Hooking up LCD without potentiometer

Question

I'm hooking up an LCD to my Teensy 3.2. All the connections are correct, except I had the contrast pin going to ground.

This results in the screen being filled with square blocks. If I tilt the screen I can see the text I entered is visible on the LCD so that confirms everything is working ok.

I tried to hook up a 1k potentiometer. Pin 1 to ground, pin 2 to contrast pin on the LCD and pin 3 to power. It seems that my potentiometers are dead, if I mess with the pins on the pot I get a brief display but nothing consistent.

I don't have any other pots to hand, so for the moment is there anything I can do to get a decent contrast to the display?

This is the LCD I have: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ALNHTVY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Any help would be much appreciated.

Edit

I got some new potentiometers today, works fine :)

Answer 1

In figure 2, page 7 of this document, it suggests using a 10K to 20K pot between Vcc and GND, so you might try using some 5k resistors to create a voltage divider that you can tap off of:

    Vcc
     |
    5k
     | (tap here)
    5k
     | (or here)
    5k
     | (or here)
    5k
     |
    Gnd

Try connecting the contrast input to one of the connections between the various 5k resistors and decide which gives the best result.

If you don't have 5k resistors, most any value 1k or above should work, as long as it isn't drawing too much power from your supply.

Answer 2

It is hard to tell what pin 1, 2 or 3 are. The pot should have one terminal to BCC, another to ground, and the wiper to your contrast pin.

Alternatively, you can use a spare mcuu pin to generate that voltage. Let me know if that's thee route you want to go down with.