It is pretty well-known that I’m not a big fan of the Arduino infrastructure. Granted, these days you have more options with the pro IDE and Platform IO, for example. But the original IDE alw… ...

The hardware configuration described have been tested with an Arduino UNO R3, a 16×2 LCD, and an I2C LCD backpack purchased from an eBay seller. Further, the example sketch has been fully tested with ...

Yes, you are absolutely right, using a board with several real hardware serial ports is the obvious solution. That obvious solution is named “Arduino Mega” and generally is priced at $60.