RAM usage and binary size have exploded on AVR in 3.9.17

[sutaburosu]

With this release, I run out of RAM when trying to drive a single pixel on a Nano. Just #include'ing FastLED without using it burns over 1KiB of RAM. These results are from building with Arduino IDE 1.8.19.

/*     RAM used (bytes) to show() 1 LED vs FastLED version

|                  | (1) #include | (2) CRGB,addLeds<> | (3) CHSV, show() | Global vars (1/2/3)| Flash used (1/2/3)|
|------------------|--------------|--------------------|------------------|--------------------|-------------------|
| (0) No FastLED   | 206          |                    |                  | 192                | 1908              |
| FastLED 3.9.16   | 223 (+17)    | 306 (+83)          | 334 (+28)        | 209/292/320        | 1946/4314/5234    |
| FastLED 3.9.17   | 1338 (+1134) | ??? crash          | ??? crash        | 869/952/980        | 6424/8792/9712    |

Test sketch and full results.

[nomakewan]

Have confirmed this on our Mega 2560 project as well.

Compiling with Arduino IDE 1.8.19:
FastLED 3.9.16
Sketch uses 92368 bytes (36%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 6041 bytes (73%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2151 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes.

FastLED 3.9.17
Sketch uses 96142 bytes (37%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 6695 bytes (81%) of dynamic memory, leaving 1497 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes.
Low memory available, stability problems may occur.

And with PIO:
FastLED 3.9.16

RAM:   [=======   ]  72.9% (used 5972 bytes from 8192 bytes)
Flash: [====      ]  36.3% (used 92070 bytes from 253952 bytes)

FastLED 3.9.17

RAM:   [========  ]  80.9% (used 6626 bytes from 8192 bytes)
Flash: [====      ]  37.7% (used 95816 bytes from 253952 bytes)

[sutaburosu]

Have confirmed this on our Mega 2560 project as well.

@nomakewan, thanks for confirming the increase in RAM usage and binary size. Did you try flashing the resulting binary to a device, and does it work? I can't get very simple sketches to display anything on just a single LED. As I mentioned in the release announcement on r/fastled, FastLED seems to get trapped in an infinite loop reallocating memory for a HashMap if FastLED.addLeds<> is present in the sketch.

[nomakewan]

Apologies for the delay in responding; I did not originally attempt flashing to the device. I have done so just now and likewise confirm that the device is dead and no LED actions occur. 3.9.17 appears to be a death sentence for AVR.

[sutaburosu]

Thanks to a post on r/FastLED I've just learned that FastLED 3.9.17 only works with an odd number of LEDs. Any even number of LEDs causes it freeze during startup.

If I add Serial.begin(2000000) then this swaps. Only even numbers of LEDs work, whilst odd numbers fail to start up correctly.

This seems to indicate that memory alignment may be involved somehow.

[nomakewan]

Interesting; that does track with my findings. The device in question defaults to two pins, one with 64 LEDs and the other with 62 LEDs.

Notably changing these so that they are odd does not reduce the massive bloat in program size and RAM, so even if it "works" with odd numbers of LEDs there is still clearly something far more fundamental gone wrong.

[zackees]

Is this problem only on nano or also uno?

[zackees]

Looks like a complex static object I used is being constructed unconditionally and not being tree-shooken out. Looks like this is why it's being emitted. I see it in wowki.

I'm going to put the static inside a static function. That will defer initialization and also hopefully causes it to be removed by the linker since a function that is not called is side effect free.

[zackees]

Okay, looks like this might be an issue related to Arduino IDE. PlatformIO is not showing this regression. The whole month the UNO platform has the exact same build size:

datetime,commit_hash,binary_size
2025-05-19T21:23:50-07:00,6e40a782f8d32dbaaa66d8e02c855b73358d9892,10662
2025-05-19T20:53:02-07:00,19ae075da2e8efb6735b7527636c6b65e2a04bef,10662
2025-05-19T19:32:08-07:00,dc25e80e0e31b97f91d36df14bd24aabc964917c,10662
2025-05-19T19:31:33-07:00,3aca40f16199ddca92e6ff9ce3738c0ff59d2afc,10662
2025-05-19T20:28:47-06:00,fd4863f7576cb688bc60176e9f760f2b4c0414fb,10662
2025-05-19T02:57:25-07:00,4d670929a3c3ab762e502542e729d28746e48ef0,10662
2025-05-18T13:37:43-07:00,3cccccfd88b5b1602e777a64e8884cf2f2e9a5ec,10662
2025-05-18T13:16:24-07:00,2953bfc1e6e0a53ac6dbd2846440cb7e8691be53,10662
2025-05-17T17:21:48-07:00,eb6fb6855add1a7dd5eb7caa904cad45985c6d71,10662
2025-05-16T14:58:07-07:00,11e03d5684af51f3acb6801f5f85be0e28ccbaba,10662
2025-05-16T14:41:31-07:00,a58623539ae55cf2846294b5b0bbeca21ad9c4d3,10662
2025-05-16T10:44:10-07:00,f3f6811350e9b78727bf110363500150c848dd3c,10662
2025-05-16T00:40:32-07:00,124719160f30a6e69f22f931c5b5e3953228e9c9,10662
2025-05-16T00:36:56-07:00,743ceeaa671bab48191946d988f14baaef9ee545,10662
2025-05-16T00:24:56-07:00,219e0e9895d03120a96c004ad655e74553cff3d5,10662
2025-05-15T13:08:54-07:00,77a786e2fd74757f3772d1471cdffcd2020dbc14,10662
2025-05-15T01:38:01-07:00,a5c016551a623b47980aa0ded1ad40d464b54e25,10662
2025-05-14T23:11:01-07:00,dd8b880acf8c82a36c9add57b607f3337ffb216e,10662
2025-05-14T21:04:14-07:00,e6ae4586350c25afdb46f00670e7396867110315,10662
2025-05-14T20:22:30-07:00,e2a7b045b690979eeb41b913ada38db29b5951b5,10662
2025-05-14T13:34:05-07:00,4c3009d3eebb2f6a1a0a53efc7e4406ddd0cbbb2,10662
2025-05-13T18:31:43-07:00,4491268a059363d8d43d06e2a5331c37d07235c8,10662
2025-05-13T18:05:32-07:00,913be758e7687eb4c4d780225cd2ff1841879576,10662
2025-05-13T17:23:19-07:00,0d3b23dcbc4f193075426d45de192c980fe1c232,10662
2025-05-13T17:21:46-07:00,b17ea8b0c6dd7c688cadb1616b8221f3c7eb0a0f,10662
2025-05-13T17:19:52-07:00,76c2b8fa4950bc568f3457ce0a5ba5497b5726dc,10662
2025-05-13T17:17:58-07:00,28e4c1101c4c96f17eabf30b1ca0b7dc45046404,10662
2025-05-13T17:14:45-07:00,3406a313a61ea9bd2420539969df6f796c035692,10662
2025-05-13T17:12:52-07:00,0047605f30e33a76dcc0e314e351d46ca9c3c79b,10662
2025-05-13T17:11:28-07:00,c476e55a4cc778f2c32a4d02ef475982d7b2fa6a,10662
2025-05-13T17:06:39-07:00,8b613f6da3379cbbd031b983cd5d2274d196acd2,10662
2025-05-13T15:22:40-07:00,0f52370246699e04370ef7dcab21a1dbd625d3c4,10662
2025-05-13T14:45:23-07:00,f1dbf042ab1316e8782f25e3d665084de68bba50,10662
2025-05-11T20:53:45-07:00,64d5183df01517e1519bbd738596ddf3b7f383e2,10662
2025-05-11T20:40:32-07:00,b342e86ec2c11524cfb1c025ce221cc581fa942a,10662
2025-05-11T20:26:52-07:00,4338e8f3bbc2983fda37bcf8223e81e25bf7c379,10662
2025-05-11T20:26:40-07:00,517b40982157c83cf25be08dac5d7238b570686e,10662
2025-05-11T16:27:05-07:00,4283016edcf75158b737ed66f1f68a63d5b34783,10662
2025-05-11T15:33:29-07:00,6f7f6b696d554e45ce49082731f1025993c478ee,10662
2025-05-11T15:30:00-07:00,d56a1480210f3da41034447f5e8d82299af2b7f0,10662
2025-05-11T11:13:45-07:00,ecad31344e0712fa9e295574d5e3139b2dfac213,10662
2025-05-11T05:48:37-07:00,a970cbccc99ceded80c97f2ea106495cb550e14e,10662
2025-05-11T05:32:55-07:00,b2e7f280db1e9b1d5a968a0f98b291b34ea5ee30,10662
2025-05-11T05:31:31-07:00,9bda2c71bcb1cb8da240d351459c1421bf4455ae,10662
2025-05-11T05:24:59-07:00,255a0ca89def9faf63cb3c724a1c4b1d21db8774,10662
2025-05-11T04:23:48-07:00,6c3aaf8336bf4c777d692536718c1c309286eca4,10662
2025-05-11T02:21:27-07:00,15d7ed5a4b2fc13d818d3a3e9cd793272f3111d0,10662
2025-05-11T02:14:49-07:00,de0998db3a424fd8049e8abb7726a47a6f4c3fc0,10662
2025-05-11T01:57:21-07:00,5cc08fad404eb4a35615930c6dbe2803b35f1796,10662
2025-05-11T01:36:19-07:00,f71c98132dcd6617c790a37a92f472dfc208f8b7,10662
2025-05-11T01:19:37-07:00,8d708cb5803b184bc11a9805ff39c5df1410bf47,10662
2025-05-11T00:29:27-07:00,1282a13d65d2115b6f26c92f0440f6d22b23013f,10662
2025-05-11T00:25:00-07:00,a91636441a055043deca13432a9fb7b761a8483c,10662
2025-05-10T23:40:36-07:00,8ecc1e863d3c611587268ad1e373b224cf9d6421,10662
2025-05-10T22:21:32-07:00,5c6d616b6103c0adbe94332983951ea830c50aa6,10662
2025-05-10T21:37:04-07:00,a371ad6ce29efee3c8ee62c0b968d0a4268b620f,10662
2025-05-10T20:20:46-07:00,c73ca7f34b9cefa86e93e804be169a2420ede27b,10662
2025-05-10T17:37:43-07:00,c68be9ac614fc8dec2da6927c0c88bc80dd2f5df,10662
2025-05-10T17:06:24-07:00,022eea3749a2bcfd5a0d7fcb4596d72bdbd38654,10662
2025-05-10T05:20:44-07:00,a3d21514b1d8e7b735ebb3549b820488ca0842e5,10662
2025-05-10T05:19:35-07:00,f03fb5d6b37c4fd2e6260ffd738fd3ca4ace71c4,10662
2025-05-10T03:57:17-07:00,9666cd9494ed63de128d7f08f21e435ef4aedfdc,10662
2025-05-10T03:55:52-07:00,a098796059b39147d48e104a5c431eb2f625cd72,10662
2025-05-10T03:29:25-07:00,0c25bbbc540754303b6058f363de87ec0d567c5b,10662
2025-05-10T00:34:42-07:00,cfb24129bf553721fc8588e5d98a7a1b8e5e6761,10662
2025-05-10T00:09:38-07:00,31ff134ece8adc5a8382f570b4bb6f0f07005cdc,10662
2025-05-10T00:02:42-07:00,78b5192d01ce90780aba9dee4ff100b784e87d1f,10662
2025-05-09T23:54:28-07:00,3e2775532336a304e7079f7161e2561ae79929c4,10662
2025-05-09T23:34:05-07:00,689d31fce67c0868ab6fd48bbeee726f50c1b9eb,10662
2025-05-09T23:28:55-07:00,b7aaf766f06c6108a90fb00a9b16e9ae8e7649b6,10662
2025-05-09T23:25:48-07:00,3a6f812bca406dffc37f2893c6ff17996e55773b,10662
2025-05-09T23:14:47-07:00,df6cd3dd9ed46c9215f1bd9dc1395f8ca89c8205,10662
2025-05-09T22:56:35-07:00,b01317d17deec0303a4b9d90a2d846ef81b6f3a2,10662
2025-05-09T22:43:16-07:00,ee409a503c81908c855b580e7792312eb26a3e90,10662
2025-05-09T22:38:16-07:00,1089d24b1f76c69f02b9aae6e916484621377123,10662
2025-05-09T22:21:24-07:00,161c3fbc7e5a3d43010f9c6aa1a165159be082b9,10662
2025-05-09T22:05:58-07:00,003a571687ba432354ee6db7dc7618ec8cb46ba4,10662
2025-05-09T22:04:43-07:00,557fbbd427999e16a8a4e7ce22cb74569e165f86,10662
2025-05-09T21:32:34-07:00,4d182f585bb55c1dce1dc07678519b419b7ca8a8,10662
2025-05-09T21:13:50-07:00,6b4daca62e0dc1aed394e6d210ee4a7fb274fe47,10662
2025-05-09T20:23:50-07:00,4086058e0d40e29f590ec6c3af7771111cd6f118,10662
2025-05-09T20:14:29-07:00,4a16de4466e216f2a3f2073404138812e0dd6a26,10662
2025-05-09T20:07:55-07:00,61357daa46118c79f448792db8b9f010af5674a7,10662
2025-05-09T19:17:13-07:00,c341750c00360a2369fc27ef3a32b9045c0d1901,10662
2025-05-09T19:09:31-07:00,8250c9ca1b72a7648988efd326a50faaf47d220e,10662
2025-05-09T19:08:12-07:00,dd12474421a6ee1ee8ff6b170be435e09b3e2de6,10662
2025-05-09T19:04:30-07:00,81318744eb2b5fbd8123ac7f2d542dead62ad57a,10662
2025-05-09T18:37:06-07:00,fb28c642f4e3b0c9708443491f73f1b2c8b83f5b,10662
2025-05-09T18:25:38-07:00,b197c3c83a37c18481b2e8789995bc4c13f89116,10662
2025-05-09T18:12:04-07:00,9bba44bfc5dcdaee8309cdb7b121ece9dcbbc8be,10662
2025-05-09T18:09:56-07:00,7991c7e7f3b6c976f237b283762b0a75c03b6951,10662
2025-05-09T18:07:12-07:00,744351df01be272c854bfe2561342b2a7de5a23e,10662
2025-05-09T17:36:54-07:00,120476d69b1c918a6a2fc146128d58a0a47bb736,10662
2025-05-09T17:15:15-07:00,5b8f3afe68e29467dcc54c45bf261b27f9d5747a,10662
2025-05-09T17:02:05-07:00,5ab197a5ca39cd2ec63b6ff5f99291e4f647d315,10662
2025-05-09T16:53:17-07:00,25797b0e3a8e6b612980b4e90debbfbbeb781147,10662
2025-05-09T16:41:25-07:00,dc0b6bae71080ccd14467b44422e841bc39e8371,10662
2025-05-09T16:36:40-07:00,d15bb6cbe8c2f42061156bc1f4ee11eeefee9fa9,10662
2025-05-09T16:34:26-07:00,f7df3390d6e26c64c8bf2fbf20361c51c9464a0b,10662
2025-05-09T16:25:38-07:00,745f40a2033963f26b3697ef8907b988a25851ab,10662
2025-05-09T16:16:44-07:00,7252c086cee8d5eaab9db6714d106056ddec6529,10662
2025-05-09T15:46:45-07:00,7c1bcfde14ebeda456d56a55682d972a6dc3262d,10662
2025-05-09T15:36:26-07:00,395da0512a203a1e2657e88bca25be7da1f3d960,10662
2025-05-09T15:29:28-07:00,2cfbd9dc762be95444a5cf13b859b3831f876372,10662
2025-05-09T15:27:48-07:00,34d96178d3717e8f5e9cf22e8ed5906eb87e7679,10662
2025-05-09T15:21:12-07:00,a324914972bb47dc0c55f6fba0d29cc075f5e9ff,10662
2025-05-09T15:10:20-07:00,7f60dba86c343ceb336114cafc932dcb821fed21,10662
2025-05-09T14:21:33-07:00,d95d263a72a0b395506bac4494375b7ff52e7ccb,10662
2025-05-09T13:59:57-07:00,81a33247b83a6cc6a77a3ca5bc77bc9f5eadb6d5,10662
2025-05-09T12:32:36-07:00,e2f9044f4cde75e5af065bcb7d94c0131bebc283,10662
2025-05-09T12:29:26-07:00,38da4201fc6d480a124059e8592b74ea860f2985,10662
2025-05-09T12:27:17-07:00,2669f97db9ce8f418936aca67fa88ebbeb65fda2,10662
2025-05-09T12:24:57-07:00,b6aa7cedf8ef2471eabd2f4f3c2edc58f1bdf81d,10662
2025-05-09T12:20:27-07:00,e6671c6d27c5666f9cfe14734c84b377d402a4a5,10662
2025-05-09T12:19:20-07:00,8121c6b7ee65356c851b53fddc7dbb31121749d8,10662
2025-05-09T10:38:55-07:00,0c14eeb75dc656145dccd6a4eb3e22236762120d,10662
2025-05-09T10:36:06-07:00,18923e4e8200ef2ab0f5b414c3859f5fef15802d,10662
2025-05-09T10:28:50-07:00,1dd495de854a522a15b874cab5d783ad91baaad2,10662
2025-05-09T10:20:50-07:00,74845b8663698f060a61f85f14a0f4d332884ca9,10662
2025-05-08T21:11:12-07:00,a632954d95a3116fe9ac4a19f5c981ddb2c94d72,10662
2025-05-08T21:08:24-07:00,f1b2eef24a9bb27b21d291c4c3a7ef58ed67d203,10662
2025-05-08T21:00:22-07:00,d033328526f09faffb7f0fa6030d4afef6a68d04,10662
2025-05-08T19:30:38-07:00,85e75f5d12abff3ea5295353856a979a1afc1ee8,10662
2025-05-08T18:46:55-07:00,981bc02dfb26c87dbfc9c30544067f1438e49fdb,10662
2025-05-08T16:22:37-07:00,d5fec1c03af383238eb76e484a157fd96fb231a7,10662
2025-05-08T15:05:45-07:00,b7d7639610afe93329907f37375a2135ff1f460c,10662
2025-05-08T14:53:24-07:00,639a74ace3bdbe63555a2975ccb16e46d22b97a8,10662
2025-05-08T14:52:57-07:00,1e8ba614950affbef794388205f33934744079b7,10662
2025-05-08T14:42:59-07:00,748f02c0a8d869da73bcaec602e2705c5498bc31,10662
2025-05-08T14:38:25-07:00,6d83231e5fb5bf2bdd165654cc989a31466b1852,10662
2025-05-08T14:36:02-07:00,1efeefb8e0f36d57a2f2e90137695f650ca8c69a,10662
2025-05-08T14:22:24-07:00,84d22ac4708240559e9c938e55af9a8564c75518,10662
2025-05-08T13:39:50-07:00,951336047d61ed8d265d2cfd735a3954ba7d85ee,10662
2025-05-08T11:27:38-07:00,328477fce4d5c28e34c6301b75bae8f840daac6c,10662
2025-05-08T11:02:53-07:00,3d378fd64d3111b3b472755cee797e4fa896e666,10662
2025-05-08T11:01:29-07:00,102eb8eb9a7c91f8e3041d0cf58d5989dc10051b,10662
2025-05-08T10:57:58-07:00,a5be4932947dbc5a94239acf21d69f24dc1316fa,10662
2025-05-08T10:49:20-07:00,b64551c02075ae0c7e9b15a8a5aef6dac1fdaf72,10662
2025-05-08T10:19:26-07:00,86c1c1d854772e85bbcb965bb4ca4004f4f48a4b,10662
2025-05-08T10:15:40-07:00,d8bbc9cca4c7204ae11a4af0f9c168543b109aa4,10662
2025-05-08T10:10:15-07:00,58213537ef773bf23669df1db7b8956d8a43cda7,10662
2025-05-08T09:26:53-07:00,29f0a935e7f149cb57221b42d59b691a35e4d87b,10662
2025-05-08T08:21:42-07:00,c9159c6b6b314e31352aa3236abab546172870da,10662
2025-05-08T08:19:45-07:00,219ec2b0f46876fdee96640bb43133cb0c8ec1d5,10662
2025-05-08T08:16:55-07:00,152eda04a7fd0076e07bba5d0961fd7d78aae245,10662
2025-05-08T08:03:57-07:00,b7ff45d990747934cd5fdc9f4b1c5015600baa94,10662
2025-05-08T08:02:29-07:00,72c774f0cb90a5750e3597c7c8ea9b3497b407cf,10662
2025-05-08T08:01:43-07:00,c2b5c2f273c89fab4cf59a0b5086e6f51cd082ac,10662
2025-05-08T07:26:04-07:00,2de91b57f308de317feae9090e5262a9b8ca01b9,10662

[nomakewan]

Is this problem only on nano or also uno?

Nano and Mega 2560 are affected so I must assume Uno is also affected.

Okay, looks like this might be an issue related to Arduino IDE. PlatformIO is not showing this regression. The whole month the UNO platform has the exact same build size:

Zack, we use PIO exclusively in our project and, as I posted above, you can see that the binary size and especially RAM usage have exploded on our Mega 2560 builds built with PIO. Further, the issue where the AVR is totally dead after flashing the binary compiled with PIO is still there.

This is not an issue with the Arduino IDE.

EDIT: Also the log you posted only goes back to 5/19, and 3.9.17 was released on the 24th. Possible that whatever introduced this behavior was done in those 5 days?

EDIT EDIT: Here is our PIO INI for your reference:

[platformio]
build_cache_dir = .pio/buildcache ; Cache components after compilation to speed up next compile

[env:megaatmega2560]
platform = atmelavr
board = megaatmega2560
framework = arduino
lib_deps =
    fastled/FastLED@^3.9.17 ; https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED
    powerbroker2/SafeString@^4.1.40 ; https://github.com/PowerBroker2/SafeString
    arduinogetstarted/ezButton@^1.0.6 ; https://github.com/ArduinoGetStarted/button
    powerbroker2/SerialTransfer@^3.1.4 ; https://github.com/PowerBroker2/SerialTransfer
    gpstar81/GPStar Audio Serial Library@^1.3.0 ; https://github.com/gpstar81/GPStarAudio-Serial-Library
    arminjo/digitalWriteFast@^1.3.0 ; https://github.com/ArminJo/digitalWriteFast
    avandalen/Switch@^1.2.8 ; https://github.com/avdwebLibraries/avdweb_Switch
    flav1972/ArduinoINA219@^1.1.1 ; https://github.com/flav1972/ArduinoINA219
    siteswapjuggler/Ramp@^0.6.3 ; https://github.com/siteswapjuggler/RAMP
    bakercp/CRC32@^2.0.0 ; https://github.com/bakercp/CRC32
monitor_speed = 9600
monitor_filters =
    time     ; Add timestamp with milliseconds for each new line
    default  ; Remove typical terminal control codes from input
    log2file ; Log data to a file “platformio-device-monitor-*.log” located in the current working directory
upload_speed = 115200
upload_port = /dev/cu.usbserial-A*

[zackees]

EDIT: Also the log you posted only goes back to 5/19, and 3.9.17 was released on the 24th. Possible that whatever introduced this behavior was done in those 5 days?

It got truncated because my script aborted whenever one of the builds didn't work, I fixed it and re-ran from the last commit that was good. But otherwise its all the same number.

[zackees]

I submitted a fix already. If you want to run it again and see if it's fixed. I'll begin taking your platformio.ini file and try to reproduce.

[nomakewan]

I submitted a fix already. If you want to run it again and see if it's fixed. I'll begin taking your platformio.ini file and try to reproduce.

Tested dfa2b8c against our project using the Arduino IDE. Here were the size results:

Sketch uses 96142 bytes (37%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 6695 bytes (81%) of dynamic memory, leaving 1497 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes.
Low memory available, stability problems may occur.

This appears to be unchanged from 3.9.17. Is the fix in a separate branch from main?

[zackees]

Can you help me understand why you are compiling a complex project defined by a platformio.ini file through the arduino IDE?

Do you have a parallel process where you install each of these dependencies through the Arduino IDE?

[zackees]

I submitted a fix already. If you want to run it again and see if it's fixed. I'll begin taking your platformio.ini file and try to reproduce.

Tested dfa2b8c against our project using the Arduino IDE. Here were the size results:

Sketch uses 96142 bytes (37%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 6695 bytes (81%) of dynamic memory, leaving 1497 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes.
Low memory available, stability problems may occur.

This appears to be unchanged from 3.9.17. Is the fix in a separate branch from main?

Oops I forgot to check it in, here's the patch:

9696074

[nomakewan]

Can you help me understand why you are compiling a complex project defined by a platformio.ini file through the arduino IDE?

Do you have a parallel process where you install each of these dependencies through the Arduino IDE?

Nope, just it's easier for me to pick-and-place the FastLED library with the IDE, so I copy the working directory somewhere else, copy the contents of includes into src, and then rename main.cpp to src.ino et voila, it opens in the Arduino IDE. I had in fact already done this several days ago so it was already sitting in that working directory ready for me to test with.

If you would prefer I learn how to point the platformio.ini file towards a specific commit on a git repo I will, but I figured it was better to go with what I'm familiar with to offer a more immediate answer to your question.

Oops I forgot to check it in, here's the patch:

Tested against 9696074 and the result:

Sketch uses 94944 bytes (37%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 6048 bytes (73%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2144 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes.

This is still larger than 3.9.16 (by 4576 bytes of flash and 7 bytes of RAM) but not incredibly so. Unfortunately the issue where the board never makes it out of setup() is still present. No serial data comms, nothing. Still dead as a doornail.