Hi Christopher,
Yes as PE auto initializes the SLCD module. i tried by removing below two lines (commented) and it worked fine with me.
But Backplane i.e com-0, com-1,com-2, com-3 has to be initialize in the code without which it does not work.
// SLCD_DRV_Init(display1_IDX, &display1_InitConfig0);
// SLCD_DRV_SetAllPinsConfig(display1_IDX, &display1_PinsCfg);
// setting of Backplane connected to com0-com3
SLCD_DRV_SetBackPlanePhase(display1_IDX, 59, kSLCDPhaseA);
SLCD_DRV_SetBackPlanePhase(display1_IDX, 60, kSLCDPhaseB);
SLCD_DRV_SetBackPlanePhase(display1_IDX, 14, kSLCDPhaseC);
SLCD_DRV_SetBackPlanePhase(display1_IDX, 15, kSLCDPhaseD);
// starting the slcd function
SLCD_DRV_Start(display1_IDX);
and regarding printf you have to add a fsl_debug_console module and use debug_printf().
I have enclosed the project for debug printf.
Note: you can refer to below link for display each segment lcd one-by-one created in element14 community:
Freescale Freedom development platform: Kinetis... | element14
Best Regards
Bheema Rao