LiquidCrystal_I2C_Multilingual

Arduino library for printing multilingual UTF-8 strings (Katakana, Russian, French, Spanish, Finnish, Norwegian, Luxembourgish, German, Vietnamese, etc.) and specific symbols to LCD1602, LCD2004, LCD0801, etc. via I2C (PCF8574).

LCD module must have appropriate language font built in its ROM, except some languages like Vietnamese use customized font in CGRAM. Unicode strings might need to be normalized in NFC beforehand for better compatibility.

This library is continued from LiquidCrystal_I2C_UTF8 library, with adding more languages and support for more concurrent connected I2C LCDs.

Hardware Required

Similar to LiquidCrystal_I2C

• MCU dev board: Arduino /Uno/Mini/Nano/Micro, ESP8266, ESP32, WeMos LOLIN D1 Mini, WeMos LOLIN D32, ...

• LCD (1602, 2004, ...) using controller: Hitachi HD44780U, Wuxi AIP31066, Samsung KS0066, Jewel SPLC780D, Sitronix ST7066

  For convenience, you can buy LCD with an I2C adapter soldered instead doing it yourself.

• I2C adapter using PCF8574 chip having 1x16-pin or 2x8-pin interface to LCD.

  Refer to table below to find the I2C adapter having right pin type for the LCD:

LCD	0801	0802	1601	1602	1604	2002	2004	2402	4002	4004
Pin type	2x7 +2	2x8	1x16	1x16	1x16	2x8	1x16	2x8	2x8	2x8

I2C Wiring

Similar to LiquidCrystal_I2C

• Solder or connect I2C's 1x16 (or 2x8) pins to LCD's 1x16 (or 2x8) pins
• Connect I2C's GND pin to MCU's GND pin
• Connect I2C's VCC pin to MCU's VIN pin
• Connect I2C's SCL pin to MCU's SCL pin (see table below for pin location)
• Connect I2C's SDA pin to MCU's SDA pin (see table below for pin location)

Pin	Arduino Uno/Mini/Nano	Arduino Micro	LOLIN D1 Mini	ESP8266	LOLIN D32	ESP32
SCL	A5	3	5	D1	22	D22
SDA	A4	2	4	D2	21	D21

Find Display Size

LCD	0801	0802	1601	1602	1604	2002	2004	2402	4002	4004
columns	8	8	16	16	16	20	20	24	40	40
rows	1	2	1	2	4	2	4	2	2	4

Find I2C Address

See pin A0, A1, A2 on I2C adapter:

For I2C PCF8574 using TI (Texas Instruments) chip: (most likely 0x27)

For I2C PCF8574 using NXP chip: (most likely 0x3F)

Otherwise, use I2C scanning program to detect I2C address: https://learn.adafruit.com/scanning-i2c-addresses/arduino

Print temperature and price in Finnish to LCD1602 (Latin ROM)

#include <LCDI2C_Multilingual.h>

LCDI2C_Latin_Symbols lcd(0x27, 16, 2);    // I2C address = 0x27; LCD = Surenoo SLC1602A (European)

void setup() {
  lcd.init();                             // Initialize the LCD
  lcd.backlight();                        // Turn on the LCD backlight

  lcd2.println("Lämpötila:  25°C");
  lcd2.println("Yhteensä:   €500");
}
void loop() {}

Print a long Russian string to LCD2004 (Russian ROM)

#include <LCDI2C_Multilingual.h>

LCDI2C_Russian lcd(0x27, 20, 4);          // I2C address = 0x27; LCD = Surenoo SLC2004A (Russian)

void setup() {
  lcd.init();                             // Initialize the LCD
  lcd.backlight();                        // Turn on the LCD backlight
  lcd.print("Подмосковные вечера - одна из самых популярных советских песен, её исполняли \
известные эстрадные и академические певцы, хоры и оркестры в СССР и за рубежом.", 3); // wait 3s
}
void loop() {}

Print a Vietnamese string to LCD1602 using customized characters

#include <LCDI2C_Multilingual.h>

LCDI2C_Vietnamese lcd(0x27, 16, 2);       // I2C address = 0x27; LCD1602A (16 columns, 2 rows)

void setup() {
  lcd.init();                             // Initialize the LCD
  lcd.backlight();                        // Turn on the LCD backlight
  lcd.println("Cao đẳng Công thương Việt Nam");
}
void loop() {}

Dual languages on dual LCDs using letters from both ROM & CGRAM

#include <LCDI2C_Multilingual.h>

LCDI2C_Katakana_Vietnamese lcd1(0x27, 20, 4); // I2C address: 0x27; LCD = Surenoo SLC2004A (Japanese)
LCDI2C_Latin_Vietnamese lcd2(0x26, 16, 2);    // I2C address: 0x26; LCD = Surenoo SLC1602A (European)

void setup() {
  lcd1.init(); lcd1.backlight();
  lcd2.init(); lcd2.backlight();

  lcd1.println("Select language:");
  lcd1.println("1. English");
  lcd1.println("2. ジャパネセ「カタカナ」");    // Japanese Kana
  lcd1.println("3. Tiếng Việt");              // Vietnamese

  lcd2.println("Türkçe là tiếng Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ);  // Turkish + Vietnamese
}

void loop() {}

See more demos in examples folder.

What class to use?

There are three cases:

• Print using ROM's language only
• Print using both ROM's language and customized symbols created in CGRAM
• Print using both ROM's language and customized language created in CGRAM

Classes for the language built in LCD's ROM

Choose the following classes depending on LCD's ROM type

Class	English	Japanese	Russian	European languages	Symbols	Supported LCD chips
LCDI2C_Generic	✔️	❌	❌	❌	¥ ÷ → ←	HD44780UA00, AIP31066, KS0066F00, KS0066F04, SPLC780D, ST7066-0A, Surenoo SLC series
LCDI2C_Katakana	✔️	✔️	❌	❌	¥	HD44780UA00, AIP31066, KS0066F00, KS0066F04, SPLC780D, ST7066-0A, Surenoo SLC series (Japanese)
LCDI2C_Latin	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	¢ £ ¥ ± ≈ ² ³	AIP31066W2, ST7066-0B, Surenoo SLC series (European)
LCDI2C_RussianLatin	✔️	❌	Capital only	✔️	¢ £ ¥ Latin-1 symbols	HD44780UA02
LCDI2C_Russian	✔️	❌	✔️	❌	¢ £	Surenoo SLC series (Russian)

Classes for the language built in ROM + customized symbols created in CGRAM

Choose the following classes if you need specific symbols (° €) in addition to the above base class

Class	All characters from	Additional symbols
LCDI2C_Symbols	LCDI2C_Generic	° €
LCDI2C_Katakana_Symbols	LCDI2C_Katakana	° €
LCDI2C_Latin_Symbols	LCDI2C_Latin	° €
LCDI2C_RussianLatin_Symbols	LCDI2C_RussianLatin	° €
LCDI2C_Russian_Symbols	LCDI2C_Russian	° €

Classes for the language built in ROM + the customized language created in CGRAM

Choose the following classes if you need support for Vietnamese (not available in any ROM) in addition to the above base class

Class	All characters from	Vietnamese	Additional symbols
LCDI2C_Vietnamese	LCDI2C_Generic	✔️	° ₫
LCDI2C_Katakana_Vietnamese	LCDI2C_Katakana	✔️	° ₫
LCDI2C_Latin_Vietnamese	LCDI2C_Latin	✔️	° ₫
LCDI2C_RussianLatin_Vietnamese	LCDI2C_RussianLatin	✔️	° ₫
LCDI2C_Russian_Vietnamese	LCDI2C_Russian	✔️	° ₫

⚠️ Due to CGRAM size limit, maximum of 8 different Vietnamese letters with diacritics can be printed on a screen, otherwise diacritics removed. However it's usually adequate to print full of Vietnamese text on LCD0801, LCD0802, LCD1602.

Function print()

• print(text): print UTF-8 text (String or char[]) to LCD

If no room in current line for the next word, it'll be printed in the next line.

• print(text, nsec): print long text with nsec seconds paused

If no room in the screen to print more, wait nsec seconds for audiences to read before clearing to print the next part.

Not yet support

• Autoscroll, __FlashStringHelper, Printable
• Printing Hebrew on Hebrew ROM!!