Hardware Lab

Hardware Lab

couchlink lab is an unattended bench harness for development and release checks. It is meant for plugged-in Picos on a Windows host, not for normal console play.

Run the current status snapshot first:

.\couchlink.exe lab --scenario status

The status snapshot records visible setup-mode USB Picos, Wi-Fi/input-mode Picos, BOOTSEL drives, Windows XInput slots, and problem USB devices.

Scenarios

Scenario	What it checks
status	Snapshot only; no mode changes.
mode-cycle	Setup USB -> Wi-Fi/input mode -> setup USB.
flash-cycle	Setup USB -> BOOTSEL -> flash matching UF2 -> setup USB or Wi-Fi recovery.
power-cycle	Selected reconnect backend only.
full	Status, mode cycle, reconnect cycle, flash cycle, final Wi-Fi/input check, and signal checks.

Run the full scenario once:

.\couchlink.exe lab --scenario full --cycles 1

By default, --power auto uses an external power backend only when one is configured and its probe command passes. Otherwise it falls back to firmware reset re-enumeration.

Reconnect Backends

Power value	Behavior
auto	Use configured external power only when its probe passes; otherwise use reset.
reset	Reboot firmware between setup and run modes. USB power is not cut.
external	Run configured off/on commands and wait for selected boards to disappear and return.
pnp-restart	Use pnputil /disable-device and /enable-device on CouchLink setup USB instances.
pnp-remove	Use pnputil /remove-device <id> /subtree, then pnputil /scan-devices, on CouchLink PnP instances.

pnp-remove is the strongest built-in Windows reconnect simulation. During the full scenario it removes/rescans setup-mode USB instances, returns the Pico to run mode, verifies the XInput persona, removes/rescans that XInput PnP instance, then verifies Wi-Fi/input detection and signal delivery again.

pnp-remove still does not physically cut USB power. Use an external power backend when the test must prove a real power loss or cable pull.

Example full reconnect run without reflashing:

.\couchlink.exe lab --scenario full --cycles 1 --power pnp-remove --no-flash --json .\lab-report.json

Select Boards

With no selector, the lab probes every visible Pico:

.\couchlink.exe lab --all

Select one or more boards by UID, IP, or board name:

.\couchlink.exe lab --pico 07D37EB6 --pico 192.168.50.4

Firmware Inputs

The flash cycle resolves the matching UF2 for the detected board. Point --uf2 at either a specific UF2 or a directory containing board-specific release files:

.\couchlink.exe lab --scenario flash-cycle --uf2 .\dist\ParsecCouchLink

Use --no-flash when the bench should exercise mode and reconnect paths without writing firmware.

External Power Backend

External power commands live in the per-user config file:

%APPDATA%\ParsecCouchLink\config\config.toml

The command arrays use the first item as the executable and the remaining items as arguments:

[lab_power]
off = ["powershell", "-NoProfile", "-File", "D:\\tools\\pico-power.ps1", "off"]
on = ["powershell", "-NoProfile", "-File", "D:\\tools\\pico-power.ps1", "on"]
probe = ["powershell", "-NoProfile", "-File", "D:\\tools\\pico-power.ps1", "probe"]

When --power auto is used, the probe must pass before the external backend is selected.

Reports

Add --json to save a machine-readable report:

.\couchlink.exe lab --scenario full --power pnp-remove --json .\lab-report.json

The JSON report records selected scenario, requested and selected power backend, visible devices, and each pass/fail/skip step with timing. A nonzero failure count makes the command exit with an error.