ESP32-S3 board
The brain that runs your uploaded sketch.
01 First, know the pieces
What you need
Five things, and only four wires between them. Tap Define on any part you haven't met — the answer opens as a field note you can read and dismiss without losing your place.
GPIO extension board
Spreads the pins into rows you can reach and label.
LCD1602 module
A sixteen-by-two character screen with an I2C backpack on its back.
4 × jumper wires (F/M)
Female ends slide onto the module's pins; male ends reach the board.
Arduino IDE
Uploads the sketch to the board.
02 Make the physical circuit
Chart the circuit
The official Freenove diagram is your chart — schematic on top, the same circuit built on a breadboard below. Click it to enlarge. Four wires today, all from the little backpack board soldered to the back of the screen.
LCD GND
→GND
Gives the module the same zero-volt reference as the board.
LCD VCC
→5V
The screen and its backlight run on the full five volts.
LCD SDA
→GPIO 14
The data wire — every character rides in on this line.
LCD SCL
→GPIO 13
The clock wire that keeps sender and screen in step.
Mind the 5V pin. The module's VCC wants the board's 5V pin — on 3.3V the display runs faint or dark. Unplug USB before you move any wire.
03 One action at a time
Build it
This is the main path — you can finish the day without opening a single field note. Tap each step as you go to keep your place.
0 / 8 done
Seat the ESP32-S3 on the GPIO extension board and keep USB unplugged while you wire.
Turn the LCD module over and find the four labelled pins on its backpack — GND, VCC, SDA, SCL.
Slide female jumper ends onto GND and VCC, then land them on the board's GND and 5V pins.
Wire SDA to GPIO 14 and SCL to GPIO 13.
Compare every wire to the chart before you plug in USB.
In Arduino IDE choose Sketch → Include Library → Add .ZIP Library… and pick
LiquidCrystal_I2C-1.1.2.zipfrom the kit download'sC/Librariesfolder — you install it once and it stays.Open
Sketch_18.1_Display_the_string_on_LCD1602.inoand upload it. (Wire.h, the I2C library, ships with the board package.)Watch row 0 greet you and row 1 start counting seconds.
04 Read just enough code
Read the code
The sketch does its real work in setup — start the I2C bus, find the display's address, wake it, and print the greeting. The loop then rewrites row 1 once a second with the count. Switch to MicroPython if you'd rather see the same idea in Python — the wiring never changes.
#include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#define SDA 14 //Define SDA pins
#define SCL 13 //Define SCL pins
/*
* note:If lcd1602 uses PCF8574T, IIC's address is 0x27,
* or lcd1602 uses PCF8574AT, IIC's address is 0x3F.
*/
LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(0x27,16,2);
void setup() {
Wire.begin(SDA, SCL); // attach the IIC pin
if (!i2CAddrTest(0x27)) {
lcd = LiquidCrystal_I2C(0x3F, 16, 2);
}
lcd.init(); // LCD driver initialization
lcd.backlight(); // Open the backlight
lcd.setCursor(0,0); // Move the cursor to row 0, column 0
lcd.print("hello, world!"); // The print content is displayed on the LCD
}
void loop() {
lcd.setCursor(0,1); // Move the cursor to row 1, column 0
lcd.print("Counter:"); // The count is displayed every second
lcd.print(millis() / 1000);
delay(1000);
}
bool i2CAddrTest(uint8_t addr) {
Wire.beginTransmission(addr);
if (Wire.endTransmission() == 0) {
return true;
}
return false;
}Wire.begin(SDA, SCL)Starts the I2C bus with GPIO 14 as the data line and GPIO 13 as the clock. LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(0x27,16,2)Names the display by its bus address — 16 columns, 2 rows. If nothing answers at 0x27, i2CAddrTest lets the sketch switch to 0x3F by itself. lcd.setCursor(0,1)Parks the cursor at column 0 of row 1 so the next print lands on the bottom row.lcd.print(millis() / 1000)Prints the seconds since the board booted — the running count you see tick. Optional side path · same circuit
i2c = I2C(scl=Pin(13), sda=Pin(14), freq=400000)
devices = i2c.scan()
lcd = I2cLcd(i2c, device, 2, 16)
lcd.move_to(0, 0)
lcd.putstr("Hello,world!")
count = 0
while True:
lcd.move_to(0, 1)
lcd.putstr("Counter:%d" %(count))
time.sleep_ms(1000)
count += 1devices = i2c.scan()Asks every address on the bus and uses whichever one answers — the same job the Arduino sketch's address test does.lcd.putstr("Counter:%d" %(count))Rewrites row 1 with the running count once a second.Same pins, same wiring. This path needs two helper modules — I2C_LCD.py and LCD_API.py from the same kit folder — copied onto the board before it runs. Run it in Thonny if MicroPython is set up; otherwise skip it — it should never block the Arduino-first path.
05 Understand, don't memorise
Two wires carry the whole screen
A bare LCD1602 wants over a dozen wires. The backpack soldered to its back shrinks that to two signals, because I2C sends everything as addressed messages down a shared pair.
Two shared wires
SDA carries the data while SCL keeps the beat for both ends.
0x27 or 0x3F
Every device on the bus has a number so the board can call this one by name.
The backpack chip
It turns bus messages into the many parallel signals the bare LCD needs.
Cursor then text
The sketch parks the cursor at a row and column and writes characters there.
The model
two wires → address → cursor position → characters
Another kind of serial
The bits travel single file down SDA the way they travel down USB to your Serial Monitor; SCL is the shared clock that tells both ends when each bit counts.
Two possible addresses
Backpacks built on the PCF8574T chip answer at 0x27 and PCF8574AT boards answer at 0x3F. The sketch tries 0x27 first and switches by itself when nothing replies.
06 Know it worked
Test & debug
Nothing prints to the Serial Monitor today — the proof is written on the glass in front of you.
What you should see
- Row 0 shows "hello, world!" as soon as the sketch starts.
- Row 1 shows "Counter:" followed by the seconds since the board booted.
- The number ticks up once a second for as long as the board has power.
A glowing backlight with blank rows is normal at first — the contrast dial on the back of the module sets whether characters show, and it often ships turned too far.
If it doesn't
- Backlight on but no characters? Turn the small contrast dial on the back of the module slowly until the text appears.
- Nothing at all — no glow? Check the VCC and GND pair first, then SDA on GPIO 14 and SCL on GPIO 13.
- Compile fails on LiquidCrystal_I2C.h? The library step was skipped — add the kit's ZIP via Sketch → Include Library → Add .ZIP Library…
- Counter frozen? Re-upload the sketch, then press the board's reset button.
07 Make the idea yours
Try this: make the screen yours
Same working circuit, three edits to the two print lines. It fits inside today's 25 minutes.
Name the boat
Change lcd.print("hello, world!") to your boat's name and upload — row 0 is yours now.
Minutes and seconds
Make row 1 read like a clock — print millis() / 60000 for the minutes, print a colon, then print (millis() / 1000) % 60 for the seconds.
Overflow the row
Print a message longer than sixteen characters and watch where the extra letters go. Then trim the message until the whole line fits the glass again.
Logbook
08 Learn it with a hand on the tiller
Coach me through it
Every lesson ships with a code and a machine-readable packet, so an agent can guide you with full context.
Lesson code
TSK-DAY25-LCD
Context packet
How the agent should behave: guide one physical connection at a time, wait for you to confirm, explain terms on request, and always check wiring, board, port, and USB before changing code.