How a Character LCD works Part 1
The 8-Bit Guy1 HN recommender · recommended in 1 month, 2018–2022
tutorial · intro · evergreen · 2018–2022 on HN
The 8-Bit Guy explains how character LCD screens work and how to control them directly, first part of a series.
HN commenters recommend the series as an approachable demonstration of the simple standardized interface used by character LCDs.
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3 comments from Hacker News
The 8-Bit Guy on Youtube made a great video series on character LCD screens and how to run them. In the first video he shows how to drive one manually using just switches: ▶ this video In parts 2 and 3 he shows two ways how to drive them with a C64: link link
Reminds me of the 8-bit guy's device he created for manually programming character lcd displays. ▶ this video
If you don't need actual HDMI and a regular monitor then there are other solutions which are more like what you describe: Firstly there are simple character LCDs which all have a standardized and simple electrical interface[1] for sending ASCII characters and control codes. Then there are bit-addressable colour displays that let you send drawing commands, eg: [2] [3] [4] [1] ▶ this video [2] link [3] link [4] link