The Arduino board has a wide variety of compatible displays that you can use in your electronic projects. In most projects, it’s very useful to give the user some sort of feedback from the Arduino.
Whether it’s a sensor reading, an ok message or to create an interface to interact with your Arduino board.
There are several types of displays compatible with your Arduino, here’s a list of 7 of them.
1. TFT LCD display
With the TFT display you can display colorful images or graphics. This module has a resolution of 480 x 320. This module includes the SD card socket and SPI FLASH circuit.
2. TFT LCD touchscreen display
This module is similar to the TFT LCD display, but it has touchscreen.
3. Dot matrix
The dot matrix has 64 leds, 8×8. You can control each led individually to display letters, numbers, figures, etc.
You can attach several dot matrices, to have a bigger area.
4. White OLED display
This is a tiny display with just 1 x 0.96 Inch. This display has a black background, and displays characters in white. There are other similar displays that can show the characters in other colors.
5. 16×2 character LCD display
This usually the first display most people use when they first start using the Arduino board.
It displays 16 characters in 2 rows (there are also other sizes available). These displays come with a blue or green background and with a backlight.
6. 5110 LCD display
These are the kind of displays used in old Nokia cellphones.
The background is grey and the characters or pictures are displayed in darker grey. They are very cheap and easy to use.
7. 4 Bits Digital Tube LED display
This display allows you to display 4 digits with seven segments. It’s useful to display data from a temperature sensor, for example.
Wrapping Up
Have you have ever used one of these displays? Which display you use more often?
Let me know by leaving a comment below.
Thanks for reading,
Rui
P.S. I recommend reading: 21 Arduino Modules You Can Buy For Less Than $2
I have tried several TFT displays that came from ebay but not these exact ones.
Getting them to work properly is a real chore. Big problem getting the documentation
and the right library. Ones from Spark Fun and Adafruit = easy setup and they work but also
are pricey. Ebay = headaches but they are cheap so if one doesn’t work it can be easily
thrown away. And if it works then you win.
Pick your own poison. Just my opinion.
I buy all my 16×2 displays,20×4 displays, and serial LCD interface boards from Ebay.
I have several dozen LCD displays and they have all worked right from the start. Serial
interface boards have been a little bit dicier. You need to use the right library and address
to get them to work properly..
Getting these from Ebay = happiness.
I 100% agree with your thoughts Dan.
The TFT displays can be a pain to work with if they aren’t properly documented. I’ll be adding a few guides in the future that are guaranteed to work with these Chinese displays.
I hopefully will remove those frustrations!
See my Instructable about connecting TFT LCDs to an Arduino.
instructables.com/id/The-Arduino-TFT-LCD-Connection/
Thanks for sharing! I’ll be also creating a few guides for these displays
The NEWHAVEN NHD-C0216CiZ-FSW-FBW-3V3 is a 2×16 LCD that uses I2C for communication. They are about US$10 in single-piece quantities. I am using those on a project and they are quite easy to work with.
Peace and blessings.
Those are great too displays
Thanks for sharing! I have used 16×2 Character to display battary Icon and team Logo.
Here are some SPI seven segment displays that are Arduino compatible:
tindie.com/products/rajbex/dual-row-4-digit-seven-segment-led-display-yellow tindie.com/products/rajbex/spi-4-digit-seven-segment-led-display tindie.com/products/rajbex/serial-8-digit-7-segment-led-display-red
Hi Raj,
Thanks for sharing!
Rui
Hello,
Could you please expain how to use a 5×7 Dot Matrix ?
I find tutorials on 8×8 dot matrix but not on 5×7.
Any help would be higly appreciated. Thank you!
Hi John,
I don’t have any tutorials on that exact subject…
hi, this displays works with a NodeMCU ESP8266 chip ? (using the arduino IDE to program). Do I need extra hardward to connect them? Thanks!
The 16×2 LCD should work with the ESP8266.
I have used nokia 5110 , but don’t like them. they fade. I like tft and 2×16 lcds
I never had that problem with the 5110, but I also prefer TFT
LoL, yesterday i brought a 5110 lcd display, what a coincidence.
A cool information: There is a arduino shield to the 16×2 lcd wich uses the analog read to clock/send data and because of that, uses a way less cables/ports!
Hi Roni,
I know! I could definitely add the shield. thanks for sharing your thoughts,
Rui
Rui, thx for useful list of displays. My recomendation is add info about related usable libraries to each display.. brgds Roman
I’ll be adding guides for the TFT displays and include code examples in the upcoming weeks.
Thanks for the suggestion,
Rui
A display I use more and more, is the GLCD (graphic LCD) 128×64 pixels. Rather fast, you can use it for text and graphics, there are very good fonts available. With Arduino you have a very good library that supports all kinds of lcd’s: U8-Glib. Worth using those!
That’s a great alternative too. Thanks for sharing.
Rui
Hey Rui,
I am trying to track down some C code to drive the the 128*64 ST7565R-G LCD display driver.
I can already write bitmaps and character etc… But now need functions to draw lines and circles.
I want the C code to draw lines and circles. Any Ideas ? 🙂
Cheers
Grant
Hi Grant,
I don’t have any tutorials on that exact subject.
Thanks for asking,
Rui
Thanks for the list. I have used some of them but I appreciate you doing the work.
Thank you for reading,
Rui
Hello. Do you know about a working Library for the TFT Displays ?
I have tried several and get compilation errors etc. Would be Nice if You could provide a working example.
I’ll be creating guides with these displays and their libraries.
Thanks for the suggestion,
Rui
I am thinking of using these for a secure door entry system but it needs a 64 led color array.
The idea is to present changing patterns of a few colored dots, then use switches to select the row or column to generate a predefined color sequence. Wrong attempts introduce a delay.
It is similar to a key system but more secure.
There is a color version, the GET-0031
I’ve never used those displays. They look great and are also cheap.
I should have added those to the list.
Thanks for sharing,
Rui
Scientific
If you want cool TFT displays which are well documented, have touchscreen, use simple UART interface, come with a lot of examples and tutorials and are a tad more expensive than the ordinary TFTs from eBay, take a look at Nextion
If you spend a bit more on the Enhanced version, you get more flash, more RAM, touch sensor, etc.
That’s a great TFT display, I need to get one too!
I am tending to use the 128×64 OLED more these days than the LCD. One big problem is the vulnerability of the edge of the glass in the post, some shippes just put them rattling around loose in a jiffy bag! If buying on eBay, choose a supplier who states they will be packed securely (I’ve found one who uses a plastic case, inside a cardboard box).
That’s a good point Andrew made about LCD fragility, since I just broke one of the ILI9341 colour LCD displays with careless handling while I was making a housing for it! 🙁