Moderator: igrr
I use I2C to control character displays. I use voltage level translators (on the SDA and SCL lines) between the 3.3 volt powered ESP8266 and the I2C chip driving the signal lines of the 5 volt powered display
Here is a Hello World example to get you started:-
https://www.instructables.com/I2C-LCD-on-NodeMCU-V2-With-Arduino-IDE/