16 X 2 LCD Base Code

I am finally getting to the code.  I will spread this over three posts.  The first code will be the base module that will be imported into python programs for two other projects.  The base module can, of course, be run by itself. If it is run by itself, the LCD will display what you see in the photograph in the header of this blog.  

I did not originate the base module.  I based it on the code found at Matt Hawkins blog (referenced previously).  I added to it, made some modifications, and made it more suitable to be imported into other projects.  Matt was not the originator of the code either.  I believe the original code was modified from code for the Audunio and appears in Micky Skyler's Adafruit tutorial, "Drive a 16x2 LCD with Raspberry Pi" that is referenced in the previous post.  That tutorial presents a python class for the display controller called Adadruit_CharLCD.py.  This code is quite comprehensive and I believe others took what they needed from it for their code.  This is my version of that code, my base module:

You will need to have RPI.GPIO installed to control the GPIO pins on the PI.  I believe some distributions already include it.  Micky Skyler's Adafruit tutorial covers how to get it if you need it.  

Lines 23 and 24 are probably for my situation only.  More on this in my next post.  

If you want to understand the code you have to read it along with the Hitachi data sheet for the HD4478U.  Pages 24 and 25 have the pertinent information.  

Lines 40 through 42 of the code are particularly interesting (and I can't take any credit for this code). The HD44780 must be initialized before it can be used.  See Figure 24 on page 46 for the sequence of events to initialize the chip.  There are timing requirements between steps like "Wait for more than 4.1ms".  The PI is slow enough that we don't have to worry about the timing.  

The initialization starts (line 40 of the code) with the controller in 8 bit mode, not four bit mode.  The first two commands have DB7 - DB4 (data bus pins) set to 0011 which corresponds to hex 3, so the first two hex 3's are sent, one hex 3 at a time in line 40. The next two commands are 0011 and 0010, corresponding to hex 3 and hex 2, which are sent to the controller by line 41.  The next line, 0010 specifies 4 bit operation which is hex 2 (8 bit operation would be 0011), while the following line has N = 1 for a two line display and F = 0 for 5x8 dots.  Therefore the forth command is 1000, or 8 hex. Code line 42 sends those two commands, hex 2 and hex 8, to the controller.  I'll leave the rest of the initialization commands for you to figure out for yourself.  

For those unfamiliar with hexadecimal numbers, I plan to devote a post to hex, binary and decimal numbers and bit manipulation.

Line 105, if __name__ == '__main__', was something that I did not understand at first.  I saw quite a few questions about it on forums, so I guess I was not the only person who wanted to know.  Why do we need this line at all?  I need it because I intend to import this base module into a couple of other programs for my next posts.  This will save me from copying lines 12 to 102 into the new programs, and you will only see the new code giving a cleaner presentation.  

So how do you interpret line 105?  You can consider __name__ and __main__ to be python interpreter or internal variables.  When you run my base module, LCD_2X16.py, the interpreter assigns '__main__' to __name__.  Since line l05 evaluates to true, the code following that line will run, outputting the text to the display.  However, I have imported LCD_2X16.py into other programs by writing from LCD_2X16 import * in those programs.   If I then run one of those programs, everything from LCD_2X16.py will be part of the calling program.  However, when if __name__ == '__main__' is reached it will compute to false because __name__ now equals 'LCD_2X16', not '__main__' thus the test code will be ignored.  Pretty neat!  if __name__ == '__main__' is only written in the base module, not my other programs.