Oscilloscope - Useful Tool?

[The Critic]

This is arguably slightly more advanced use of a scope but I enjoyed this from scannerdanner. Looking for jumped time by graphing starter amp draw against when cylinders are firing.

Pico7 has so many guided tests now:
https://www.picoauto.com/library/automotive-guided-tests

With that said, setting up the software is probably 60% of the battle, interpreting the results is 30% of the battle. A scope has some other uses as well - I am especially intrigued by the NVH capabilities that are now being utilized by some OEM's.

 

[tessaseveride]

Scopes are useful diagnostic tools. The main disadvantages to using a scope are:

1. Technician knowledge and training
2. Access to known good and known bad waveforms

The reason why a lot of the tool-truck diagnostic scopes cost as much as they do is because they walk you through the scope setups and give you access to known good wave forms for comparison.

Unless you are wrenching professionally, I don't see the need for a scope. I use one daily, but only because I have multiple drives full of waveforms and because of time constraints. Scopes save you time on a job, but you can almost always diagnose issues some other way. Unless you have access to a waveform database, you'll just end up spending more time looking for waveforms than if you had diagnosed the vehicle some other way.

 

[MattPersman]

Agree the pico 7 is great. The comm is so much faster than you can see on a meter. Also PWM things are becoming more common and diag is written from oem to use scope

It’s the future of diag for many things. Yes it’s great now but stuff is only getting more complex and will be even more so in the future

 

[clinebarger]

Pico7 has so many guided tests now:

Try the non-automotive version as well....Set to Auto after you're connected. I tried it purely by accident & I like it when I want a simple auto-detect waveform.

 

[meep]

I can’t imagine getting much for $36. I’ve had access to a couple of handheld scopes around the $250 range and they’ve been useful. I really prefer knob adjustments for ease of use, buttoning up/down thru menus and ranges is a pain. Also owned a second hand HealthKit that was tube fired and got good service from it back in the day.

the use of a scope requires you to know what you are looking for. But that’s where the learning comes in. For $36, there’s not much to lose by trying, it could be useful as a point of entry.