feedback from the dream team!

Author: rorosaurus

ASSEMBLY.md

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # PCB Assembly Instructions
 Please read all these instructions. There is important information in here that might not be immediately obvious. It is possible to solder connectors on the wrong side and end up with an invalid setup - pay close attention!
 
+**If you use a very hot soldering iron, take extreme care not to melt any of your connectors! I personally use my iron at 310°C with no issues.**
+
 ## Step -1: Buy components in advance
 For a list of required and optional components, please see [`HARDWARE.md`](https://github.com/rorosaurus/esp32-hub75-driver/blob/master/HARDWARE.md).
 

POWER.md

@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ The `5V` and `GND` from the Micro-USB on the ESP32 board is in parallel with the
 # Mobile Power Notes
 It is possible to power your panel off USB battery packs (although it is unlikely you can safely do anywhere near maximum brightness on anything besides tiny 32x16 panels). If you want to try this, I would recommend making sure your battery pack can do 5V/3A. This is the maximum current typically allowed for USB-A connectors. You might be able to find some USB-C battery packs that can do more.
 
+Note that some battery packs will turn off after a while if they are not supplying a good deal of current. You probably don't need to worry about this, unless you have a very small panel at very low brightnesses.
+
 Your LED panel and my PCB are not equipped to take full advantage of USB-PD or QC3.0 battery packs. If you plug into those, they should only provide the basic 5V/3A.
 
 Start testing with a very low brightness (like 20/255 [some extremely low brightnesses might not display anything at all, FYI]) to ensure you do not pull too many Amps. Be sure to test how many Amps you are pulling (a USB multimeter makes this easy!) and set a reasonable brightness limit in your sketch, so you never exceed 3A! I actually set my maximum brightness to around 2.5A just to be safe.
@@ -56,6 +58,6 @@ This is included as an option for small projects like my [Project Mc2 LED Purse]
 
 Power your ESP32 dev board with a Micro-USB cable. Power your LED Panel(s) separately with the [4-pin power cable](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32832930794.html) (probably included with your panel) hooked up to a *different* 5V power source.
 
-I use this setup for [Furret](https://github.com/rorosaurus/FurretTotem). The panels can pull lots of power, which can sag the voltage output from a USB battery bank. Using a separate battery pack (or a different regulator - sometimes the USB-C output is regulated independently of the USB-A outputs!) ensures that your ESP32 never suffers from low voltage and brownouts/restarts.
+I use this setup for [Furret](https://github.com/rorosaurus/FurretTotem). The panels can pull lots of power, which can sag the voltage output regulated from a USB battery bank. Using a separate battery pack ensures that your ESP32 never suffers from low voltage and brownouts/restarts.
 
-Note that if your USB battery bank has two USB-A outputs, those often share the same 5V regulator.
+Note that if your USB battery bank has two USB-A outputs, those often share the same 5V regulator. On my battery pack, the USB-C output seems to be regulated independently of the USB-A outputs. So Furret's ESP32 runs off a USB-A port, while the panels are powered off the USB-C port. This keeps the ESP32 from resetting when the panels draw lots of current.

SOFTWARE.md

@@ -33,7 +33,14 @@ If you want to use Wifi, you will need to install additional libraries:
 ## GIFs
 The gifs are loaded onto the ESP32's SPIFFS: an integrated filesystem that shares the same flash memory as your program.  You have 4MB shared between the GIFs and your program code. Edit your own gifs using Photoshop or some other editor, then use [this Arduino IDE plugin](https://github.com/me-no-dev/arduino-esp32fs-plugin) to upload .gifs to your ESP32 via the Arduino IDE!
 
-## Example Sketches
+## Uploading Sketches
+Some ESP32 dev boards require you to hold the BOOT button for ~3s to connect during sketch upload. If you're using my PCB and you have attached the auto-bootloader capacitor, you don't need to worry about this!
+
+If you're using my PCB, when uploading to the board via Arduino IDE, please use the board: `DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1` and use this programmer: `USBtinyISP`. You could also use the generic `ESP32 Dev Module` if you want to partition more space for SPIFFS.
+
+**Make sure you use a data+charging USB cable to program your ESP32! A charging-only cable won't work!**
+
+## Important Sketch Variables
 Keep in mind you'll need to tweak some variables to match your LED panel's parameters:
 * In `neomatrix_config.h`:
   * LED panel size - `kMatrixWidth = 32;`, `kMatrixHeight = 16;` replace with your width and height in pixels
@@ -42,10 +49,8 @@ Keep in mind you'll need to tweak some variables to match your LED panel's param
 * In `animatedgif_config.h`:
   * GIF size - `#define gif_width 32`, `#define gif_height 16` replace with your maximum size for GIF decoding
 
-Note: some ESP32 dev boards require you to hold the BOOT button for ~3s to connect during sketch upload. If you're using my PCB and you have attached the auto-bootloader capacitor, you don't need to worry about this!
-
-If you're using my PCB, when uploading to the board via Arduino IDE, please use the board: `DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1` and use this programmer: `USBtinyISP`.
 
+## Example Sketches
 * [Project Mc2 LED Purse](https://github.com/rorosaurus/project-mc2-led-purse) - A small repository of a few basic sketches I've constructed to make your introduction as easy as possible! Works with a very cheap display.
   * [FeatureDemo](https://github.com/rorosaurus/project-mc2-led-purse/tree/master/FeatureDemo) - The demo of SmartMatrix features, straight from the SmartMatrix example sketches! I've lightly modified it to remove a couple demos that get VERY bright and might use too much power. However there's still a couple that are pretty blinding - be careful!
   * [MultipleTextLayers](https://github.com/rorosaurus/project-mc2-led-purse/tree/master/MultipleTextLayers) - Lightly modified example sketch from the SmartMatrix example library. Perfect for a minimal sketch that displays scrolling text!