WAVEGO Pro-Development Environment Configuration

Development Environment Setup

Introduction

• This chapter mainly introduces the development environment configuration for WAVEGO Pro using VS Code. After studying this chapter, you can begin your development journey with the WAVEGO Pro lower computer (ESP32).

Installing VS Code

1. First, go to the VS Code official website, click "other platforms", select the version corresponding to your operating system (here we take Windows as an example) and download the .exe installer.
   
2. Run the installer, accept the license agreement and choose the installation location. Under "Additional Tasks", check the following: check "Add to PATH (requires shell restart)" to be able to launch VS Code from the command line using the code command. Then follow the prompts to complete the installation.
   
   After installation, launch VS Code; the completion screen looks like this:
   

VS Code Personalization Settings

Click "Next" at the bottom right to enter the personalization settings. Recommended settings are as follows:

• Theme selection: choose dark/light theme according to your preference
  
• Extension language support: if you are mainly developing for the robot's lower computer, click "Browse Language Extensions". A list of extension plugins will appear on the left side of the window. It is recommended to install:
  

C/C++ Extension Pack
HTML CSS Support

If a pop-up window appears during installation, select "Trust Publisher & Install" to trust and install the plugin.

Installing PlatformIO Plugin

1. Click the Extensions icon on the left side of VS Code to open the plugin list, or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+X. In the search box, type "PlatformIO IDE" and click Install.
   
2. If a pop-up window appears during installation, select "Trust Publisher & Install" to trust and install the plugin.
   
3. After installation, VS Code will automatically open the PlatformIO Welcome page, and the installation progress will be shown in the lower right corner. The entire installation may take a long time, especially installing PlatformIO Core. Please be patient.
   
4. When installing PlatformIO Core for the first time, **if you do not restart VS Code, the installation may fail** because some new commands required by the installation script are missing. Perform the following steps:
   Close and reopen VS Code, but do not close the PlatformIO Welcome page (if closed, you can reopen it by clicking the ant head icon on the left).
   After restarting, wait for PlatformIO Core to finish installing; a message in the lower right corner indicates success.
   

Creating a PlatformIO Project

⚠️Note: Before creating a PlatformIO project, ensure that all previous plugins have been installed and VS Code has been restarted, so that the installed plugins (especially PlatformIO) are properly configured and to avoid errors later.

1. After restarting VS Code, you can read about PlatformIO features on the Welcome page. PlatformIO Core is installed automatically when you install the PlatformIO IDE, so clicking "Install PlatformIO Core" will have no effect.
   
   
2. Click the ant head icon on the left side of VS Code to open the PlatformIO Project list. Click "Create New Project".
   
   
3. After clicking "Create New Project", you will enter the PIO Home interface. Click "New Project" to open the project information input box.
   
   
4. In the project wizard, fill in the following information:
   
   • Project name
   • Select the board (based on the lower computer driver board used in the robot project):
     
   • If using an ESP32‑S3 driver board, you can select Espressif ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N8 (8 MB QD, No PSRAM)
     
   • If using an ESP32 driver board, you can select Espressif ESP32 Dev Module (the board used by WAVEGO Pro)
     
   • Select the framework: Arduino framework (recommended because our examples are based on Arduino and require many libraries)
     
   
   
5. After filling, click "Finish" at the bottom right. When creating an ESP32‑S3/ESP32 project for the first time, PlatformIO will automatically download the Espressif32 platform, the required toolchain and compiler for ESP32‑S3/ESP32. This may take a long time due to network speed. Keep a stable network connection. Do not click elsewhere in the VS Code interface during this process.
   
   
6. When the first configuration is complete, you will be asked if you trust the author of this project. Check "Trust the authors of all files in the parent folder 'Github'" and click "Yes, I trust the authors".
   
   
7. Now you have created your first PlatformIO project. Click EXPLORER in the top left corner of VS Code to open the project directory; you can see the newly created project PIO_TEST_01 and its file structure.
   
   

Compiling WAVEGO Pro Source Code

1. Go to the PlatformIO main page and click "Open Project".
   
   
2. Navigate to the directory shown in the image and click Open "WAVEGO_Pro_PlatformIO".
   
   
3. Click the "√" icon in the bottom status bar of the VS Code interface (or use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+B) to compile the project (this will not upload the program to the driver board).
   
   
4. After compilation, a panel opens automatically at the bottom, showing PROBLEMS, OUTPUT, DEBUG CONSOLE, TERMINAL, PORTS, etc. When the TERMINAL window shows SUCCESS, the project has compiled successfully. You have now successfully configured the PlatformIO development environment.