A replacement for the SparkFun SerLCD display
A reader wrote:
You may need to suggest an alternative to Sparkfun 16×2 LCD Display because it costs $32.50 currently. There are many 16×2 LCDs around that cost about $3, what makes Sparkfun special?
I responded:
Unfortunately, replacing the SparkFun display it is not as simple as buying a inexpensive 16×2 line LCD from Alibaba (https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/1602-Yellow-Backlight-STN-LCD-Module_62296368457.html) for USD $3.
The SparkFun display is used to demonstrate how to use the SAMD21 SERCOM peripheral which supports several serial data transfer protocols. The cheap LCD character displays you reference use a parallel (4 or 8 line) interface. (Dot matrix LCD displays usually do support a serial protocol, either SPI or I2C, but the software to display two lines of text on them is much more complicated than we have room in the book to explain.) The SparkFun display supports all three common serial protocols, UART, I2C, and SPI. We use the latter in the book to drive the display.
It looks like Amazon currently (4/2026) has the SparkFun display for slightly less than buying direct: $USD 26.50 at https://www.amazon.com/SparkFun-16×2-SerLCD-Compatible-Communicate/dp/B08H9W2R1D/ saving about USD$ 6.
I now have spent some time looking at alternatives and came up with several solutions which vary in cost, effort to put together, and fidelity to the SparkFun SerLCD. See Substitutes for the SparkFun SerLCD Display