I started with
Then got familiar with GitHub Desktop (I’ve used it before but only for my own repo)
Then I googled how to create my own Fork of the Meshtastic project and started to put my changes there before feeling comfortable contributing.
WS2812 has a lot of tight timing requirements, probably will use more available CPU resources than what’s available here – that is without glitching the WS2812 or the device. Take a look at the APA102. It’s just a few more cents more per LED and has almost no load on the CPU in exchange for using just one more GPIO.
I was also thinking of building in an output for an alarm, light, horn, bell or buzzer. Maybe some day.