Hi @nosmoke. The user interface of the Arduino IDE integrated sketch debugger is standardized. It is the same as you will find in VS Code (since the IDE framework Arduino IDE is built on is based on VS Code). So you can get information about how to use it from general debugging tutorials rather than having to limit your research to Arduino IDE exclusively.
There is some information here:
The sketch debugger is this VS Code extension:
If you look around in that repository, and at related information you find on the Internet, you can learn about using debuggers in general as well as any features that are specific to that extension.
I agree that the requirement for additional hardware could discourage some users from trying the debugger feature, especially since they are probably already using Serial Monitor to get insight into the behavior of their program.
There are several other boards that can be used without a separate debug probe. The ones I am aware of:
- Nano ESP32 as well as any other ESP32-S3-based board[1]
- ESP32-C3-based boards[1]
- RP2040-based boards[2][3][4]
- ^ Support temporarily broken by changes in Arduino IDE >=2.3.0. Use Arduino IDE 2.2.1 until support restored in next release of the ESP32 platform.
- ^ Via the "Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040" platform.
- ^ Support temporarily broken by changes in Arduino IDE >=2.3.0. Use Arduino IDE 2.2.1 until support restored in future release of the "Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040" platform.
- ^ Even though support is claimed and I don't find other reports to the contrary, I haven't personally been successful with using this "Pico-Debug" option. The alternative "Picoprobe" option works fine, but does require a second RP2040 board.
Another factor in the debugger usage is that support isn't available for some of the very popular boards. For example, the AVR boards (though a community member has created a platform that allows using the debugger with the Uno R3/ATmega328P).
Support was recently added for using the debugger with any of the boards of Arduino's Mbed OS platforms (e.g., Nano 33 BLE, GIGA R1 WiFi, Portenta H7 and support will also be added for the boards of the Renesas platforms (UNO R4 Minima, UNO R4 WiFi, Portenta C33) very soon. The community has gradually been adding support for the various 3rd party boards platforms as well (there are eight of these that I am aware of). So as support is added for more boards, this will increase the likelihood that use of the debugger will be possible for a given user's project.