Well I started off with the Arduino and got myself set up to start sketching to it from my Macbook. It didn't take long and I had got the onboard LED on pin 13 flashing (my 'Hello World' to Arduino).

From there I sought to get started with the LCD. I followed a tutorial online (below) to get the LCD module working with my arduino, I then used that code as the basis to suit to my needs.

LCD hookup Guide

This will form part of the display output when I finally get my hands on the Gas Sensor module which should hopefully be by midweek.

To get the LCD to work I had to do the following in the LCDWrite() function which I found in the comments section:

  SPI.transfer(data); //shiftOut(sdinPin, sclkPin, MSBFIRST, data);

  shiftOut(sdinPin, sclkPin, MSBFIRST, data);

LCDWrite(LCD_COMMAND, 0x21); //Tell LCD extended commands follow
LCDWrite(LCD_COMMAND, 0xc8); //Set LCD Vop (Contrast)
LCDWrite(LCD_COMMAND, 0x12); //LCD bias mode 1:48 (try 0x13)
LCDWrite(LCD_COMMAND, 0x20); //chip is active, horizontal addressing, use basic instruction set
//We must send 0x20 before modifying the display control mode
LCDWrite(LCD_COMMAND, 0x09); //temperature control
LCDWrite(LCD_COMMAND, 0x0C); //Set display control, normal mode.

Once completed success: