Okay,
Obviously tons of threads about shift registers on this forum. I've read more than a dozen to include how to articles, youtube videos etc.... none of them have helped. I'm about ready to smash the HC595s I have with a hammer to be honest. I'm new to programming in general and I need help with shift registers. I'm only asking for help because I've been stuck on the shift registers for days now. I can't take it any longer. I can do digitalWrites all day.
Devices:
Heltec Automation LoRa WiFi ESP32 v2
Breadboard
12 x LEDs (3 x single colors LEDs and 3 by RGB)
2 x 74HC595N shift registers
12 220ohm resisters
End result is the be able to receive a String (FR for example) over the air and if that String matches a case or if statement or whatever, run the associated command. In the case of the example, FR would tell the system to turn on the Front Red LED (RGB) which is currently on register 1 pin 3 (output 4).
I can get the 8-bit LED examples to run all day long and I can get the 16-bit examples with 16 LEDs and 2 registers to work as well. So everything is connected correctly but I cannot grasp the concept of what needs to happen to turn on a specific LED or multiple LEDs in the case of an RGB.
I don't really have anything in the Loop section of my code yet because I haven't figured out what to put there. I just put a bunch of comments in the code to kind of detail what I'm doing.
I plan on doing a lot more with this code but I have to get the lights functioning before I add other functionality like deep sleep for the radio, or whatever.
Can someone please please help me figure this out.

LED_Receiver_Billy_V1.1_test.ino (5.04 KB)