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How to use a tiny LCD display (2 7-segment digits)

A tiny MCU can drive a LCD without a specialized driver

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There are tiny LCD available on AliExpress. I bought some to make a tiny hexadecimal display to plug on a breadboard. Specification: 1/4 duty, 1/2 bias. With what I found on the web, I was able to drive this LCD without the need of an LCD driver on chip. Here, I used an ATtiny48 from Microchip.

The LCD should operate at 3.3V. At 5V, all the segments stay on no matter the inputs (except for scan lines COM1-COM4).

The MCU reads the port D and displays the hexadecimal value on the LCD.

The port D inputs should be clamped by 3.3V zener diodes because 5V unclamped signals makes all the segments turning on.

I'll add 2 switches and 2 LEDs to select the bit order.

On the scope screenshot, the scan lines are the yellow, red, blue and green traces for the half bias.

The half bias is done by connecting a 1.5k pull-up and a 1.5k pull-down on the 4 scan lines.

The segment lines are normal outputs from the MCU.

There is nothing specific that requires the ATtiny48. Any other MCU or MPU can do.

LCD-2DIG-7SEG.kicad_mod

Footprint for the 2-digit LCD

kicad_mod - 6.86 kB - 10/03/2025 at 15:36

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2digit-LCD.step

Step model for the 2-digit LCD

step - 318.23 kB - 10/03/2025 at 15:34

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7-SEG2LCD.ods

Tables

spreadsheet - 19.95 kB - 07/07/2025 at 03:46

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  • 1 × 2-digit 7-segment LCD available on Ali Express In Ali Express, search for "8PIN TN Positive 2-Digits Segment LCD"
  • 1 × ATtiny48

View project log

  • 1
    Compilation

    The project uses a simple makefile. At the linux command prompt, 'make' will generate an hex file.

  • 2
    Uploading the hex file to the ATtiny48

    'make load' will program the ATtiny48 by using avrdude. Avrdude supports many programmers.

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