Overview
Things
Story

We will need the following
I'm going to start with the LCD Section
Next section we will tackle is the one LED
Let's connect the 4 button Membrane
The Code

Published October 15, 2017 © GPL3+

A Simple Arduino Menu With An LCD

I've created a simple menu with an LCD that controls what an LED does. The menu is easy to edit and adapt for various projects.

IntermediateProtip1 hour161,170

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Adafruit RGB Backlight LCD - 16x2

LED (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

Breadboard (generic)

Arduino UNO

1 x 4 Digital Matrix Membrane Switch

Resistor 221 ohm

Story

Today we are hooking up a LCD screen and controlling a LED all with a simple Menu program.

We will need the following:

Some Jumper wires

Some Buttons (I'm using a 4 by 1 Button Membrane)

1 x LCD Screen, (I'm using the LMB 162ABC 5v LCD)

2 x 220 ohm resistors

1 x 1 ohm resistor

1 x LED

A Breadboard and

An Arduino

As I always do, I connect ground from the Arduino to negative Rail and connect 5v of the Arduino to the 5v rail.

I'm going to start with the LCD Section:

The LMB162ABC has 16 pins. Pin 1 and 16 are numbered.

Place the LCD onto the Breadboard. (You might need to solder header pins onto your LCD screen first)

Place a lead from the Ground rail to pin 1 of the LCD

Connect pin 2 of the LCD to the Positive rail of the breadboard

Place 1 x 220 Ohm resistor between pin 3 and 1 of the LCD screen (This controls the Contrast of the screen)

Connect pins 10, 11 and 12 of the Arduino to pins 6, 5 and 4 of the LCD (Pins 4, 5 and 6 on the LCD are RS, R/W and Enable for the LMB162ABC)

Connect pins 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Arduino to pins 14, 13, 12 and 11 of the LCD (These are the Data pins of the LCD)

Connect pin 16 to Ground

Connect a 1ohm Resistor from the Positive rail to a terminal strip

(I used an online calculator to get the value of the resistor using the figures from the LCD datasheet)

Connect pin 15 of the LCD to the terminal strip with the 1 ohm resistor (Pin 15 and pin 16 of the LCD control the backlight.)

Next section we will tackle is the one LED

Place the led between 2 terminal strips

Place a resistor from the Anode to another Terminal Strip

Connect pin 9 of the Arduino to the Resistor

Connect the Cathode of the LED to a negative rail

Let's connect the 4 button Membrane

The pins 1, 2, 3 , 4 and 5 on the membrane that I have, correspond to buttons 2, 1, 4, 3 and Common. I am only going to use 3 of the buttons:

Connect a lead from the common pin of the membrane to the Ground of the Arduino

Connect 3 other leads from the membrane to pins 6, 7 and 8 of the Arduino

The Code

I designed this menu program to easily edit and execute code where required. When a button is pressed it will either Navigate the Menu or Execute Code.

Execute code

In this example the executed part will control the LED

Turning the LED: ON, OFF, fading the LED or blinking the LED

In the Navigate Section

It figures out where you are in the menu

Finds possible places you can navigate to

Then allows you to choose where you can navigate to, using the buttons

Instead of the numbers on the button membrane I stuck masking tape labels to assist with navigation.

Code

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2); // ARDUINO UNO
//LiquidCrystal lcd(3, 2, 1, 7, 8, 9, 10); // ATTINY84
byte buttons[] = {6,7,8}; //10 for additional pin
const byte nrButtons = 3; // change to 4 if additional button added
int menusize = 10;
String menu[] = {
  "Menu",                   //0
  "Menu>LED",               //1
  "Menu>LED>Off",           //2
  "Menu>LED>On",            //3
  "Menu>LED>Fade",          //4
  "Menu>LED>Blink",         //5
  "Menu>LCDlight",          //6
  "Menu>Nothing1",          //7  
  "Menu>Nothing2",          //8
  "Menu>Nothing3"           //9
};

int t;
byte pressedButton, currentPos,currentPosParent, possiblePos[20], possiblePosCount, possiblePosScroll = 0;
String parent = "";

int brightness;
int LCDtoggle = 0;
int fadeAmount = 5;
unsigned long timer = (millis() / 10);
int ledMode = 0;

void updateMenu () {
  possiblePosCount = 0;
  while (possiblePosCount == 0) {
    
    for (t = 1; t < menusize;t++) {
      if (mid(menu[t],1,inStrRev(menu[t],">")-1).equals(menu[currentPos])) {
        possiblePos[possiblePosCount]  =  t;
        possiblePosCount = possiblePosCount + 1;
      }
    }
    
    //find the current parent for the current menu
    parent = mid(menu[currentPos],1,inStrRev(menu[currentPos],">")-1);
    currentPosParent = 0;
    for (t = 0; t < menusize; t++) {
       if (parent == menu[t]) {currentPosParent = t;}
    }

    // reached the end of the Menu line
    if (possiblePosCount == 0) {
      //Menu Option Items
      switch (currentPos) {
        case 2:
        case 3:
        case 4:
        case 5://Choose between 2,3,4,5
          for (t = 2; t<6; t++) {
            if (mid(menu[t],len(menu[t]),1) == "*") {
              menu[t] = mid(menu[t],1,len(menu[t])-1);
            }
          }
          menu[currentPos] = menu[currentPos] + "*";
        break;
        case 6: //Toggle
          if (mid(menu[currentPos],len(menu[currentPos]),1) == "*") {
            menu[currentPos] = mid(menu[currentPos],1,len(menu[currentPos])-1);
          } else {
            menu[currentPos] = menu[currentPos] + "*";    
          }
          
        break;
      }

      //Set Variables
      switch (currentPos) {
        case 2:
          ledMode = 0;
        break;
        case 3:
          ledMode = 1;
        break;
        case 4:
          brightness = 128;
          ledMode = 2;
        break;
        case 5:
          brightness = 0;
          ledMode = 3;
        break;
        case 6:
          LCDtoggle = abs(LCDtoggle - 1);
          digitalWrite(13,LCDtoggle);
        break;
      }


      // go to the parent
      currentPos = currentPosParent;
    }
  }
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.setCursor(0,0); lcd.print(mid(menu[currentPos],inStrRev(menu[currentPos],">")+1,len(menu[currentPos])-inStrRev(menu[currentPos],">")));
    lcd.setCursor(0,1); lcd.print(mid(menu[possiblePos[possiblePosScroll]],inStrRev(menu[possiblePos[possiblePosScroll]],">")+1,len(menu[possiblePos[possiblePosScroll]])-inStrRev(menu[possiblePos[possiblePosScroll]],">")));

}

// Look for a button press
byte checkButtonPress() {
  byte bP = 0;
  byte rBp = 0;
  for (t = 0; t<nrButtons;t++) {
    if (digitalRead(buttons[t]) == 0) {bP = (t + 1);}
  }
  rBp = bP;
  while (bP != 0) { // wait while the button is still down
    bP = 0;
    for (t = 0; t<nrButtons;t++) {
      if (digitalRead(buttons[t]) == 0) {bP = (t + 1);}
    }
  }
  return rBp;
}



void setup() {
  
  lcd.begin(16,2); 
  lcd.clear();
  
  for (t=0;t<nrButtons;t++) {
    pinMode(buttons[t],INPUT_PULLUP); 
  }
  
  pinMode(13,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(9,OUTPUT);

  lcd.setCursor(0,0); lcd.print("HELLO");
  delay(1000);
  updateMenu();

}

void loop() {

  
  switch (ledMode) {
    case 0:
      analogWrite(9, 0);
    break;
    case 1:
      analogWrite(9, 255);
    break;
    case 3:
      if ((millis() / 10) - timer > 30) {
        timer = (millis() / 10);
        brightness = abs(brightness - 255);
        timer = (millis() / 10);
        analogWrite(9, brightness);
      }
    break;
    case 2:
      if ((millis() / 10) - timer > 3) {
        timer = (millis() / 10);
        analogWrite(9, brightness);
        brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;
        if (brightness <= 0 || brightness >= 255) {
          fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;
        }
      }
    break;
  }

  pressedButton = checkButtonPress();
  if (pressedButton !=0) {
    switch (pressedButton) {
      case 1:
          possiblePosScroll = (possiblePosScroll + 1) % possiblePosCount; // Scroll
      break;
      // If I wanted a 4 button controll of the menu
      //case 4:
        //  possiblePosScroll = (possiblePosScroll + possiblePosCount - 1) % possiblePosCount; // Scroll
      //break;
      case 2:
        currentPos = possiblePos[possiblePosScroll]; //Okay
      break;
      case 3:
        currentPos = currentPosParent; //Back
        possiblePosScroll = 0;
      break;
    }
    updateMenu();
  }
}

Credits

Ian Cumming

6 projects • 71 followers

I like stuff, from building rockets to elctronics.

A Simple Arduino Menu With An LCD