Diagnostics tab

The Diagnostics tab is where you check the health of every piece of hardware in the booth (camera, printer, payment device) and run tests to confirm they're really working. The header pills in the dashboard already give you a green/red glance, but Diagnostics is where you go for the full picture.

Who this is for: Operators investigating a hardware problem or doing a pre-shift sanity check.

What this tab is for

  • See detailed status for camera, printer, and PCB (payment device) at the same time
  • Run Run All Tests to exercise everything at once
  • Run per-component tests (camera test capture, printer test print, PCB pulse listener)
  • See error messages for components that are reporting problems
  • Adjust camera settings (brightness, zoom, contrast) on supported cameras
  • See the printer's media level

Layout

Top to bottom:

  1. Page header. Title "System Diagnostics" with subtitle "Test hardware components and monitor system health"
  2. Run All Tests button at top right
  3. Hardware status cards row. Camera, Printer, PCB in a 3-column layout
  4. Per-component sections with tests, settings, and error details below
Screenshot needed
diagnostics-tab-full.png
Diagnostics tab with the hardware status cards row and per-component sections.

"Run All Tests" button

The big teal button at the top right of the page. Tap it to run every available hardware test in sequence:

  • Camera initialization and frame capture
  • Printer status query and (optionally) a test print
  • PCB connection check and pulse listener test

Each test reports its result in the corresponding status card. Use this when you want a fast "is everything healthy" answer without tapping six different test buttons.

Hardware status cards

The three status cards each show:

  • The component name (Camera / Printer / PCB)
  • A status pill with the current state. Typical values:
    • Active (green). The component is online and working
    • Inactive (red/amber). Not detected or not initialized
    • Error (red). Detected but reporting a fault
  • A status message. Short text describing the state (e.g. "No camera detected", "Out of paper", "Listening on COM3")
  • A teal icon representing the component
Screenshot needed
diagnostics-status-cards.png
Diagnostics hardware status cards row showing Camera, Printer, and PCB pills.

Camera card

Default status when no camera is detected: Inactive with the message "No camera detected".

When working: Active with a message describing the camera (model, resolution).

Printer card

Default status when the printer is unreachable: Error with a description of the problem.

When working: Active with a message about the connected printer and current media level.

PCB card

Shows the connection state of the payment device. When listening: Active with the COM port. When offline: red status with an error.

Per-component sections

Below the status cards, each component has its own dedicated section with deeper controls and information.

Camera section

  • Camera selector. Dropdown to choose which camera to use, if multiple are detected
  • Brightness slider. 0-100, persisted to the database
  • Zoom slider. 0-200%, persisted as a setting
  • Contrast slider. 0-100, persisted to the database
  • Test capture button. Takes a single photo and shows the preview

Use these to tune the image for your venue's lighting. The settings persist across booth restarts.

Printer section

  • Printer status panel. Model name, paper level percentage, last error
  • Test Print button. Sends a test print job to the DNP printer
  • Media tracking. Shows estimated prints remaining

If the test print succeeds, the printer is healthy and BoothIQ can use it for customer sessions. If it fails, read the error message in the status panel.

PCB section

  • COM port selector. Dropdown of available serial ports; pick the one the payment device is on
  • Listening status. Shows whether BoothIQ is currently listening on the selected port
  • Pulse activity. A live view of pulses being received (you can insert a test coin and watch the count update)
  • Connection error message. If the port can't be opened, the reason is shown here

If you don't have a payment device, this section will be in an idle / offline state. That's expected.

USB Hang Debug section

An advanced section for troubleshooting USB hardware hangs. Most operators won't need it. If support asks you to capture USB diagnostic output, this is where it lives.

Verify it worked

You can use the Diagnostics tab effectively when you can:

  • Tell at a glance which (if any) component is in trouble
  • Run a test capture and see the resulting photo
  • Run a test print and see the result come out of the printer
  • Read the COM port the PCB is listening on

Common problems

Camera card always shows "Inactive".

The camera was disconnected during boot, or another process is holding it. Power-cycle the kiosk.

Printer card shows "Error" but the printer is on.

The DNP SDK lost the printer. Power-cycle the printer (turn it off, wait, turn it on) and watch the card update.

PCB card shows "Listening" but no pulses arrive when you insert coins.

Wrong COM port, or the payment device is faulty. Try a different COM port from the dropdown. If none work, the device is faulty. Contact support.

Test print queues but nothing prints.

Printer is offline or out of paper. Check the printer card's status message.

Camera test capture is dark or washed out.

Brightness or contrast is set wrong. Adjust the sliders and re-test.

Diagnostics is where Troubleshooting starts

When something on the floor goes wrong, the Diagnostics tab is the first place to look. Every troubleshooting article in Troubleshooting (coming soon) assumes you've already checked the relevant Diagnostics section.

Next steps

  • Cloud Sync tab. Cloud connectivity, separate from physical hardware.
  • Troubleshooting › Camera not working (coming soon). When the Camera card stays red.
  • Troubleshooting › Printer issues (coming soon). When the Printer card stays red.