hopeing for some advice from you pico guru's out there  

i had been playing with pico the other day with a van which had a complaint of slow starting and non start in the morning

usually id get my old snap on bat tester out test the bat when it doesnt ask me to charge the battery that is usually the battery is pass/weak so i test the charging,earth's,power supply's get it fired up with trusty booster and check the charging with lights/load on etc with dmm. if its charging ok i usually sujest/advise a new battery

when i tested a van the other day 1.9 berlingo diesel my tester said charge bat and wouldnt let me test so i decided to get the scope out and see how it went i ran the van just long enough to get it to start from its own steam without the booster pack and carried out the picos test should i be trusting this test with regards to the state of starter batt earths and power's bad connections etc . or is my old way better the results were that the battery was needing replaced and that the charging system was good

do you guys have another way of testing starting and charging without the pico built in tests but using the scope ??

what sparked this was i guy came in with a sprinter today with slow cranking  and it passed the batt test with the old snap on load tester and is coming for mot next week and the weather is closing in and i could use it alot

thanks for reading guys  kenny

i thought i'd saved the test but unfortuanatly i only printed before and after and gave to customer dohh!!!

kennyp wrote on Sep 28^th, 2011 at 2:15pm:

do you guys have another way of testing starting and charging without the pico built in tests but using the scope ??

If you hook up the Pico like these images you could read the entire system.

The only lead I changed was ChB from solenoid exciter to battery post in the third and fourth images.

Read the titles above the images.

I did apply a filter on the ground after capturing the images

---

Kenny

I do this set up to test the batt, grd voltage drop, starter, alt in 1 step

---

exelent guys thats just what i was looking for will get it set up asap and see how it goes ,its great just to see it and i can set mine up justb like that

thanks a million guys  :) :)

rayray wrote on Sep 29^th, 2011 at 6:35am:

Kenny I do this set up to test the batt, grd voltage drop, starter, alt in 1 step

Can you explain this to me a little. I'm very new to using scopes..
To me it looks like you have the amps reading "-" is that so you can better see the wave form compared to the voltage reading? Or is there some other reason behind it? Just had the clamp on "backwards"?

Also your ground check. do you connect a lead to the chassis ground and another lead to the battery ground to measure the difference like you would on a voltage drop test?

Like I said I am very new to this, and trying to learn, sorry if my questions are "n00bish"  :-[

Ryze

The amp clamp is on backwards to show the starter amps which is the load on the batt, then you can measure the batt strength and when the engine starts, you can measure the alt output.

Here I have the lead to the alt case or to the block and the grd lead to batt neg. Chassis grd is good to ck also.

Ray

rayray wrote on Sep 29^th, 2011 at 6:35am:

Kenny I do this set up to test the batt, grd voltage drop, starter, alt in 1 step

since you have a spare channel, use it across the battery/alternator 1Volt AC
this way you can also look at alternator ripples

you guys are way to technical for me, I'm just too lazy to have my laptop going.

I still have my trusty old load tester, my theory is current loaded is 350amps and read the voltage, say if it's a steady 9 volts then you can conclude that when cranking and the volts drop below 9V then starter current is above 350amps

autosparky wrote on Oct 5^th, 2011 at 10:58pm:

you guys are way to technical for me, I'm just too lazy to have my laptop going. I still have my trusty old load tester, my theory is current loaded is 350amps and read the voltage, say if it's a steady 9 volts then you can conclude that when cranking and the volts drop below 9V then starter current is above 350amps

[smiley=laughing2.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=banghead.gif]

Little harsh there diesel don't ya think?  ha ha

PRESTON wrote on Oct 6^th, 2011 at 4:54pm:

Little harsh there diesel don't ya think?  ha ha

I guess, I have a warped sense of humor  [smiley=ohmygod.gif]

Oh don't get me wrong, I still laughed  [smiley=evilflame.gif]

PRESTON wrote on Oct 7^th, 2011 at 12:01am:

Oh don't get me wrong, I still laughed  [smiley=evilflame.gif]

[smiley=laughing2.gif] [smiley=mallet.gif] [smiley=boxer.gif] [smiley=evilgrin.gif]

It was just funny at the time, so I try not to miss most opportunities  [smiley=evil.gif]

Cracked me up too. [smiley=laughing1.gif]

I just wondered what happened to  [smiley=boxer.gif]
He was top bloke. But hes back.  [smiley=boxer.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=smiley-dance013.gif]

nobbyclrk wrote on Oct 7^th, 2011 at 3:29am:

Cracked me up too. [smiley=laughing1.gif] I just wondered what happened to  [smiley=boxer.gif] He was top bloke. But hes back.  [smiley=boxer.gif] [smiley=ShotGun5.gif] [smiley=smiley-dance013.gif]

[smiley=boxer.gif]  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10   [smiley=smileys-winner-407725.gif]

reminded me to ask you funny guys " how do you check ignition?" bet I get a 5 page reply before a spark plug gets pulled out