I'm back, I bought another hd44780 LCD and have wired it up. This one
gives me a good test screen and when I send commands to it from the
computer I can see the correct thing. The only problem is that it is
very dark. The screen is filled with all black squares and the letters
I'm sending are only somewhat visible. If I look at the display at an
angle on either side I see the characters correctly. I am guessing this
has to do with the fact that I am just grounding out Pin 3 (contrast).
What do I need to do to fix this problem? Sorry for all the trouble,
but thanks for any help,
Chris