Diagnostics Doctor
I am keen to buy an oscilloscope for general diagnostics, but the trouble is that there are so many different types to choose from and I was hoping you could recommend a make and model. From my research, I see that oscilloscopes that connect to a laptop via USB or Wifi tend to offer the most value as you’re not paying for a screen, so this is the route I’d like to take. I think four channels would be plenty for me and I would like something that would be capable of a wide range of automotive applications, including inductive amp testing.
I’ve looked at makes such as Hantek as they are reasonable value, but I don’t know which to choose or what software interfaces are respected (I’m a little wary of Chinese software). I don’t mind spending up to around £300 for a decent package or around £200 for something more basic. I’m aware that the majority of oscilloscopes are analogue – on the rare occasions that I would need to probe a digital signal, would one of these be useful? Peter Clayton An oscilloscope is a type of ultra-sensitive and fast-reacting voltmeter that produces a graph, allowing the capture of voltage changes which can occur in under 1/1000th of a second. The image seen on the screen needs to be processed at a very high speed to enable the readout to be accurate. The processer is normally built into the oscilloscope, but there are lower cost options that use processing power of the computer. There are many variants, so the number of channels, the MHZ bandwith and the sample rate, the display and refresh rate will vary.
The Hantek 1008C is an eight-channel ’scope which is available for around £80 on ebay, making it remarkable value. The other option would be something like the Picoscope 2204A, which has two channels and costs around £200. Moving up the scale, one very capable machine is the Picoscope 3000, which is around £380 from this website
https://bit.ly/2npp0mk. The Carscope LAN Automotive Oscilloscope at £295 from this company https://bit.
ly/2npoh50 may suit your needs perfectly, but having not completed tests on any of these units, I can only give you suggestions and not recommendations. However, the Chinese software should be quite stable and many high-end workshop scanners use Chinese software without problems.
This is not a subject Car Mechanics has covered in the past and is not something easily covered in the limited space I have here. Hopefully it is something we can cover in more detail in the near future.