First of all, thanks for having me. I am a rookie in scanner land so please be patient as I will be asking noob questions.
I stood in awe when I saw “SCANNERDANNER” diagnose all sorts of errors in cars with his scope on YouTube for Rosedale Techschool. He made it seem so easy with a combination of his knowledge of the scope and cars. So I said to myself I got to get me such a contraption to wizzard on my car. (just a hobby no business)
I am sure I am still a long way from his skills level but I am willing to experiment on anything that throws me a signal which can be measured by my new acquired PCSGU 250. Now to be honest that was somewhat of an impulsive purchase so I really don’t know if this PC scope is at all suited for work on a car.
Anyway, I got it and I would like to learn if this scope is suited for troubleshooting automotive errors, anyone has any idea if that is the case?
Second question, if so suited, I would like to buy an ampclamp to go with it. Any suggestions on that topic, in this case the price is of some importance as my home front was not at all pleased with me buying such an expensive toy, uhhhh tool!
Sorry, teaching how to use an oscilloscope is not one of the goals of this forum.
We’d love to, but there is simply no time for that.
If you have very specific questions regarding this item, then we’d be happy to help.
[quote=“VEL417”]Sorry, teaching how to use an oscilloscope is not one of the goals of this forum.
We’d love to, but there is simply no time for that.
If you have very specific questions regarding this item, then we’d be happy to help.[/quote]
Thank you for your answer, much appreciated.
I had however, just stated that I needed advice if my new scope is suited to measure signals on a car. I was not under the impression that I asked to be educated on using it, please forgive me if my choice of words in the top post gave you that idea. I just used an example to illustrate what I wanted to do with my new tool. The header of this post was just meant to attract readers.
So condensed to one sentence, I asked if this tool was suitable for visualising car signals and advice about an amp-clamp that I can use with it.
Don’t worry, I won’t trouble you for a beginners course.
Signals in a car. I’m sure there are many signal present in a car.
What exactly would you like to measure? What frequency do you expect? Amplitude?
Measuring amps with a scope is usually not a good idea, as a scope is a voltmeter, not an amperemeter. A good true RMS clamp meter does a far better job.
You are right, lots of sensors and their signals in a car, btw thanks for answering me.
What I would like to see is the different signals which are received by steppenmotors, send by sensors to the ECU and what ever. Also current through the generator or the starter motor. I expect to see voltages from 0.1 V to about 15 or 16 volt in a normal car. Frequencies will be around the rev’s an engine can reach. Perhaps multiplied with a factor four so max about 30 k.
Because I would like to measure current that runs through the starter I need an ampclamp that can do AC and DC and has a reach of minimum DC 600 amp. The generator is a lot less. Precision in milliamps is not so much of an issue, It is more the combination of the amplitude and the timing which is important. 450 or 452 amps is not important. The current through the starter says a lot about the compression in each cylinder, high amplitudes mean lots of current so lots of pressure. Low amplitudes mean low pressure. So an image where all the peaks are almost as high as the others is the perfect picture. One of the peaks lower than the others is a defect.
Further, I will not use it to measure the secundary coil (HT) on the ignition. Just the primary will be measured to see if the spark is generated on exactly the right moment.
So you see, a scope with probes and amp clamp in combination with knowledge of an engine will certainly help to diagnose engine trouble. That is why I bought the PCSGU250 impulsively.
Anyway, my question was, can it do that? And… advice on the amp clamp which doesn’t have to be very precise.
Measuring the signals should not be a problem.
Measuring amps however, is not possible with a scope (unless you would have an amps clamp that puts outs xx mV for every amp. It would still require you to do manual calculations, as a scope does not display amps but volts. Furthermore, I have never seen such a device). As stated before, a good A-meter will do a better job.
[quote=“VEL417”]Measuring the signals should not be a problem.
Measuring amps however, is not possible with a scope ([color=#BF0040]unless you would have an amps clamp that puts outs xx mV for every amp. It would still require you to do manual calculations, as a scope does not display amps but volts. Furthermore, I have never seen such a device[/color]). As stated before, a good A-meter will do a better job.[/quote]
I paste a link [quote]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MELlR3RkXo[/quote], it will show you what I mean. You will be surprised how much you can see with an ampclamp and yes, you wil always have to calculate how much amps the volts represent. Like I said, that is of no importance for it is about a comparison and not a pricise measurement.
Anyway, when you don’t know of any ampclamp that will work together with the pc scope, no problem, I will look further. Thanks for reasuring me that my impulsive purchase was a sound one. ;-))
