Oscilloscope recommendation for automotive diagnostics please? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Chris Wilson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2011, 08:27:35 pm
content: Hi, I am new to this forum. I am a race car engineer from England UK. I am middle aged and having to drag myself, kicking and screaming into the digital age. I am happiest with points and condensers, but historic engines aside, they are not what I am now having to try and deal with on a daily basis. I do some after market engine management installations, and some diagnostic and repair work on OE road car engines and electronic systems like ABS and drive by wire, and on other people's after market ecu installations. YouTube and the `net made me aware of the advantages of having an oscilloscope for diagnostic and measurement purposes. I wasn't entirely convinced, but bought this UK built USB scopehttp://www.dataman.com/dataman-526-150-mhz-usb-oscilloscope.htmlI would have preferred an automotive special Picoscope with the idiot menus that preset the scope for various common automotive tasks, but this one came up amongst some surplus stock on Ebay, for about a quarter or less than list price, brand new, so I have actually tried to turn it to my advantage, and learnt a bit about setting a scope up, rather than just pressing menu buttonsI am now totally convinced a scope is good tool. I want to buy a standalone scope now, for use in the workshop, on a bench by a car. I'd like a portable battery powered one, but anything with a decent screen size seems far too dear for my budget. I am in no way at a level to make a properly informed decision as what to go for, but would like something that is well specced if not slightly over specced. A used scope is probably where things will have to be. Good support for it is probably essential, in the form of a manual, and other people being familiar with it, so nothing very odd ball. I like old stuff, so something considered "vintage" would be no big deal. Size, as a bench scope, is no issue, nor is weight. At least two channels, maybe 4 id possible. Budget £500 UK pounds (about $775 US) max, preferably less, as it won't get a huge amount of use, and its environment is hazardous, or at least, I am with delicate instrumentsIt's stuff like recording memory, for recording transient events, update speed needed, and other technicalities of stuff I may need to look for, but be unaware of. I would also like as big a screen size as possible.A final couple of questions. I have seen add ons for USB scopes that allow say 8 waveforms to be displayed on a single channel, for looking at things like multiple injector or coil on plug traces. I have seen this vintage piece on Ebay, would it enable me to do this?http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180762106081?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649in particiular, is it too slow, and could it be triggered to follow the firing order by an input from the number one injector or coil LT side?If I am bench testing an after market programmable ecu loom and hardware, would a signal generator have enough, err "oomph" to mimic both a Hall effect crank or cam position sensors output, or a magnetic (sine wave) sensors output, to trigger the set up without an engine there? What other bench instruments might I look at to assist automotive diagnostics, I have DMM's and normal soldering stuff, and specialist crimping and termination stuff, just electronic bench type instruments, or good cable tracking instruments?Thanks for reading all this. I am off to watch the oscilloscope video, having found some posts on YouTube by w2aew that were immensely watch able, easily understandable, and very enjoyable, thank you for such great teaching and information sharing. Hope some of you gentlemen can share your knowledge and help me make a choice, the market place, especially Ebay, is quite bewildering for this sort of stuff.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2011, 08:52:21 pm
content: If you win the lottery you could think about dedicated professional automotive equipment, e.g. the Bosch FSA 450. It is vastly outside of your budget, but might last longer than a delicate desktop instrument in the claws of a mechanic.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2011, 08:59:54 pm
content: Small garage mechanics created a niche for the Velleman HPS10, and its improved variants. At $120 typically, it provides basic scope capabilities for autowork frequencies.http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Using-Oscilloscopes-on-Cars-Part-3/A_109873/article.html

author: Chris Wilson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2011, 09:28:07 pm
content: Quote from: BoredAtWork on November 29, 2011, 08:52:21 pmThanks, I have a Bosch KTS570, for normal road car diagnostics, that has inbuilt basic scope capabilities, but really I would like a bench type scope. I also object to the pricing structure for updates to the Bosch software, I don't mess with road cars enough to really want to pay for updates on software to allow me to work on stuff I don't really want in the shop anyway.