Budget friendly Automotive oscilloscope ?  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: thirdhero
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 16, 2025, 11:34:38 pm
content: Does anyone have any good info on a budget oscilloscope to use for automotive uses. I'd like to be able to record at least 30 to 60 seconds of a wave form and have at least 2 channels. Amp clamp support and other accessories are a bonus.For context I work at a Mopar dealership and part of our training is on how to use the company provided oscilloscope kit which is a Mopar branded picoscope 4425a I think looks very very similar using the picoscope 7 software.Now I don't know where my dealer has placed those tool possibly lost or stolen or buried. I just want something that can help me perform some diagnostics on sensors and can bus signals and the amp clamp support is a bonus to help diagnose starting issues.Any help is appreciatedI saw some fluke portable oscilloscopes like the 99b and 199b on eBay for around 350 but that's quite a bit of money and I'm not sure if there are much much much better options for less.

author: TomKatt
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2025, 12:25:09 am
content: I watch a lot of YT videos on automotive diagnostics (ie Ivan at Pine Hollow) and it seems like the Pico scopes are among the most popular for that field. I get the impression that few scopes offer the ability to record minutes and minutes (if not hours) of signal data and easily review it later. When I got my first digital scope that’s what I expected from storage memory…. Unfortunately that’s not how it works. That ability comes down to the software and the ability to record the signal stream on a pc. My limited experience suggests that the majority of entry level gear lacks this capability.If this were my profession, I’d likely invest in a Picoscope. They seem to be well suited for the task. The only budget option that comes to mind would be something like theMicsigautomotive series, but I’m not sure if they have the same streaming storage capability. They certainly aren’t inexpensive either.But as mentioned, I don’t have much experience here so I am also curious what others might suggest.On a side note - am I to understand that you work at a dealership and don’t have access to diagnostic tools like a scope? That really wouldn’t surprise me - I’ve seen many dealerships that lack good diagnostic abilities. But it is surprising considering how technically complicated today’s vehicles have become. Although perhaps they rely on tech consultants provided by the manufacturer.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2025, 12:54:14 am
content: Quote from: TomKatt on March 17, 2025, 12:25:09 amFor digital signals the clones of the original Saleae logic analyzer can do real-time streaming to a PC.There is a CAN protocol decoder for Pulseview:https://kentindell.github.io/can2

author: TomKatt
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2025, 12:59:32 am
content: Quote from: ledtester on March 17, 2025, 12:54:14 amYes - I have a LA that uses that type software. But it’s doing similar work with analog signals that’s the problem. Like if you need to evaluate a CAN signal with some analog event.What is needed is a scope that works with something like Sigrok.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2025, 02:22:50 am
content: If it were me, I would probably get a bench scope and put it on a cart. Whatever the Siglent of the day happens to be that does CAN decoding would be fine.If you really needed to take it off grid type mobile, use a portable power station (that most people seem to have now anyway) and just plug it into the AC port.

author: bobxyz
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2025, 02:58:29 am
content: For $40 you can get a FNIRSI DSO152 battery powered single-channel pocket oscilloscope. It only has one screen of storage, and is _very_ basic, but it's usable for simple diagnostics where a multimeter isn't sufficient. For old Volvo examples, google: "Automotive Diagnostics with a Cheap Handheld Oscilloscope"The next step up would be one of the 2-channel handheld overgrown-multimeter style scopes, e.g. Owon HDS242, for ~$120. They have a few screens of memory and better triggering.For ~$200, you can get a 2-channel 2000 series picoscope (which you need to mate with your laptop PC) that has minimal storage, but has a special mode that:"The lower cost / bandwidth PicoScope 2000A models have smaller internal memories but when sampling at rates of less than 1 MS/s use USB streaming and PC memory to provide a 100 million sample buffer."The 2000B series, starting at ~$450, have internal deep storage.The automotive picoscope series are nice because they give you access to picoscope's automotive waveform library. The cheaper non-automotive series don't include this.Both Rigol and Siglent have entry-level benchtop oscilloscopes with a ~7" touchscreen, lots of features and deep memory for ~$350, e.g. DHO802 / SDS802X. They're sort of fragile for the automotive under-the-hood environment, and are more difficult to learn due to all the features.For the current clamp, you can buy a $75 Hantek AC/DC clamp and use it with any oscilloscope. It puts out a small voltage proportional to the measured current. On basic non-automotive scopes, you'll need to do the translation from displayed volts to current yourself, e.g. 1mV on the display means 10mA of current. The automotive scopes allow you to pick a probe type of: amp clamp, and will display the trace units in Amps.