BenchTool - Device Hero
65+ Offline Tools · One Bench Box

Stop diagnosing on a laptop.
Start diagnosing on a BenchTool.

A self-contained Raspberry Pi diagnostic station with an 800×480 touchscreen — PS5 Syscon decoding, iOS panic analysis, SPI NOR flashing, UART sniffing, HDMI diode sweeps. No driver hell. No forum tabs. It boots to a big-button UI and works with the Wi-Fi off.

Ships assembled · Software preloaded · $25 flat UPS (US) · Free pickup in Manor, TX
Offline-first One-time price Lifetime updates Customer data never touches the SD card
THE DEVICE HERO · BENCHTOOL800×480 · WI-FI OFF
Phones18 TOOLS
Consoles18 TOOLS
PC17 TOOLS
Utilities9 TOOLS
SentinelSHOP DESK
SettingsSYSTEM
◉ AUTO: TOASTTAP A CARD TO OPEN
The actual 800×480 launcher — try the live demo below
150+entries in the community pool
8community apps in the shop store
38updates shipped in the last 3 weeks
$0monthly fees, ever
The Problem

Your bench laptop is a liability.

Every tech has the same setup: a beat-up Windows laptop, eleven browser tabs, a folder called TOOLS_v3_FINAL, and three USB-serial drivers fighting over COM4. It works — right up until it costs you a two-hour job.

Laptop + downloaded utilitiesthe old way
Boot, sign in, find the EXE, pray the COM port enumerates
Half your tools are web-based — shop internet drops, bench stops
Customer photos and drive images scattered across a shared C: drive
“Free” — plus the $1,000+ proprietary box you eventually buy anyway
BenchToolone box
Power on, tap the category card, start reading
Every diagnostic runs fully offline — Wi-Fi is optional, not required
Customer data writes only to external USB — never the SD card
$220–$400. One time. No credits, no license clock
See the full bench-reality comparison
Bench realityLaptop + utilitiesBenchTool
Boot to first diagnosticBoot, sign in, launch, find the EXE, plug in, pray the COM port enumerates.Power on, tap the category card, start reading.
Syscon error log decodeCopy hex, paste into a forum thread, cross-reference a 2019 spreadsheet, guess.Tap Console → Syscon. The error decodes to the failing rail and part on screen.
Drivers & dependenciesCH340, FTDI, Prolific clones, Python 2 scripts, .NET runtime errors.Zero. Plug the dongle in — live USB detection picks it up in the launcher.
Working offlineHalf your tools are web-based. Shop internet drops, bench stops.Every diagnostic runs fully offline. Wi-Fi is optional, not required.
Customer data handlingPhotos, backups, and drive images scattered across a shared laptop’s C: drive.Writes strictly to external USB. Nothing customer-related lands on the SD card.
Tool updatesRe-download, re-verify checksums, hope the dev didn’t abandon it.1-tap OTA update from the Settings card.
Bench footprintLaptop, hub, four dongles, tangled leads, no space for the board you’re fixing.One 800×480 box. Dongles plug into the side. Your mat stays clear.
Cost of entry“Free” — plus the $1,000+ proprietary console you eventually buy anyway.$220–$400. One time.
Shop-wide visibilitySticky notes and one tech’s memory.Sentinel repair desk on shop Wi-Fi — tickets, live bench status, searchable history.
The laptop isn’t cheaper. It’s just billed in lost hours instead of dollars.
What’s in the Box

Four benches in one box.

The launcher opens to color-coded category cards with live USB detection and built-in help on every screen. Console, phone, PC and chip work on the same screen — plus a shop-wide repair desk. Nothing else spans all four.

Console & board-level
Where the money is. Where the guessing stops.
  • PS5 power-fault diagnosis against Sony reference values, rail by rail
  • Syscon & EAP error-log decoding over serial — PS5, PS4, PS3
  • PS5 NOR read / patch / write through a CH341A clip
  • Xbox POST/SMC capture — One, One S/X, Series S/X — with on-screen lookup
  • Automated HDMI diode-mode sweeps against known-good readings
  • DualSense & Xbox controller drift testing and hardware recalibration
Phone & iOS panic diagnostics
Answer “is this worth fixing?” before you open it.
  • True battery health and cycle count over USB — no root, no teardown
  • iOS panic-log decoder that names the failing IC or rail to inspect
  • Offline MediaTek identification via BROM / Preloader detection
  • Guided hardware verification before and after the job — documented QC
  • Customer photos straight to USB; wireless ADB pairing by QR code
PC, chip & firmware
A board-level toolkit that fits next to your microscope.
  • SPI NOR / BIOS flashing straight from the touchscreen (CH341A included)
  • 8-channel logic capture and UART sniffing with the ESP32-S3 analyzer
  • Drive Health: PASS / WATCH / FAIL verdict in two seconds, plus surface scan
  • Apple Silicon DFU restore, including macOS recovery, from the bench
  • ddrescue drive recovery — image sector by sector before it’s gone
  • Windows straight onto a docked SSD — no installer, no setup USB
Sentinel shop desk
Your bench data, turned into shop infrastructure.
  • Browser-based repair desk on shop Wi-Fi — nothing to install, no cloud account
  • Tickets end to end, with live bench status from the front counter
  • A searchable shop repair database that builds itself from every diagnostic
  • One tech’s findings become every tech’s baseline
  • Optional AI log analysis with your own free API key — every core tool runs without it
Spotlight

Four tools that pay for the box

Every tool on the menu earns its place, but these four turn the tickets that used to eat an afternoon into a quote at the counter.

Panic Diagnoser: iPhone 14 Pro panic log mapped to the charging port flex
iPhone & iPad · Phone tab

Panic Diagnoser

Is this iPhone worth fixing? Know before you open it.

  • Pulls the panic log over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or from a file — no teardown.
  • Maps the panic to the failing hardware domain and names the IC or rail to inspect.
  • Logs the case to Sentinel with a predicted part, so the next one is faster.
▸ Quote the board-level job — or walk away from a dead one — in minutes.
Apple Silicon Restore DFU wizard
iPhone, iPad & Apple Silicon Mac · Phone tab

Apple Silicon Restore

DFU restores with a guide that shows you how.

  • Connect → Choose → Software → Restore, with an illustrated DFU / Recovery walkthrough for each model.
  • “Reinstall (keeps data)” or “Erase & Reinstall” — your call, one tap.
  • Newest signed firmware picked and SHA-verified for you, or a saved IPSW from your stocked SSD. Mismatches are hard-gated.
▸ A recovery-loop iPhone or a bricked Mac becomes a tap-through, not a tech’s afternoon.
Adware Remover: 14 apps scanned, 7 flagged as pop-up adware and selected for removal
Android · Phone tab

Adware Remover

Clean a junk-riddled Android in one screen.

  • Scans every installed app over ADB and risk-scores it: Likely Junk, Known App or Review.
  • Real app names with the package id, plus badges for pop-up ads and known ad SDKs.
  • Select Flagged → remove in one batch, safely, without touching the customer’s data.
▸ The “my phone is full of pop-ups” walk-in is a 10-minute ticket.
BenchDiag dashboard booted on a laptop: system inventory, telemetry, drive SMART and battery health↗ Click to enlarge
Any PC · from a USB stick

BenchDiag

Boot any PC into a full diagnostic bench from a stick.

  • USB Drive Writer builds it in one tap; boot the customer’s PC and the bench takes over.
  • Hardware scan, drive SMART / self-test / surface scan, memory test, cooling and battery checks.
  • Reinstall Windows from your own ISO library, secure erase, clone or migrate, and save the report. The Wi-Fi Dongle links the sick PC back to your bench.
▸ A “slow / won’t boot” PC gets a verdict and a fix path without pulling the drive.

Screens shown are from the current BenchTool and BenchDiag builds; BenchDiag is pictured in demo mode on a laptop.

Try Before You Buy

Poke around the real UI — right now.

This is the real menu tree at its native 800×480 — every hub, every tab, every tool, in the same order your techs will find them. Tap a tile, then a tool, and you get a breakdown of what it does plus screens captured from a running unit on the current build — tap any screen to enlarge it.

Demo only — nothing connects to real hardware. The AUTO chip is tappable, just like on the bench.
The Hero Dashboard

The shop’s second screen.

The touchscreen is where the work happens. The Hero Dashboard is where the shop happens. Every bench serves it over your own Wi-Fi — scan the QR on the bench, or open the address on any phone, tablet, or desktop on the network. Nothing to install, no cloud account, no per-seat fee.

BenchTool — Dashboardon your shop Wi-Fi
up 00:48:28
Device Hero
ticket · phone · device…
REPAIR MANAGEMENT
Dashboard
New repair
Front desk
All repairs
Recall by ticket
PROJECT SENTINEL
Diagnoses
Triage feed
Ask Sentinel
Reading check
Shop stats
Board View
Ask Sentinel
device + symptom → a bench-language answer
Shop historyReferencesVerified pool
Switch won’t charge — no battery icon when I plug it in. Tried a known-good cable and dock. Common one?
Nine times out of ten that’s the M92T36 charging IC, not the port. Run Utilities ▸ USB-C Port Diag — it walks the CC / CONFIG lines against a known-good and calls M92T36 vs. the connector.

You’ve closed a handful of these; the last was DH-4468, back to the customer the same afternoon. It’s a couple-dollar part you already stock — quote it at the counter.
◎ Drew from your Switch repairs · M92T36 / USB-C PD cards
Ask about a device and a symptom…
Ask
Ask Sentinel on the shop’s second screen: a device-and-symptom question answered in bench language and grounded in the shop’s own confirmed repairs — it cites what it drew from, and never recommends a bodge. Illustrative.
Half One

Repair Management — the daily job board

Intake, status, pickups. Every device in the shop on one board — in progress, waiting on parts, ready for pickup — pulled from every bench on the network. One search box finds any repair by ticket number, phone number, customer name, IMEI or serial. Front-desk view, printed customer summaries and receipts, recall-by-ticket. Three levels the owner chooses: Off, Lite (an optional phone number and a ticket # — your POS stays the system of record), or Full (a real front desk with per-customer history). Either way: customer data lives on your benches, syncs only across the shop LAN, and is stripped from every shared pool and cloud path.

Half Two

Project Sentinel — the diagnostic brain

Sentinel remembers what the shop has already fixed and helps decide what’s wrong with the thing in front of you now. Ask Sentinel turns that memory into answers: a device-and-symptom question comes back in bench language, naming the part to check and the reading to expect. Reading Check turns a photo of your meter into a single PASS or FAIL against a known-good sample. The loop: bench tools file what they saw, a tech confirms what it turned out to be, and that verified pair becomes shop memory — the fifth PS5 with the same error code is a lookup, not an investigation. Ships inside BenchTool, runs on the bench, no internet required.

Two tools, a whole kit inside

One tap builds the stick. One board becomes ten.

Two of the 65 do far more than their name says — the USB writer and the ESP32 flasher each carry a whole library behind a single button.

USB Drive Writer 15 ready-made USB builds
  • Pick the job, tap once — the stick is partitioned, formatted to the right filesystem, and filled
  • Windows: installer & diagnostics, BenchDiag bootable, Yoyo Tool, OEM storage drivers, backup-prep, MATS GPU tester
  • PlayStation: PS5 / PS4 / PS3 update & restore sticks, plus the PS5 QA image
  • Xbox offline system-update stick, and a Mac diagnostics stick
ESP32-S3 Flasher 10 firmware images, one dongle
  • Flash the bundled ESP32-S3 into whatever instrument the job needs, then reflash it for the next
  • HDMI Probe (v2 + classic), 8-channel Logic Analyzer, Thermal Probe, Xbox POST-code monitor
  • Wireless ADB-pair QR screen, a USB Wi-Fi network dongle, and a keystroke-macro dongle that also reads battery health
  • Drop in your own .bin and it shows up after a rescan
The Math

The math takes about nine seconds.

You already know your ticket average. Run it against $400.

Job you already take inTypical ticketUnits to cover a Full Kit
PS5 HDMI port replacement$150 – $2002 – 3
PS5 no-power board-level repair$180 – $2502 – 3
iPhone board-level diagnostic + repair$200 – $3502
Controller drift hardware fix$60 – $905 – 7
Data recovery off a failing drive$150 – $4001 – 3
Bank one hour a week. At a $75/hr bench rate that’s $3,900 a year. The BenchTool costs $400. Once.
Quote on the spot. A decoded Syscon log turns “we’ll have to look at it” into a priced repair at the counter, while the customer still wants to say yes.
Kill dead jobs early. Read battery health or decode a panic log up front and walk away from an uneconomical board before you’ve sunk two hours into it.
Pay once. Compare that to a $1,000+ proprietary diagnostic console with a credit meter.
Two average console repairs. That’s the whole invoice.

Still shipping. Here’s the receipt.

38 user-facing changes landed between Aug 26 and Sep 16. The day this list stops growing, the strongest claim on this page is false — and you’d be right to hold us to it. Every entry is posted to the BenchTool Discord the day it ships.

DS4 CalibratorPS4 DualShock 4 stick-drift fix, written to the pad’s own memory
Labels & job sheets4×2″ barcode labels, a tech job sheet in job order, a bilingual customer service record
Device testsThe customer’s own phone runs 19 hardware checks from a QR — no cable, iPhones included
Show more recent changes
Drive HealthPASS / WATCH / FAIL in two seconds — SMART, speed test, surface scan
Trade-insMacs graded GO / CHECK / NO-GO at the Setup Assistant screen
Mac Diagnostics stickA full bench dashboard the customer’s Mac opens in its own browser; nothing installs
Crash AnalyzerPanic sensor codes name the exact flex per iPhone model, offline
App WikiA living page for every app, with a how-to and an “ask about this app” box
Windows SSD FlashWindows 10 / 11 straight onto a docked SSD, no installer
The hardware

Real parts. Assembled by hand.

Every BenchTool starts as retail hardware on our own bench in Manor, TX and leaves assembled, imaged and tested. You plug it in and tap a tile.

The retail parts that go into a BenchTool: Raspberry Pi box, 64 GB microSD card, USB-UART bridge, touchscreen and enclosure boxes↗ Click to enlarge
What goes inA Raspberry Pi, a 64 GB card imaged with the current build, the USB-UART bridge, the 800×480 touchscreen and the case. Retail parts you can look up, no mystery boards.
The assembled BenchTool Full Kit: touchscreen running the launcher, ESP32-S3 dongle showing a wiring guide, CH341A programmer with clip, USB-UART bridge, jumper leads and ribbon cable12345↗ Click to enlarge
What comes out — the Full Kit
  1. 1800×480 touchscreen running the launcher
  2. 2ESP32-S3 dongle — UART, logic capture, wiring guide on its own screen
  3. 3CH341A chip programmer with SOIC clip
  4. 4USB-UART bridge for console serial
  5. 5Jumper leads and ribbon cable
Pricing

Pick your bench.

Same 65+ tools. Same Sentinel. Same lifetime updates. One-time price — no subscription, no credits, no license clock. All three ship assembled with the software preloaded.

UART Starter Pi 3 — Starter
$220one-time
For console techs who live in serial logs.
  • Raspberry Pi 3 + 800×480 touchscreen
  • Full 65+ tool software suite
  • Sentinel shop desk
  • USB-UART dongle
  • Lifetime OTA updates
Order Starter — $220
or $235 via PayPal (buyer protection)
Full Kit Pi 3 — Full Kit
$300one-time
Full board-level work on a budget.
  • Everything in Starter
  • CH341A chip programmer
  • ESP32-S3 logic analyzer
  • PS5 NOR read / write unlocked
  • Logic capture + UART sniffing
Order Pi 3 Full Kit — $300
or $315 via PayPal (buyer protection)
MOST POPULAR Full Kit Pi 4 / Pi 5 — Full Kit
$400one-time
The every-day production bench.
  • Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 5 — ships based on availability
  • Full 65+ tool suite + Sentinel
  • Every dongle in the box
  • Lifetime OTA updates
  • $100 over the Pi 3 Full Kit — buy once
Order Pi 4/5 Full Kit — $400
or $415 via PayPal (buyer protection)
1-year hardware warranty · All sales final — no returns
$25 flat UPS in the US · free local pickup in Manor, TX · international quoted on request — contact us before ordering
Support by email & Discord — updates posted the day they ship

Why two prices? The listed prices are what you pay by Zelle or Cash App, straight to Device Hero, LLC. PayPal costs $15 more because it takes a processing fee — in exchange you get their buyer protection, which direct transfers don’t carry. Pick whichever suits you at checkout.

What it doesn’t do.

A spec sheet with no limits on it reads as a spec sheet nobody checked. So, before you order:

—
It won’t replace your microscope, hot-air station or bench supply. It tells you which rail is down and where to probe. You still do the rework.
—
It isn’t a POS. If you need invoicing, inventory and accounting, keep the system you have — BenchTool handles the bench side and hands results to your ticket.
—
It won’t beat a dedicated iPhone box at iPhone-only work. JCID and MFC have spent years on that one device. If iPhones are all you touch, buy one of those instead. Plenty of shops run both.
—
Much of it exists free, in pieces. UART decoders, panic-log readers, flashrom, Rufus — all real, all free, all on a Windows laptop with a live connection. You’re paying for one box that boots straight to the tool, works offline, and is still being updated.
—
The AI needs your own key. A free Google account and a small running cost if you use it heavily. Every core tool works without it.
—
Three tools still wear an asterisk — Windows SSD Flash, RP2040 Flasher and Windows USB are shipping but marked in-development until proven end to end. On the menu; not yet on the promise.

If any of that is a dealbreaker, better you learn it here than from the box.

Straight answers.

The questions shop owners actually ask before spending $400 sight-unseen with a small company.

Is there a monthly subscription?
No. You pay once for the hardware, and the software, lifetime updates, and Sentinel come with it. Nothing recurring, nothing metered. A BenchTool that never sees the internet again still runs all 65+ offline tools it shipped with.
How do updates actually work — and what do they cost?
Tap Settings → Update. The unit pulls the latest build over Wi-Fi and applies it in one step. Updates are free for the life of the unit, including new tools and new console error-code tables as they’re added. There is no paid upgrade tier, and you never re-image an SD card.
What cables and adapters do I have to supply?
The device-side cables you already have on your bench — USB-C, Lightning, Micro-USB, and your console serial leads and test hooks. The kit includes the interface hardware that’s hard to source and easy to get wrong: the USB-UART dongle, plus the CH341A programmer and ESP32-S3 logic analyzer on Full Kit tiers.
Pi 3 or Pi 4/5 — does it actually matter?
For serial log decoding on a light bench, the Pi 3 does the job. For a production bench that runs all day, buy the Full Kit — it ships with a Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 5 depending on what’s in stock, both far quicker than the Pi 3, and it’s ’00 over the Pi 3 Full Kit.
Most of this exists free. Why pay $400?
Because you already know it exists free — in five places, three of which need a Windows laptop and two of which need a live internet connection, and the main open-source console tool hasn’t shipped a release since March 2024. You can build most of BenchTool’s individual functions yourself for $60–90 and an afternoon. What you can’t build is one box that boots straight to the tool, works with the Wi-Fi off, covers consoles, phones and chip work on the same screen, tracks the job, and gets updated every week. If the pieces are enough for your bench, use the pieces. If you’re tired of being the person who maintains them, this is the alternative.
What happens to my bench if you stop updating it?
It keeps working. There’s no license check to phone home, nothing expires, no activation server to go dark and no credit balance to run out. Every tool that’s on your bench the day updates stop is still on your bench ten years later, offline, exactly as it was. The community app pool and the shared repair knowledge are a public repository, not a service we host, so those outlive us too. We say this because it’s the fair question to ask a small company — and because the answer is the reason we built it the way we did.
Will it replace my JCID or MFC box?
Not for iPhone-only work, and we’d rather tell you than have you find out. Those boxes have spent years on one device family and go deeper on it than we do. BenchTool wins when the same bench sees a PS5 in the morning, a Switch at lunch, and a MacBook that won’t boot in the afternoon. Plenty of shops run both. If your ticket mix is 90% iPhone, buy the iPhone box first.
Can I add my own tools, or am I stuck with what ships?
You can add your own. BenchTool includes an App SDK and an App Store built into the launcher. Write a standalone Python script, describe a tool to the AI builder and let it write one for you, or install an app another shop published to the community pool. Your apps live outside the BenchTool install, so OTA updates never touch them.
Can more than one tech use it?
Yes. The bench unit is single-operator, but Sentinel serves the repair desk to every phone and PC on your shop Wi-Fi — tickets, live bench status, and the searchable repair database are available to the whole floor without anyone crowding the bench.
Can I use my own Gemini API key for the AI log analyzer?
Yes — that’s the only way it works. Google issues a free API key; you drop it on a USB stick and load it from the Settings card. The key stays on your unit, under your control. The AI layer is entirely optional: all 65+ core diagnostic tools run offline without it.
Do you ship internationally, and how does local pickup work?
The $25 flat UPS rate covers the United States. International orders may incur additional shipping — contact us before you order and we’ll quote your destination, then send a payment link with the correct total. For free local pickup in Manor, TX, message us before ordering and we’ll issue a pickup invoice with the shipping line removed.
Do I need to re-image SD cards to keep it current?
No. The BenchTool ships imaged and configured. Updates arrive over the air and install in place. The only reason you’d ever touch the card is physical failure — and because customer data never writes to it, that’s rare by design.

Clear the laptop off your bench.

65+ offline tools. PS5 Syscon decoding, iOS panic analysis, SPI NOR flashing, UART capture, and a shop-wide repair desk — in one 800×480 box that boots in seconds and updates for free, forever.

$25 flat UPS (US) · Free pickup in Manor, TX · One-time price · Lifetime updates
Pi 4 / Pi 5 Full Kit
$400 one-time
Buy