When Experiments Go Wrong

Interactive diagnostic wizards that walk you through what happened and what to do next. Built from real problems at a real bench.

Why I Built This

Experiments fail. That is normal. But it is not always the experiment itself. Reagents fail, mistakes happen, things get forgotten or broken, and sometimes you just need to go back and check how you planned or prepared something. What is not normal is having no systematic and consolidated way to work out why without googling and searching 20 different pages. Worse, most troubleshooting advice online is a flat list of things to check. It does not help you narrow down the problem, and it does not connect the diagnosis to what you should do next.

In BenchCalc, the troubleshooting wizards are comprehensive step-by-step diagnosis guides. You pick a problem, answer questions about what you observed, and the wizard walks you through a decision tree to a specific diagnosis with actionable solutions. Real gel images show you what common failures actually look like, so you can compare against your own results. Solutions cross-link to the relevant protocols and calculators so you can go straight from diagnosis to fixing it.

How It Works

Each wizard is structured as a step-by-step decision tree. You start with what went wrong, and the questions get progressively more specific based on your answers. There are no dead ends. Every path leads to a diagnosis and a set of solutions ranked by likelihood. If the problem might span multiple areas, cross-wizard navigation lets you jump to a related wizard without losing your place.

Your progress is saved automatically. You can stop mid-diagnosis, close the app, and come back to it later. You can also share your diagnosis if you need to discuss it with someone else in the lab.

Features

Real gel images throughout, so you can visually match what you are seeing on your bench to known failure patterns. Cross-links to protocols and calculators mean you do not have to hunt for the right tool after a diagnosis. Cross-wizard navigation connects related problems across different wizards, because a cloning failure might actually be a digest problem or a gel artefact.

Save your diagnosis, resume later, or share it. Request new troubleshooting topics through the feedback link if your problem is not covered yet.