Thought I would say hello to everyone here and say what a great site this is.  I received my two channel scope about a month ago and then my wife, my two boys and then I came down with the flu, then a nasty stomach bug.  So I am now  finally playing with my scope.  Any one have suggestions on what systems, or components I should start with to get my feet wet?

  Hi chris I am still learning my self but a good first is battery voltage at rest and start and running. then add amps, to the mix . Or this check amp. draw when using a fused jumper on the brake lits. horn and cooling fans  Good luck and welcome in.

Welcome Aboard, Chris.  One "O" our Northern Illinois Nerdz. Good to see we are getting Illinois finally populated on the member map.  Evidently Good News travels slow in the Heartland.

Secondary Ignition is FUN to play with too, just be very diligent with the Ground Leads, and always no matter what you are testing, have the unit grounded too (Preferably at the Battery).  A Common misconception that the sensor ground is OK, but it ain't, and can potentially ruin the sensor and or the PICO and Computer it's attached to. Use the search feature "Ground Loop" keywords, there has been some very enlightening discussion on the topic.

Glad to have you Chris!  I'm also new to Pico and the site.  There's a lot to learn on here.  I spend most evenings just reading and trying to soak it all in.  The best advice I can give you is protect your PicoScope!  When in doubt, use your attenuators.  It only takes a few second to remove it if you don't need it, but quite the upset if you needed it and didn't use it.  The other is just as RtOne said:


RtOne wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2013 at 5:28am:

Use the search feature "Ground Loop" keywords, there has been some very enlightening discussion on the topic.

I looked into this quite a bit myself.  Anyways have fun!

Thanks for the advice guys!  There is definitely a lot to soak in around here.  I hope to get some time this week end to practice in my garage.  My boss  doesn't  believe in using scopes, so its going to be an uphill battle to use it on a daily basis at work.  Once I'm proficient with it though I think I can sell him on the idea. 

Chris Bork wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2013 at 8:31pm:

My boss  doesn't  believe in using scopes, so its going to be an uphill battle to use it on a daily basis at work.

  Just wait till the next misfire due to lack of compression comes in on a vehicle prior to OBDII.  A relative compression test with sync... doesn't get much easier than that. 

PRESTON wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2013 at 10:48pm:

A relative compression test with sync... doesn't get much easier than that.

Great Point, "GrillMaster". A few of those and some other Scope Vs DVOM tidbits, and he too will be Sipping the  [smiley=koolaid2.gif] beverage of Champions.

Well guys I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  Haven't done relative compression yet, but got some nice fuel pump current wave forms, some secondary ignition and injectors.  Its probably over my head right now, but I built a vacuum transducer ( plans found here)  and got a decent wave form with that.  next couple of days I think ill try syncing with ignition. 

  Be sure to utilize the "test board" for posting your captures so we can see how your coming along and possibly steer you away from trouble.

Thanks Preston.  I posted a fuel pump wave form on the test board.  Tom gave me some advice on my sample rate being too high, but I haven't figured out how to pull one buffer out of the whole file.  Any pointers?

  Even if you have multiple buffers captured as one file, you can still open that entire file, flip through the frames to the one you want, and then select "save current waveform as".  Title this frame similar to the file name as all the buffers, but just specify which frame it is.

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Chris Bork wrote on Apr 11^th, 2013 at 6:50pm:

Any pointers?

How you do it depends on the PicoScope build you are using.  This is all covered in the tutorials.  We do not post PicoScope how to in the public areas.  If you have those sorts of questions, please post in the Picogroup areas.

Chris Bork wrote on Apr 1^st, 2013 at 7:36pm:

Any one have suggestions on what systems, or components I should start with to get my feet wet?

I would become proficient at the stuff that reduces the common diag time.

For me secondary ignition is a Big time saver and money maker, relative compression, electric motor current ramping - fuel pumps, radiator fans etc.

Then got into primary ignition.  Once I got that stuff sorted it became easier to migrate on to other components.


By no means am I a wizz, Still learning what it all means and how to interpret stuff, But I am fixing cars that I used to turn away and I am cutting the time on other stuff.