Book Image

Creative DIY Microcontroller Projects with TinyGo and WebAssembly

By : Tobias Theel
Book Image

Creative DIY Microcontroller Projects with TinyGo and WebAssembly

By: Tobias Theel

Overview of this book

While often considered a fast and compact programming language, Go usually creates large executables that are difficult to run on low-memory or low-powered devices such as microcontrollers or IoT. TinyGo is a new compiler that allows developers to compile their programs for such low-powered devices. As TinyGo supports all the standard features of the Go programming language, you won't have to tweak the code to fit on the microcontroller. This book is a hands-on guide packed full of interesting DIY projects that will show you how to build embedded applications. You will learn how to program sensors and work with microcontrollers such as Arduino UNO and Arduino Nano IoT 33. The chapters that follow will show you how to develop multiple real-world embedded projects using a variety of popular devices such as LEDs, 7-segment displays, and timers. Next, you will progress to build interactive prototypes such as a traffic lights system, touchless hand wash timer, and more. As you advance, you'll create an IoT prototype of a weather alert system and display those alerts on the TinyGo WASM dashboard. Finally, you will build a home automation project that displays stats on the TinyGo WASM dashboard. By the end of this microcontroller book, you will be equipped with the skills you need to build real-world embedded projects using the power of TinyGo.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
10
Afterword

Displaying text on an HD44780 16x2 LCD display

The HD44780 16x2 LCD is cheap and easy to use. If we only want to display text, this type of display can do just that and is the device of choice. It has 16 pins, which is too many, if we want to combine it with more devices in a project. That is why it is a pretty common practice to use an I2C display driver to control the display. This is a concept similar to using a MAX7219 to drive a 7-segment display, as we did in the previous chapter.

The HD44780 16x2 display can be obtained in a bundle with an I2C driver soldered to it, or it can come without an I2C driver. The display can come in different color configurations, pertaining to background and text color. They typically look similar to the one shown in the following image:

Figure 6.3 – HD44780 front

When the display comes with an I2C driver, it is usually an LCM1602 IIC, which provides four ports:

  • GND
  • VCC
  • SDA
  • SCL

So...