Solve: Simple BoardCheck for Raspberry Pi—Fast, Clear Diagnostics in One Script

Solve: Simple BoardCheck for Raspberry Pi—Fast, Clear Diagnostics in One Script

Some days, you don’t want to run ten commands and parse five logs just to figure out what’s wrong with your Raspberry Pi. You just want the basics—quick, readable, and honest. That’s what simple-boardcheck-pi.sh is built for.

This is the first script in a new diagnostic series called BoardCheck, and it’s designed to give Raspberry Pi users immediate answers about system health. If you’re wondering whether your Pi is overheating, running off a flaky microSD card, or quietly suffering from undervoltage, this tool can tell you—in plain terms, and in just a few seconds.

A Script That Respects Your Time

When you run simple-boardcheck-pi.sh, it opens with a friendly three-option menu: run a full check, view your last report, or exit. Behind the scenes, it logs everything to a timestamped file in ~/boardcheck_logs, so nothing gets lost in the terminal scrollback.

The check itself is fast but surprisingly complete. It tests your microSD card’s write speed and mount status, evaluates disk usage, checks for undervoltage and throttling, measures CPU temperature, counts USB devices, and even estimates your Wi-Fi signal strength. If your Pi has Ethernet plugged in, it pings your default gateway and logs the round-trip latency.

Here’s what the menu looks like:

Bash

===============================
 Raspberry Pi BoardCheck
===============================

1) Run Full Board Check
2) View Last Session Log
3) Quit

And here’s a real-world sample report:

Bash

🩰 BoardCheck Summary — 2025-05-21T00:00

📊 microSD Grade  : B — Functional, but slow
📋 Verdict        : No action needed

🌡️ Temp           : 45.2'C — Normal
🔌 Power Supply   : ✅ No undervoltage
📍 Disk Usage     : 52% — OK
🔓 Root Mount     : read-write ✅ Healthy
🔌 USB Devices    : 4 found — All responsive
🌐 Ethernet       : Link up — Ping 2.3 ms
📡 Wi-Fi Signal   : -63 dBm — Approximate
🧠 Load Average   : 0.29, 0.25, 0.19

📁 Log file saved to: 
      /home/pi/boardcheck_logs/boardcheck-2025-05-21-T0000.log

No Extra Packages Needed

This script doesn’t install anything. It runs with tools already available in Raspberry Pi OS—like vcgencmd, df, lsusb, ping, and iwconfig. If you’ve flashed Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or Bullseye, you’re ready to go.

It’s perfect for troubleshooting headless Pis, devices running 24/7, or SD cards you’re starting to doubt. If you’re managing a classroom of Pi devices, this script can quickly help you spot the outliers before they fail.

Try It Yourself

You can download the script and read the README here:

👉 Github Gist - simple-boardcheck-pi.sh

How to Install and Run the Script

1. Navigate to your home directory:

Bash

cd ~  

2. Use nano to create the script file and paste the script contents.

Bash

nano simple-boardcheck-pi.sh 

3. Ensure the script is executable:

Bash

chmod +x simple-boardcheck-pi.sh  

4. Now run the script:

Bash

./simple-boardcheck-pi.sh  

Use sudo only if needed—this script avoids root unless absolutely required.

We’ll release the full version of boardcheck-pi.sh soon, along with editions for Debian and Ubuntu. But tonight, we start small. One script. One log. One solid answer. 

Need Raspberry Pi Expertise?

We'd love to help you with your Raspberry Pi projects.  Feel free to reach out to us at info@pacificw.com.

Written by Aaron Rose, software engineer and technology writer at Tech-Reader.blog.