[The Forums]

Now you've sorted what you'll need lets take a look at the baby..... the thing to note here are the 16 pins at the top left which we'll be soldering too later.

And the rear ...

A minimum of 16-way wire is needed to hook the display up however I decided to use a shielded multicore cable instead of a ribbon type simply because it looks nicer. The closest match in terms of independent cores was 25-way hence the choice in the materials above. The individual wires are thin ... very thin, so if you also choose this type you will need to be careful although the end result is a lot more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion ... its purely down to personal choice of course. The colour coding is also a godsend when figuring out what goes where!!

A sharp knife is always handy when stripping back wires especially when they are quite thin.

Also somewhat essential is a soldering iron of some type. A fine tip and/or thin solder would be an advantage as well given the relatively small size of the wires and the contacts you'll be soldering too. Even more important is a steady hand though :o)

Although parallel LCDs nearly always have the same connectivity in terms of pin ordering and their function it is still worth checking the datasheet for you specific display to be sure this is the case. Below is the one that came with the display I got, if you don't actually get one then pdf versions are often available on the manufacturers/distributors website.

Once you know what the contacts on the display itself are for the next stage is knowing which pins of the parallel or power plug to attach them to, handily summarised below ...

LCD Pin Number	Symbol	Function	Parallel/Power Connection
1	Vss	Display power ground	Molex ground (either black wire)
2	Vdd	Display power +5V	Molex +5v (red wire)
3	Vo	Contrast Adjust. Altered by adjusting the voltage to this pin, grounding it sets it to maximum contrast. *	Molex ground (either black wire)
4	RS	Register select	Parallel pin 16
5	R/W	Data read/write selector. Its possible to read information from a display however there's no need for it here so grounding it sets it permanently write.	Molex ground (either black wire)
6	E	Enable strobe	Parallel pin 1
7	DB0	Data Bus 0	Parallel pin 2
8	DB1	Data Bus 1	Parallel pin 3
9	DB2	Data Bus 2	Parallel pin 4
10	DB3	Data Bus 3	Parallel pin 5
11	DB4	Data Bus 4	Parallel pin 6
12	DB5	Data Bus 5	Parallel pin 7
13	DB6	Data Bus 6	Parallel pin 8
14	DB7	Data Bus 7	Parallel pin 9
15	A	LED backlight power +5v	Molex +5v (red wire)
16	K	LED backlight power ground	Molex ground (either black wire)

* You can connect this to a potentiometer to have a variable contrast but in both Cheeseman's and my experience its not necessary.

A word of warning on the above though, not all displays have a backlight that runs off 5V, its not uncommon to find some that require a lower voltage in which case an appropriate resistor would be needed. As proof of how generic parallel displays are you can see that all the other display sizes on the datasheet have EXACTLY the same pin functions.

Work in progress ... wiring it on my knee certainly wasn't ideal ... made it easier to picture though so be grateful !!! :o)

The above table can be a bit on the overwhelming side so I made a circuit schematic to (hopefully) clear it up a bit. Both the LCD and the parallel plug themselves should be numbered making it somewhat easier (the diagram is looking at the back of the plug if yours isn't numbered). Its worth pointing out that the +5V lines can be joined together as can the grounds so only a single molex connection is needed.

Here you can see the diagram again but this time referenced to my actual display and plug so you can compare theory and reality (the colourings are the same).

The full sized picture used above.

A close-up view of the back of the parallel plug. The contacts are similar to small "cups", I found it useful to fill these with solder first then to simply reheat it with the wire in place ... otherwise you might find yourself short of hands !!!

A final shot of the back of the display, given how thin the wires are it might be a good idea to somehow fix the main cable to avoid any undue direct pressure on the display contacts.

All that's left is to tidy up and hook up the power. A parallel shell (below) can help make the connection to the PC a bit more sturdy and attractive. How you connect the display will largely depend on how you choose to mount it (externally or internally) but will likely involve either the parallel wire being passed out or the power line into the case. I personally made an external stand for my display which basically left me with a couple of options for connecting the power. Either somehow feeding the bare molex into the case to be connected inside or to make an external connection. The former is easier but I chose the later to make the display totally detachable and independant, plus it looks better !!

Here you can see the finished display mounted with the parallel and power plugs ready to be connected (I'll cover the stand in an article soon)

I handled the power by mounting some sockets in a spare PCI blanking plate. I connected a male molex to two 2.1mm power sockets (JK09K @ £0.99), one for +12V and the other for the LCD's +5V (which I also put a switch on FH97F @ £1.09). I also put a connector straight through so I could power things inside the case from an external source. All I then had to do was stick a 2.1mm plug (HH60Q @ £0.49) on the end of the LCD power cables and it was ready to go. If you also choose to do this make sure you keep the polarities consistent eg. centre channel of the plug/socket as +ve and the outer as ground.

The mounted plate made things neater and easier for me in the long run.

The diplay ready to go ...

When you first boot up your LCD you should have alternating lines of totally filled characters and empty ones - this is the test signal and a good sign ... it means that the wiring part was a success.

... and just to prove that it does actually work !!!! (good tune too).

I'll be brutally honest - if you don't know which end of a soldering iron to hold then I'd forget you ever read this and head over to Matrix Orbital's website ASAP. However I would also say that with very minimal experience and skill you could still wire up a parallel LCD pretty easily. Once you get into it its actually quite simple and nowhere near as daunting as I imagined when I first read about the possibility of doing it. While most LCD's aren't cheap there isn't all that much chance of it not working as long as you're careful so the potential saving is well worth giving it a go in my opinion, just getting the confidence up is half the battle :o).

Its often commented that parallel displays aren't as well supported with software as their serial partners ... I urge those doubters to look specifically at ...

LCD Center & LCD Smartie

... both of which I've used and work flawlessly. There is very little that you cant do with these two as they both feature full Motherboard Monitor and winamp integration as well as much much more (such as game stats or site news updates). Both will need a port initialisation program to be installed (available here) but apart from that they are incredibly simple to use.

I hope this guide has in someway helped those of you in two minds or those confused about carrying this out ... all the best and good luck.