This guide is for board like the one in Aliexpress. This board is not supported by the official espressif32 platform, so we need to add it manually.
If espressif32 platform is not installed, open PlatformIO home and go to platforms. Click on the advanced button and search for espressif32. Install it.
Download the board configuration file and copy it to C:\Users\<username>\.platformio\platforms\espressif32\boards.
Open PlatformIO home and create a new project. Select the board Espressif ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N16R8V (16 MB QD, 8MB PSRAM) and the framework arduino.
There are three ways to upload the code to the board, depending on which USB port is used.
Press the rst button while pressing the boot button to enter upload mode. "A fatal error occurred: No serial data received" error message will appear if the board is not in upload mode.
Press the rst button once to reset the board and run the code.
Click the PlatformIO: Serial Monitor button (not the one in the top bar) to read the serial data. It has to be reopened every time the board is reset.
Click the upload button and wait for the code to be uploaded. No need to press any button on the board. No serial data is sent to the computer.
Go to the Platformio home and click on the Devices button. Find the COM port described as USB-Enhanced-SERIAL CH343 and copy the number. Open the platformio.ini file and add (or uncomment) the following line:
upload_port = COMXwhere X is the number of the COM port.
Click the upload button and wait for the code to be uploaded. No need to press any button on the board. Open the PlatformIO: Serial Monitor to read the serial data.