Introduction: LinkIT ONE Nokia 5110 Display

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About: Biomedical Engineer

In this Instructable, I will show you how I got a Nokia 5110 display with the PCD 8544 controller, to work with the LinkIt ONE. This can be used in many different projects, such as to display the output of sensors (Temperature, etc) and the rest is up to you to decide.

Step 1: Materials Required

  • LinkIt ONE board which is already set-up
  • Usb cable to connect your LinkIt ONE to your PC
  • Nokia 5110 or 3310 display. I bought mine from Ebay. You can also use the Sparkfun one if you have it

Step 2: The Code

I have not written this code. I found this from the Arduino website. You can go there and find out more about this.

It does not use any library; Adafruit’s one did not compile with the LinkIt ONE. But, I think that with the ample amount of memory in the LinkIt ONE, we should not have any problems with that.

If you want to display something else (Other than “Hello World”), you should write what you want to be displayed, in the code, instead of “Hello World” and upload that code to your board.

Attachments

Step 3: Wiring

I have included the wiring of my display. The connections are given on the code itself, but changing the pins won’t be as easy as just writing the pin numbers up there, you will have to do some change in the code. I have written down the connections:

  • SCE: Pin 7 on LinkIt ONE
  • RESET: Pin 6 on LinkIt ONE
  • DC: Pin 5 on LinkIt ONE
  • DIN: Pin 4 on LinkIt ONE
  • CLK: Pin 3 on LinkIt ONE
  • Vcc: 3.3v pin on LinkIt ONE
  • Ground: You should know this one
  • Light: This is optional. If you want the backlight, you can set a pin to HIGH and connect this wire to that pin

You can wire this up easily on a breadboard as I have done.

Step 4: Uploading the Code

Connect your LinkIt ONE to your PC and then select the right COM port in the Arduino IDE by checking which port is the MTK Debug Port. Upload the code and when successful, move on to the next step.

Step 5: Working

When properly wired, and if you used the code as is, without modifications, you will hopefully be greeted with “Hello World” on the display. If so, congratulations, you have set up the display, else, move on.

Step 6: Troubleshooting

When I used this with the Arduino UNO, I myself faced a lot of problems (That was because I also had to use a logic level shifter), but we will not need that with the LinkIt ONE as its voltage levels are 3.3v, unlike the UNO.

But I can assure you that most of the problems are only due to incorrect wiring. So first of all make sure that your connections are perfect, even then if the display does not work, feel free to leave a comment, and I will help you out.