The PicoScope can be used on a wide range of vehicles and equipment and, when used with accessories, it can also detect signals relating to: vacuum, fuel and hydraulic pressures, noise, vibration and harshness.
Waveforms turn the vehicle’s electrical signals into a picture that you can see, measure, manipulate, and compare, to understand exactly what is going on within a vehicle’s systems in real time.
Simply put, it shows how voltage levels change over a period of time.
PicoDiagnostics
Arguably, PicoScope’s best-kept secret is its PicoDiagnostics software which can be downloaded for free alongside PicoScope Automotive software.
It not only gives you an accurate, powerful battery and alternator tester, but also includes a test for relative compression and cylinder balance.
As your journey into more advanced vehicle diagnostics continues, the NVH Diagnostics Kit opens up the possibility of detecting and analysing issues with noise, vibration and harshness.
You’ll be familiar with the traditional multimeter.
A scope requires a more secure connection, but apart from this the process is much the same as connecting a multimeter.
Connecting to camshaft sensor
To connect to a camshaft sensor, you’d locate the sensor you wish to test by using a combination of experience and technical data before using a back-pinning probe to connect.
Only with a PicoScope can you see high levels of detail in your test results.
More importantly, the waveform is much more valuable to you as a technician than a simple multimeter reading.
For example, a multimeter measurement of 7.46 V is displayed.
However, with the same connection, PicoScope displays a clear and concise waveform, showing a 12 V camshaft sensor switching off and on with a regular pattern.
Granted, this example is one of the easiest components to both connect to and analyse, but with PicoScope there really are an unlimited number of tests you can undertake.
An ever-increasing selection of Guided Tests (currently over 150) in the PicoScope 6 Automotive software, to help test the most common components.
For more information about Pico Technology, select ‘more details’ below.
