As the price of consumer electronics devices drops over time, the ability to replace them rather than repair them becomes more financially attractive, and thus many decent machines often find a premature death on the side of the road or sent to the tip. However as many canny people know, these can be stripped down for various parts such as stepper motors and LCD modules.
One enthusiast Josehf Murchison has demonstrated how to use the LCD modules retrieved from all sorts of devices such as multifunction printers and audio devices, and demonstrates how to use them with our Arduino boards. Some are easier than others, however with a little research and Josehf's notes you're bound to breathe life into otherwise useless devices.
To learn more about this process and various LCDs, visit Josehf's detailed guide. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you're looking for an LCD for your Arduino but can't find any old examples - save time and move forward with the Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield which contains a bright 16x2 character LCD and five buttons that can be read from only one analog input pin:
