD library to create the custom character

Display the custom character on the LCD screen

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Custom characters let you show icons, symbols, or small images on simple LCD screens, making your device more user-friendly and visually appealing.

💼 Career

Embedded systems developers often create custom LCD characters to improve device interfaces in appliances, instruments, and gadgets.

1

Create the custom character byte array

Create a byte array called smiley with 8 bytes to define a smiley face pattern exactly as: 0b00000, 0b01010, 0b01010, 0b00000, 0b10001, 0b01110, 0b00000, 0b00000

Arduino

# Create the byte array 'smiley' for the custom character
# Your code here

Hint

Each byte represents one row of pixels in the 5x8 character grid. Use binary numbers starting with 0b.

2

Initialize the LCD and create the custom character

Add code to initialize the LCD with lcd.begin(16, 2); and create the custom character with lcd.createChar(0, smiley); inside the setup() function.

Arduino

byte smiley[8] = {
  0b00000,
  0b01010,
  0b01010,
  0b00000,
  0b10001,
  0b01110,
  0b00000,
  0b00000
};

#include 
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2);

void setup() {
  // Initialize LCD and create custom character
  // Your code here
}

void loop() {
}

Hint

Use lcd.begin(16, 2); to set up the LCD size and lcd.createChar(0, smiley); to load your custom character into slot 0.

3

Display the custom character on the LCD

In the loop() function, add code to set the cursor to column 0, row 0 with lcd.setCursor(0, 0); and print the custom character using lcd.write(byte(0));.

Arduino

  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
  lcd.write(byte(0));

Hint

Use lcd.setCursor(0, 0); to move the cursor and lcd.write(byte(0)); to show the custom character stored in slot 0.

4

Show the custom character on the LCD screen

Upload the full program and observe the LCD screen. The custom smiley face character should appear at the top-left corner of the LCD.

Arduino

byte smiley[8] = {
  0b00000,
  0b01010,
  0b01010,
  0b00000,
  0b10001,
  0b01110,
  0b00000,
  0b00000
};

#include 
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2);

void setup() {
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  lcd.createChar(0, smiley);
}

void loop() {
  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
  lcd.write(byte(0));
  // Observe the LCD screen
  // Your code here
}

Hint

Upload the code to your Arduino and check the LCD screen. You should see the smiley character at the top-left corner.