16×2 Character LCD Pinout Diagram & Pin Reference

Complete pinout diagram and pin reference for all HD44780-based character LCD modules including 16x2, 20x4 and 128x64.
16x2 Character LCD Pinout Diagram and Pin Reference by CIRCUITSTATE Electronics Featured Image

Character LCD is a simple and economical method for adding a display element to your electronic projects and products. You can see them being used in many consumer, industrial, and scientific devices. They are a great alternative to the old-school seven-segment displays. Character LCDs can show characters, icons, animations, and more. Their biggest limitations are the refresh rate, viewing angles, and relatively large sizes. Character LCDs come in different sizes, usually referred to by their horizontal and vertical character counts, such as 16×2, 20×4, etc. Most character LCDs you find today are based on or compatible with the Hitachi HD44780 LCD controller. In this post, you will find a high-quality vector pinout diagram for all HD44780-based LCD modules. Even though the title says 16×2, the pinout is compatible with other 20×2, 20×4, 24×2, and 128×64 LCDs as well.

Pinout Diagram

Latest Revision: Rev 0.2, 06-12-2022
Design by: Vishnu Mohanan
License: CC-BY-SA 4.0

Pinouts are based on the latest documentation from the manufacturer. While we try our best to be accurate and up-to-date here, we can not guarantee correctness. Please also double-check the pin assignments with that from the official documentation. If you find any errors here, please let us know in the comments. We will update our designs ASAP.

The vector image of the 16×2 LCD used in the pinout diagram was originally designed by Adafruit Industries, USA, and released under CC-BY-SA. Please check out the Adafruit website for info on their work and products.

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16x2, 20x4, 128x64 Character LCD Pinout Diagram and Pin Reference r0.2 by CIRCUITSTATE Electronics
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Pin Reference

Pin #NameTypeDescription
1VSSPowerGround or negative supply
2VDDPowerPositive supply for the LCD. Should be 5V and less than 5V won’t work in most cases.
3VEPowerPositive supply voltage for contrast control. Contrast can be controlled with the help of a potentiometer or a voltage divider.
4RS / REG SELECTIRegister select pin.

0 = Instruction register for write.

1 = Data register for read and write.
5R/WIRead/Write select pin.

0 = Write, 1 = Read
6EN / ENABLEIStarts data read/write.
7D0 / DATA0I/OData Pin 0
8D1 / DATA0I/OData Pin 1
9D2 / DATA0I/OData Pin 2
10D3 / DATA0I/OData Pin 3
11D4 / DATA0I/OData Pin 4 (4-bit mode)
12D5 / DATA0I/OData Pin 5 (4-bit mode)
13D6 / DATA0I/OData Pin 6 (4-bit mode)
14D7 / DATA0I/OData Pin 7 (4-bit mode)
15LED+PowerBacklight LED positive supply voltage.
16LED-PowerBacklight LED negative supply voltage.
Hitachi HD44780-compatible 16×2 character LCD pinout
  • LCD is assumed to be Hitachi HD44780-compatible.
  • LCD uses 8-bit parallel data bus for communication.
  • Supports both 4-bit and 8-bit modes. In 4-bit mode, only the higher-order data pins (D4-D7) have to be used.
  • Pinout is compatible with 16×1, 20×4, and similar LCDs.
  • VDD supply voltage is +5V.
  • VE is a positive voltage for contrast control. A potentiometer may be connected to set display contrast.
  • LED+ can also be +5V. An optional current-limiting resistor may be needed.
  • Some LCDs allow configuring pins 15 and 16 selectively to LED+ (A) or LED- (K) using solder jumpers.
  1. Hitachi HD44780 LCD Controller – Wikipedia
  2. Hitachi HD44780 – Datasheet [PDF]
  3. Standard LCD 16×2 + extras – white on blue – Adafruit
  1. Short URL to this page – https://www.circuitstate.com/charlcdpin
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Vishnu Mohanan

Vishnu Mohanan

Founder and CEO at CIRCUITSTATE Electronics

Articles: 91

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