challenge connecting this LCD to Core32

[robotfunk]

Hi, so I got a nice parcel from Hong Kong yesterday, with my two lovely looking blue 40x2 LCD screens ( from http://cgi.ebay.com/40X2-Character-LCD-Module-Module-LCM-HD44780_W0QQitemZ190337762891QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c5103c64b ) and I notice it has solder holes spaced for a nice IDC header, so no soldering to the LCD needed, great!

so I start crimping me some cables and look at the data sheet, compare it to the core32 and it matched perfectly, well almost :)

it seems that the pins are in the right order, but flipped vertically. I thought I could fix it by rotating a cable header, but that didn't work out however I tried.

Now I've got some helpful hints in the chat how to fix this, but it involves crimp pins and tool which I don't have, and I think I have an idea how to McGyver something ugly to fix it, but before I go to all the effort, I wonder, is it really flipped? Am I not overlooking something obvious? Interpreting the datasheet wrongly perhaps? Here is the datasheet with pinout by the way:

And if I'm right and I do have to hack something together, does anyone brighter than me have a clever idea that does not involve manually swapping every 2nd cable in a ribbon cable, or require 8 parts like the kludge I had in mind and still have to test?

any ideas much appreciated

[TK.]

In the hope that these pictures are saying more than 100 words ;)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[philetaylor]

I had exactly the same issue with this one and it took me quite a while (and plenty of wasted IDC plugs) before I figured it out!

Phil

[robotfunk]

DOH!

I soldered the connectors on the LCD side, thinking that would be 'component side'

prepare for more n00b comedy from this end

[philetaylor]

Yes I very nearly did that! Be very careful when removing the connector. I would take each pin out seperately as you don't want to break any tracks....

Phil

[robotfunk]

yeah that's what I ended up doing. Not a fun job. Still I don't seem to have ruined it, got it lighting up and displaying text connected to the core, albeit garbled nonsense :) investigating further...