need help oscilloscope

THOMAS TYRRELL

hi,ive recently opened a garage and im thinking of investing in an automotive oscilloscope. naturally ide love a pico or vantage but only being open less than a year the funds just arent there. ive been looking on ebay( and i no its not an ideal place topick up electronics but as i said the funds just arent there for a more upmarket machine and theres not a huge range of 2nds out there), i seen a machine that looks pretty decent but ide like to know if anyone has seen or heard much about them... http://cgi.ebay.ie/DSO3064-Automotive-Diagnostic-Oscilloscope-4CH-60MHz-/280647521505?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item4157e554e1
thanks tom

DublinDilbert

Hi tom,

It probably would do the job, but a pain having to have a laptop. You'd need it setup on a cart.

The cheapest scope you'll get is a rigol one from china. I have a basic one and it's excellent. Much prefer it to my tektronics one. You can get them for about €300 on deal extreme!

Rigol also do a portable one, would be more expensive but probably good too. Fluke have a range of scope/meters which are good too but quite expensive.

The pico site is great for waveforms. Their inductive spark plug pick ip is good too, although i made one from a large crocodile clip and works well...

Plug

We used pico and bosch in Fas. They were both very good.

pie-man

use a pico everyday. if you buy a cheaper one and get handy using it you'll just wana get a pico really bad. dont be fooled by snap-on sales pitch on the vantage...pico is miles better. also some people think a scope is a must for advanced diagnostics. to be honest its the last tool out of my box but its great to have it there as a option. what are you using for serial diagnostics. just asking because you can use a good scanner and a multimeter for 80-90% of diagnostic job that come through the door. so my money would be on that stuff first.

plug ive used a bosch in fas myself.they are very good but way too expensive. was it bolton st by any chance?

Plug

No, down in Waterford and Limerick.

AzureAuto

I'd agree with Pie-Man, a lot of scanners have a waveform graphing facility, i.e. for lambda sensor voltages etc. There's no doubt they're irreplaceable for head scratching ignition issues, but there are also techiques using a simple multi meter can point you in the right direction to locating a fault. Gues you have to size up how long it would take for the scope to pay for itself.
Pico are undoubtably the best, I wonder whether Pico reps do Snap-n style buy now pay later...?

crosshair1

Tom,
Like Pieman I use a pico daily, I know you say its out of your price range but I would hold out until you have funds for one.
Also as stated its not every job that requires one and it would be far more important to have good serial coverage before you go this route.
Another aspect is training, imo this is a must with a scope, its all too easy to capture waveforms and then not be able to decipher them.
You also need to consider the accessories that comes in the pico kit, to buy seperately would also push up the price of any comparable scope.

DublinDilbert

I'm surprise with the pico scoring so highly, never found them great quality, but it obviously does the job. I do prefer a stand alone scope, although a pico with a net-book might be fairly portable.

What is good about pico is their accessories and their waveform library.

THOMAS TYRRELL

pie-man wrote: »

use a pico everyday. if you buy a cheaper one and get handy using it you'll just wana get a pico really bad. dont be fooled by snap-on sales pitch on the vantage...pico is miles better. also some people think a scope is a must for advanced diagnostics. to be honest its the last tool out of my box but its great to have it there as a option. what are you using for serial diagnostics. just asking because you can use a good scanner and a multimeter for 80-90% of diagnostic job that come through the door. so my money would be on that stuff first.

plug ive used a bosch in fas myself.they are very good but way too expensive. was it bolton st by any chance?

im using an autoboss v30 scantool, its a good piece of kit and gives some very good live data readings( for most ecu's on a car, eg abs, srs, bcm,etc)
but having come from a garage where i had access to one and done lots of training using scopes i just think it can eliminate guesswork so if im orduring a part i can be 100% im not wasting time and money with the wrong one

shamwari

THOMAS TYRRELL wrote: »

im using an autoboss v30 scantool, its a good piece of kit and gives some very good live data readings( for most ecu's on a car, eg abs, srs, bcm,etc)
but having come from a garage where i had access to one and done lots of training using scopes i just think it can eliminate guesswork so if im orduring a part i can be 100% im not wasting time and money with the wrong one

I've got co-use of an V30 too and it is an excellent tool. Agree with the sentiments above that whilst a scantool is often the most used, but the auld scope is the most useful.

cb900ie

I use the SnapOn Modis, and it is a really good scope. It is also a scan tool, multimeter, and graphing meter.