Bench Buddy

Board-level repair is a two-hands, one-brain job. The technician holds two probes, watches the microscope monitor, reads the meter and remembers which pad is next. Bench Buddy gives the reasoning and the bookkeeping to an AI that can see the board and read the meter.

It grew out of a real case: an ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 mainboard with a no-power fault. The microscope camera streams to a page that draws the next probe point, the expected value and the board state (adapter in, battery out, power off). Measurements are grouped into quests, one hypothesis each. The Bluetooth multimeter streams into the page and records a reading when it holds steady for 1.6 seconds, then the guide advances. Each value goes back to the AI, which decides the next set of points and writes the diagnosis log. A thermal camera and a bench supply handle voltage injection to find the hot part. When the board moves under the camera, phase correlation against a reference frame shifts every mark back into place.

Measured on the bench: about one second from scope to AI, 300 ms from meter to page, zero numbers typed by hand. The vocabulary and the safety rules (ohms and diode tests only with power off, never order a part before the deciding measurement is in the log) are written down as project rules. Next: frame-motion warnings, SCPI bench meters and supplies, boardview import, exportable repair reports.