Driving the LCD - share your experience

I have had it running without problems for more than 40 days straight. But I only have the display on that I2C bus with the internal pull-up and without a logic level converter. I also have a capacitive keyboard on another I2C bus with external pull-ups and the distances are a few centimeters, with the LCD on the stripboard and with the keyboard with cables. A try except block can help you recover from errors, but it is best to fix the source of the disconnection first. Are the rest of the devices on the bus without pull-up?

update time! when i soldered the board to the LCD, which also served as an I2C breakout board, the flux residue was so hard to clean, i couldn't get it all out. I decided to remove that board, which i should have done in the first place, and what i saw on the bottom side was awful.

shameful reveal:

so i redid the board:

while the new board's soldering job is still far from good, i at least was able to clean it much better than the other one (isopropyl acquired), and so i plugged everything back to the pi, and it ran uninterrupted for over 12 hours ( i moved the entire enclosure to another location, so i had to power it off). i then connected the sensor with the long cable back, and it's been running uninterrupted for a few hours already. 

it took me way too long to consider changing that board, but it appears the problem lied there in that bath of corrosion and flux 

That's great news that it's working : ) 

Just curious, are the wires enamelled? I couldn't tell from the photos.I too like using the separate pad perforated boards for prototypes. But normally use 30 AWG 'Kynar' or 'Tefzel' wire, which solders very well, but requires a very good wire stripper unfortunately, otherwise it's just frustration using it.

This wire stripper is excellent for 30AWG wire, but the price is ridiculous. Ten years ago, it cost £36 when I bought it, and it still works as well as new, never needed to change the blades. But now the price is close to £100 : (

the wires are bare copper, that's why there's an arch on the right of the board in the first picture, as another wire ran under that one. I use 0.5mm and 0.8mm bare copper wire since stripping became too tedious. I'll use heat-shrink tubing if i need a wire to cross over a bunch of others, also seen in the first picture.

when the prototype is too complicated, depending on the complexity, i'll either use enameled wire and deal with the tediousness of stripping the enamel, or draw a PCB with sharpie and etch it, or design a PCB in kicad and etch it. 

that stripper looks really nice, but yes, too expensive, wow! although, with blades lasting for 10 years, that price doesn't look that bad as a long term investment

shabaz said:

Ten years ago, it cost £36 when I bought it, and it still works as well as new, never needed to change the blades.

I have the Hozan branded version which I bought around 40 years ago and it is still works as new. It was around £25 back then.

The only thing I didn't like about it was the fiddly length gauge that screws onto the side of the jaws. Fine for a single length all the time but not if you want to constantly change it.