Adding 2x16 Lcd to a volumio player with a hifiberry dac+

Question

I am building a Volumio Spotify player. I have a Raspberry Pi 3 with a Hifiberry DAC+ and using Volumio 2.

I want to add an Adafruit 2x16 Lcd (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1115). Whatever I google shows Volumio 1.5, and has no mention of DACs, or has a touchscreen but since I'm building a retro/steam punk case, it's not something I want.

How do you add the LCD screen? What is the best way to attch it, and what code needs to be written?

I was wondering if anyone has guides or builds for this problem. I almost know what pins to use and not to use: https://support.hifiberry.com/hc/en-us/articles/205376201-GPIO-usage-of-HiFiBerry-boards.

Can anyone point me to what files I need to change so there is something outputted to the LCD screen?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I suspect your problem here is the Hifiberry and LCD board are both intended to fit over the GPIOs "hat" style.

If the Hifiberry has a breakout on top, you should be able to put the LCD on that and use it without problems. As per the Adafruit page, that board only uses the I2C bus (plus power, presumably), and this can support multiple devices as long as they use different addresses (you can check that with i2cdetect).

If it doesn't, you could use a stacking header with the LCD board and put the Hifiberry over that.

Otherwise, you will have to somehow attach the I2C and power pins to the LCD (I would guess the LCD is 5V, and probably doesn't also require 3.3V) without blocking the pins in order to attach the Hifiberry. Or you could do it the other way around if you can find out what pins the Hifiberry needs, although I suspect this will be more awkward because it probably needs more than just two. Also, if you separate the LCD, you could mount it on top/though a case, leaving the Hifiberry attached to the Pi inside.