Installing VSCode/platformio

Instructions and Installer scripts for VSCode configured for use in the WPI robotics program

Setup Instructions

1) install VSCode

The VSCodium project exists so that you don’t have to download+build from source. VSCodium includes special build scripts that clone Microsoft’s vscode repo, run the build commands, and upload the resulting binaries for you to GitHub releases. These binaries are licensed under the MIT license. Telemetry is disabled.

Windows

MacOS

Ubuntu

Other

1.1) MacOS users ONLY

Install the Developer Command Line Tools from Apple (this is the thing that is currently broken). To do it you need to go to developer.apple.com and create an account. This is all pretty annoying, but it gets around the problem. Then navigate to the download page for the tools. Check the boxes as shown on the sidebar (“Developer Tools” and “macOS”) as shown in the screen image above. Then download “Command Line Tools for Xcode 12”. It’s a pretty hefty download, but it should make everything work. After you download the tools, double click on the file in your Downloads folder to install.

Now you can run VSCode by hitting Command-Space, type in “visual studio Code”.

1.2) Read about why we use VSCodium instead of Microsoft VSCode

We are protecting your private data.

2) Open VSCode and Install PlatformIO

Open VSCode Extension Manager

Search for official PlatformIO IDE extension

Install PlatformIO IDE

Close VSCode to complete setup

3) Open Your Starter Code

3.1) Pro/Con of Example Code

Choose this option while building/testing your robot

Pro

• Quickly Open Examples
• Quickly Test Hardware
• Lots of different examples
• Best for running code you don't intend to change

Con

• Difficult to collaborate with team
• Difficult to share code with staff for online help
• Impossible to go back in time to a previous version
• Possible to lose all of the code
• Awkward to go download the source and open it (This is a VSCode limitation)
• Difficult to find additional examples for other libraries (This is a VSCode limitation)

3.2) Pro/Con of Git

Choose this option while programming your robot

Pro

• Project is pre-configured, no need to mess with the platform.ini or .gitignore
• Easy to collaborate with team
• Easy to share code with staff for online help
• Version history of every committed change, you can always go back in time
• Code backed up on a server and accessible to whole team
• GitHub Desktop helps make the Git workflow understandable and merge conflicts easier to resolve
• Best as the starter code for the Final Project

Con

• Only the one example in the Template, the RCCTL example
• Git is one more thing to learn, although utterly essential long term, not required for 1001
• Collaboration with teams means the possibility of merge conflicts/resolutions

3.3) Choose

either

Follow these instructions for Examples as starter code

or

Follow these instructions for Git with a Template Repo of starter code

4) Compile

Hit the compile (the little check mark) and verify that the example completes with SUCCESS

5) Upload code to ESP32

Hit the upload button (the little right arrow) and verify it completes with success

5.1) Windows If you get anything other than success, install the driver for you system

Esp32 Driver Windows

Extract the zip to the disk. If you dont know how to do that, install 7zip

Once in a normal non-zipped folder on the disk run:

CP210xVCPInstaller_x86.exe

After installing you should see in Device Manager this:

5.2) MacOS If you get anything other than success, install the driver for you system

Esp32 Driver MacOS