The 16x2 LCD: Display Custom Characters

           The 16x2 LCD is very popular because of it's built in HD44780 interface module. This module makes it extremely easy to add an LCD to any project with its built in character set and easy command structure. In my previous 16x2 lcd interfacing tutorial I covered how to use the standard features to display text. Please review that tutorial before continuing through this one.
           Moving beyond just displaying text, one awesome feature of these LCD's is that you can build your very own characters! Mind you, you are limited in how many you can create and how complex they can be, but this feature offers us some flexibilty to do cool things.

Custom PyroElectro Devil Image

The 16x2 LCD Connected To A PIC 18F452

Purpose & Overview of this tutorial
           For this tutorial I will outline two core goals:
[1] The end result should be able to display 8 custom character simultaneously on the LCD screen along with standard characters.
[2] A seperate program should be able to 'mimic' some type of simple animation, again using some custom characters built specifically for the animation.
           By the time that we get all of this functionality working, we should have a very good understanding of the inner details of how the 16x2 LCD and the HD44780 module work beyond just displaying characters as we did in the first 16x2 LCD tutorial.