John McM

More than 30 years ago, I was an avionics technician so I was comfortable with using test equipment. I'd like to add an oscilloscope to my tool kit and see some very reasonably priced old analogue equipment for sale e.g. HP etc

Before I buy an old one I thought I'd check if there is a better solid state or PC based option that people are using. Is there?

ToreB

For basic car repair you do not need any sophisticated scope.
For portability, you could go for a small digital handheld type, such as the DSO211 or similar. These are sold on eBay or elsewhere.
Cheers,
Tore

John McM

Thanks Tore. Ordered and should be useful.

Gus

What can you learn by using a scope. Advantages over system diagnostic software??

Spyerx

Some of the controllers that have pulse wave signals you can see (like the sensors on the flywheel) the patterns better with the scope that a regular VM won't show or is hard to show. My understanding at least :-)

I'd love to know how you're using it, always looking to add more gadgets to my pile!

C4inLA

+1 ... I think one can monitor injector activity type stuff, ignition spark dwell duration as well.. There is reference to scope usage in WSM diagnostics section ....

Subscribed....

dlpalumbo

Tore, can you address DSO201/DSO211 confusion. I find on amazon a few DSO211 that claim to be upgraded DSO201 units. In comments I find recommendations to upgrade to BENF firmware. So I'm confused if device is upgraded or not and how to tell the difference.

Thanks. I've been looking for a small scope. This should work just fine.

John McM

Yes, any system inputs/outputs that are waves are best measured with an oscilloscope. I'd like to get base readings for the speedometer input, crankshaft position sensor etc. I'd also take readings of the various C4 inputs and see how the PDT999 manages the the diff lock actuators. Basically it's another set of parameters to measure and understand to make fault finding that much easier.

John McM

Pages from the WSM. One thing I'd particularly like to help with is an exhaustive idle system description and diagnostic tree. What does the adaptation do? Why do some idles hunt? My silver car has perfect idle. I'll capture the parameters to see what a good system looks like. That will help me and others if I find an errant idle.

ToreB

I have no experience with the small scopes mentioned, and I cannot detail any more on this, other than that a portable oscilloscope is very handy in the workshop.
Cheers,
Tore

John McM

The scope has arrived at home. I'll check it out this weekend

Dan Martinic