Custom Character Generation on 16x2 char lcd

   Most of the alpha numeric  LCD like 16x2 char or 16x4 char have ability to generate few custom characters. in this example i will show you how to make and display these custom characters on a 16x2 char lcd with Hitachi HD44780 lcd controller.

 HD44780 LCD can have upto 8 custom characters.

THEORY FOR CUSTOM CHARACTER GENERATION 

the basic technology of  lcd based on 3 type of   memory

CG ROM : this the memory which holds the permanent fonts you call to be displayed . this holds the pattern for every single character of  predefined lcd font. and you call the content of this memory by the placeing  corresponding ascii value on the lcd port . like for retrieval of   'A' you have to send the ascii value of 'A' which is 0x41 to the lcd.   CGROM can also be seen as computer hard drive from where you load your required program into ram to start working. but it is not modify able because it's rom.

DD RAM : DDRAM is the memory which holds only those characters which are currently on the screen . means if there is a message is currently being displayed on the screen then it has to be  on the DDRAM
for example if you want to display "hello" on the screen then you have load pattern of h from the CG ROM TO DD RAM then do the same for 'e' ,'l' ,'l' and 'o'.



the address of cg ram is totally depends on the size of the lcd like for

16 x 2 LCD            Row1      0x80 0x81 0x82 0x83 0x84 0x85 0x86 through 0x8F

                              Row2     0xCO 0xC1 0xC2 0xC3 0xC4 0xC5 0xC6 through 0xCF

20 x 1 LCD            Row1     0x80 0x81 0x82 0x83 through 0x93

20 x 2 LCD            Row1     0x80 0x81 0x82 0x83 through 0x93

      Row2     0xCO 0xC1 0xC2 0xC3 through 0xD3

20 x 4 LCD            Row1     0x80 0x81 0x82 0x83 through 0x93

      Row2     0xCO 0xC1 0xC2 0xC3 through 0xD3

      Row3     0x94 0x95 0x96 0x97 through 0xA7

      Row4     0xD4 0xD5 0xD6 0xD7 through 0xE7

40 x 2 L CD           Row1     0x80 0x81 0x82 0x83 through 0xA7

      Row2     0xCO 0xC1 0xC2 0xC3 through 0xE7

CG RAM : this memory works same as CG ROM but as this is ram we can modify it's content any time . so this is the place where whe have to first store our custom character pattern. then that pattern can be sent to display.

the HD44780 has total 8 CG RAM memory location . so we can generate only up to 8 custom characters . but you can always change the content of CG RAM on the fly to generate new characters .

the addresses  of 8 CG RAM location  goes from  0x00 to 0x07.

WHEN Ever we want something of these fonts to be displayed on the screen we write them to the DD RAM


NOW QUESTION IS 
HOW TO POINT TO CG RAM MEMORY LOCATION instead off DD RAM, so that we can write  something ?

the answer is quite simple The HD44780 provide a dedicated command to set writing pointer to CG RAM

for example if you want to write you first custom character to 0x00 CG RAM location then you have to send lcd a command  
lcdCmd(0x40);
after this now you are ready to send data to CG RAM location 0x00.
after sending the whole pattern for location 0x00 the location pointer will auto increase to 0x01 location 

or if you want to store something to 0x03 location then send direct command lcdCmd(0x43);

 now we know how to goto the CG RAM but now problem is

HOW TO DECIDE AND WRITE CUSTOM FONT TO CG RAM  ?

a standard 5x8 dots font is being shown in the image as you can see there are total 8 bytes of data on the whole to decide pattern of the font.

as yo can see all you need to do is decide the first row pattern like in the example image of a battery symbol, you can make any symbol you can imagine like degree celsius , Sine wave symbol Square wave symbol, compass, arrow etc.
in first row the first pixel is off  so lsb bit 0 is 0 and pixel 1 is on so bit1 is 1 and pixel 2 is on so bit 2 is 1
this method apply on each row of the font ( 8 rows ). which gives us total 8 bytes of data first msb 3 bits are always 0.

you can also use this web tool to decide this pattern  and code. CLICK HERE

now we have our pattern to be written to the CG RAM.
the writing sequence is like this

1. set CGRAM ADDRESS by lcdCmd(0x40);
2. send the byte 0   lcdData(0x0E);
3. send the byte 1   lcdData(0x1B);
4. send the byte 2   lcdData(0x11);
5. send the byte 3   lcdData(0x11);
6. send the byte 4  lcdData(0x11);
7. send the byte 5   lcdData(0x11);
8. send the byte 6 lcdData(0x11);
9. send the byte 7 lcdData(0x1F);

if you want to send the next custom font to lcd then not need to set DD RAM addresses again . it will automatically  increment to next location.

now we are ready to display this font on to lcd. but keep one thing in mind you should get back to DD RAM, to display this data on to screen . this can be done by setting DD RAM address. like for 16x2 char lcd first, row first character send lcdCmd(0x80);

implementation  with PIC MCU

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SOURCE CODE N HEX