Check twice when you use Chinese LCDs

[voja]

Yes, I know that I had to RTFM, but who would expect that the new delivery of 2x8 LCDs will have +5 and GND swapped? Well, the type is ALMOST the same (DEM 08202 SYH-LY instead of DEM 082 SYH-LY), and I didn't pay attention, but...

I had one more shock when I used the new type of 4x40 LCD in some other project. I simply copied the connector layout from my previous PCB projects, but I didn't notice that +5V and GND were simply swapped - not for backlite, but for logic supply. OK, some cutter and some wires healed the PCB (and the display module survived), but...

All those modules use the same controllers, same connectors (with some extra pins added at the bottom) on the same place and the commands are equal, so why would anybody introduce those "creative" modifications?

[David_AVD]

I was almost caught on on this myself a few years ago.

It pays to double check the pinout any new (unfamiliar) part.

[T3sl4co1l]

Only thing worse: when the drawings are so poorly made that you can't tell which way the pins are.  Feels like I have to do at least one rev every damn time I integrate one of those things [most often an I80 style parallel bus for a graphical type, not the character kind].

Tim

[amyk]

I think it could be for the same reasons you can get slightly-different versions of ICs with reversed pinouts.