YSP TDCS Makerspace — Student Workspace

Ashoka Makerspace · Young Scholars Programme · 2026

Run this command every day at the start of class. Same command, every day. First run installs everything (10–15 min); afterwards it takes about 30 seconds.

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Windows

Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal — not Command Prompt — and paste:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Makerspace-Ashoka/YSP_TDCS_CodeAlong_2026/main/scripts/setup.ps1 | iex"

When Windows asks for permission, click Yes.

⚠️ Do not use Command Prompt (cmd.exe) — irm and iex are PowerShell-only commands and Command Prompt will error with "irm is not recognized…". To open PowerShell: press Start, type PowerShell, press Enter.

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macOS / Linux

Open Terminal, then paste:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Makerspace-Ashoka/YSP_TDCS_CodeAlong_2026/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash

On macOS, the OS may ask to install developer tools the first time — click Install and wait.

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Opening a terminal

You only need to do this once per session.

• macOS: ⌘ + Space → type Terminal → press Enter.
• Windows: press Start → search PowerShell → press Enter. When Windows asks for permission during setup, click Yes.
• Linux: Ctrl + Alt + T.

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What this installs

• Visual Studio Code with the PlatformIO, C/C++, and Serial Monitor extensions
• A self-contained Python 3.11 environment (via uv — does not touch your system Python)
• PlatformIO Core and the ESP32 Arduino toolchain for the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3
• The class's Arduino libraries (Adafruit PWM Servo Driver, BusIO, NewPing, ArduinoJson, ESP32Servo)
• Your class workspace at ~/Desktop/YSP_TDCS_Makerspace/ (on your Desktop)

It does not install Homebrew, ask you any setup-time questions, or touch your existing tools. Re-running is always safe.

My XIAO isn't showing up

Almost always: it's the cable. Many USB-C cables are charge-only and can't transfer data. Use a labelled DATA cable. If that doesn't help, see QUICKSTART.md or call an instructor.

Something went wrong

Show the screen to an instructor. They can run the diagnostic script:

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Makerspace-Ashoka/YSP_TDCS_CodeAlong_2026/main/scripts/diagnose.sh | bash

# Windows
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Makerspace-Ashoka/YSP_TDCS_CodeAlong_2026/main/scripts/diagnose.ps1 | iex"

Full setup log is at ~/Desktop/YSP_TDCS_Makerspace/setup_log.txt.