You need the platformio binary installed as the main dependencies. The required libraries for the project should be fetched automatically. You can either install platformio as vscode extension or just the cli tools. See here for more details.
The Makefile contains all led structures that are supported out of the box. Each led structure has a separate make target that will flash the corresponding firmware. For example
make ranken
will flash the Ranken led structure. It's a simple structure that consists of multiple led strips. Details can be configured in the file lib/Ranken/Ranken_config.h.
You need to create a src/Secrets_xyz.h file that contains the wifi secrets. The ESP32 will automatically connect to this WiFi. For the actual filename you can check 'DSECRETS_FILE=' in platformio.ini for your target or compile without the file and get the correct name from the error message. The file should look as follows:
const char *ssid = ""; // String
const char *password = ""; // string
const char *control_host = ""; // String [IPv4 or Domain]. Optional, is used to get commands from a tr33_control frontend on startup. Makes syncing more reliable in lossy networks.
If the board is trying to connect some LEDs will blink yellow/red. If the yellow/red blinking continues, no WiFi connection can be made. When the connection is sucessful the LEDs will turn of and do the normal effects.
If you change contents of the secrets file contents, it might sometimes get cached when using vscode and platformio, and will not be updated on the next build. The symptom of this is that e.g. the board still tries to connect with the old WiFi setting (which you can see when monitoring the debug output via USB-UART) and the connection will fail. As a workaround you can recompile with a fake filename for the secrets to force rebuild and then change it back. I.e. in platformio.ini, for the target you are using, change:
Change in platformio.ini:
-DSECRETS_FILE='"Secrets_keller.h"' -> -DSECRETS_FILE='"Secrets_keller_1.h"'
(Do upload, fails with error)
Change back:
-DSECRETS_FILE='"Secrets_keller_1.h"' -> -DSECRETS_FILE='"Secrets_keller.h"'
(Do upload again, code should now be uploaded with the new secrets)
The init function in lib/LedStructure/LedStructure.cpp define the initial commands that will be rendered after the firmwared boots.
The commands rendered on the led structure can be changed by sending protobuf commands via UDP to port 1337. The protobuf schema is in command_schemas.proto.
There is a web frontend called tr33_control that can send commands to multiple led structures in parallel. The README contains setup instructions.
Some commands support mapping the leds to xy positions. The mapping for a led structure can be generated with tr33-pixel-mapping. Update the mapping file with the generated content. For example the mapping for Ranken is in lib/Ranken/Ranken_mapping.cpp. Also the min/max values in Rankine_config.h need to be updated.