How to setup debugging in VScode using PlatformIO for the various Arduino boards

Hi Bill,

As a sequel to your below video on using PlatformIO - of Jan 16, 2021 which has had an amazing 270k reviews - 

Getting Started with PlatformIO - YouTube

I would like to suggest:

1-Prepare a video on how to setup debugging in VScode using PlatformIO for the various Arduino boards.

2- Explain the difference between the boards that do have debug capabilities to those that don't and how to go about for each category

You could create another one for other boards if the interest is there but with the popularity of the Arduino family I would like to suggest to start there.

I did some quick research and below is what I found:

I got really confused as there was mention of the need to have an external hardware debugger but then you had to connect to “debug” pins that were mostly undocumented, and it seems that not all the boards have those pins exposed. Check this page:

https://medium.com/@manuel.bl/arduino-in-circuit-debugging-with-platformio-9f699da57ddc&source=gmail&ust=1639093086353000&usg=AOvVaw1rjX0efkN1aeTBo7gmMdl 4">Arduino In-circuit Debugging with PlatformIO | by Manuel Bl. | Medium

 But then looking at the official PlatformIO page for debugging it mentions that the UNO and the mini had debug capabilities and you do not need an external “debugger”…

https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/plus/debugging.html&source=gmail&ust=1639093086353000&usg=AOvVaw0KM-hQ1-gbQi678Oc0e32 0">Debugging — PlatformIO latest documentation

This page shows that the UNO has on-board debug capability

https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/boards/atmelavr/uno.html&source=gmail&ust=1639093086353000&usg=AOvVaw1ke356tMSaD1ns2xbD73b j">Arduino Uno — PlatformIO latest documentation

and when I attempted to setup PlatformIO debugging in VScode for my SaintSmart Arduino UNO I encountered some errors.

I do not mean to use this forum to troubleshoot my problem but to expose the need to some clear instructions on how to navigate a successful configuration for debugging.

Thanks,

Kal