It will not follow and be updated with the original branch https://github.com/DustinWatts/FreeTouchDeck All the hard work haws been done by Dustin and the adaptation to PlatformIO by Kotl.

• Buy the ESP32 board and the IFI9488 display with touch - connect it all together - get an USB - MicroUSB cable, connect the ESP32 to your computer
• Install VSCode https://code.visualstudio.com/
• Install GIT-SCM (for VSCode to fetch github.com dependencies) https://git-scm.com/
• Open up VSCode and go to "File - Preferences - Extention" and search for PlatformIO - install it
• Restart VSCode
• Download this GIT and unzip it somewhere
• In VSCode - "File - "Open folder" and select the folder where the "platformio.ini" file is located
• Push on the "Ant-face" on the leftside bar, expand the "nodemcu-32s-V1_ILI9488
• Select "platform -> Build Filesystem Image" and then "Upload Filesystem Image" and wait for it to complete (the display should blink)
• Select "General -> Build" (This will take a while) then select "Upload and monitor"
• Bobs your Uncle! - Now select each corner of the display to calibrate the touch. And then just add the device as a "Bluetooth keyboard" in Windows/MacOS

For interfacing with Windows/macOS/Linux using an ESP32, a touchscreen and BLE.

Make sure to uncomment the line //#define USECAPTOUCH!
And if you wish to use the speaker uncomment the line //#define speakerPin 26

If FreeTouchDeck came pre-installed, you can find how to set up the configurator here:
https://github.com/DustinWatts/esp32-touchdown/wiki/With-FreeTouchDeck-pre-installed

Important to realise is that since this is a beta version, changes to te code happen frequently. The FreeTouchDeck.ino and other files (for example in the data folder) rely on each other, they come as one. So when you download the new version, make sure that you only use the files that come with the current download, and not files from other versions. Best practise is to completely delete the old version and then download/clone the new version to make sure you do not accidently mix files from different versions. After downloading/cloning the latest version, make sure to also upload the "data" folder again using 'ESP32 Sketch Data Upload".

This version is in it's very early stages of development. Chances are that if you are not using the exact same setup as I am, you will run in to problems. But that is what this version is for: finding out what is needed to make FreeTouchDeck work across most ESP's and TFT screens. Also there is a lack of documentation which is gradually being written.

The hardware I currenlty use is:

For Resistive touch:

• an ESP32 DEVKIT V1 (WROOM32) (Partition scheme: NO OTA with 2MB app and 2MB SPIFFS)
• an 3.5" (480x320) TFT + Touchscreen with ILI9488 driver and XPT2046 resitive touch controller

For Capacitive touch:

• an ESP32 DEVKIT V1 (WROOM32) (Partition scheme: NO OTA with 2MB app and 2MB SPIFFS)
• an 3.5" (480x320) TFT + Touchscreen with ILI9488 driver and FT6236 capacitive touch controller

• Adafruit-GFX-Library (version 1.10.0 or higher), available through Library Manager
• TFT_eSPI (version 2.2.14 or higher), available through Library Manager
• ESP32-BLE-Keyboard (forked) (latest version) download from: https://github.com/DustinWatts/ESP32-BLE-Keyboard
• ESPAsyncWebserver (latest version) download from: https://github.com/me-no-dev/ESPAsyncWebServer
• AsyncTCP (latest version) download from: https://github.com/me-no-dev/AsyncTCP
• ArduinoJson (version 6.16.1 or higher), available through Library Manager

If you use capacitive touch:

• FT6236 (latest version), download from: https://github.com/DustinWatts/FT6236

https://github.com/DustinWatts/ESP32_TFT_Combiner

Before compiling and uploading the FreeTouchDeck.ino sketch, you will have to edit the user_setup.h file included with the TFT_eSPI library. This can be found in your Arduino skechtbook folder under "libraries". If you have not renamed the TFT_eSPI library folder, the file user_setup.h can be found in TFT_eSPI-master. Here you will have to uncomment the lines that apply to you hardware configuration. For example: if you have an TFT with an ILI9488 driver, you will have to uncomment that line under Section 1. Make sure all the other drivers are commented out!

The next section is Section 2. This also depends on what hardware you are using. For example for an ESP32 you'll have to uncomment the correct #define(s) under EDIT THE PIN NUMBERS IN THE LINES FOLLOWING TO SUIT YOUR ESP32 SETUP. Also if your TFT has the blacklight control pin available you will have to uncomment the lines found under #define TFT_BL and #define TFT_BACKLIGHT_ON.

"Section 3" can be left alone.

You can join my Discord server where I have a dedicated #freetouchdeck channel. https://discord.gg/RE3XevS