Connect 16x2 LCD to Arduino with 74HC595 with three pins. 

I put necessary files at the bottom o f the post.

There are different kinds of 16×2 LCDs on the market. So, the placement of the pins can be varied. There are some tutorials on the web which are showing how to connect Arduino+LCD+74HC595, however I couldn’t make any of them work. Because, my LCD’s pins placements are not same as the tutorials that I found.

I put a note in the Fritzing file. It shows the order of the pins. So, you can make the correct connections using the diagram.

Another issue is the Arduino’s LiquidDisplayLibrary. You need to update it in order to use the LCD library. You need to update or replace it from Aduino library.

Here is the steps how to connect Arduino + 74HC595 + LCD 16×2 together with only 3 pins on Arduino board;

1- Make your connections according to Fritzing file as follows. 
Screen Shot 2014-09-28 at 6.43.16 PM2 – Download the LCD library. And place it into Arduino

– Download and unzip folder.

– Open Applications folder in Finder

– Right click onto Arduino and select Show package Content. Then goto Contents>Resources>Java>libraries

– Copy/replace the downloaded folder into that folder.

– Close Arduino App.

3- Download the example code and upload to your Arduino.