?? Automotive Oscilloscope ??

[dcarver]

Been wanting to have a scope in the tool box. 3 hours of research later and WOW have they gotten smaller, better, less weight, cheaper!

Anyone have experience with this model?

Micsig SATO1004 Automotive Oscilloscope 100MHz 4 Channels Digital Tablet Portable Oscilloscope with Suitcase

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BC4 ... 0IJ3&psc=1

Or, better recommendations? Has to be less than a grand.

Thanks,

d

[Festus]

I can’t speak on that model but there are a couple people on YouTube that review the cheap models and there are many options way less than that. You can even get them for less than $100 but those have some limitations. Search for oscilloscope reviews and you should find them. Just from memory, I bet you can find one for 1/2 that price or less that’s very capable

[FJRoss]

I can’t speak on that model but there are a couple people on YouTube that review the cheap models and there are many options way less than that. You can even get them for less than $100 but those have some limitations. Search for oscilloscope reviews and you should find them. Just from memory, I bet you can find one for 1/2 that price or less that’s very capable

A search on AliExpress is an eye-opener. Just have to find some reviews that are legitimate.

[Festus]

A search on AliExpress is an eye-opener. Just have to find some reviews that are legitimate.

Agreed. I've always wanted one but I have no knowledge of electronics A guy reviewing some came into my YouTube feed one day and I watched it, then that lead to watching others. Depending on what you need it to do, there are some low cost ones that get rated very high. It's made me almost buy one a number of times but I keep reminding myself that I don't know how to use them or understand their use much.

[Red]

Depending on what you need it to do, there are some low cost ones that get rated very high. It's made me almost buy one a number of times but I keep reminding myself that I don't know how to use them or understand their use much.

Riders,
If you watch the video for that O-scope, you will see most of what you would want to do.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BC4 ... 0IJ3&th=1#
Any O-scope shows a point sweeping across the screen, to form a line. It's the "heartbeat" line that you see on the TV medical dramas. Any Voltage signal on the input wire will cause the line on screen to jump. You can set how high the jump will be on the screen. If the signal is too compressed on the screen, you can set the sweep to travel faster, "spreading out" the signal across the screen. For our purposes, any wire on the bike that shows a jump on the screen is working. A flat line on the screen means the bike wire is dead, or holding a solid DC Voltage. The O-scope lets you measure the Voltage of the jump, in Volts-per-CM. You measure pulse widths across the screen, as maybe milliseconds-per-CM. You will never need (or want) to look for a few missing data bits on some data line; no ordinary O-scope can show you that. The data will either be flowing there, on not.

For most bike problems, an O-scope will not be very useful, but for ignition (spark) issues, it may help you discover where the problem is coming from. You must never connect the high Voltage cables of a bike to an O-scope. O-scopes can not handle very high Voltages; the O-scope would be destroyed if you try. Just holding the input probe near the insulation of the spark plug wires of a running bike will put plenty of signal on the O-scope screen.

If you want to measure the ripple Voltage on your charging system, you can do that directly with a hand-held Voltmeter, set to read AC Volts. Excessive ripple Voltage on the charging system (as compared to a known good bike) usually means that your grounding connections are flakey.

[dcarver]

What Red said.

In my case, I'm troubleshooting ignition problems on my 79 KZ1300. I've been learning about ignition coils.. Dwell time, current vs saturated coils, the spark line, blah blah blah. I'm not very bright and it takes me longer to learn. Good thing I also CRS so I get to relearn it again and again..

I also need to troubleshoot the CCS-100 cruise control on KrZy8. To diagnose the CC, I'll simulate the tach reading with a signal generator then monitor waveforms using the scope.

Was looking at the Fluke ScopeMeter, but they are super pricey, beyond my means.

Besides, I've always just wanted an o-scope!

[Festus]

Seen this?

[Festus]

I just bought a Picoscope. My first adventure down the scoping world. Runs off most any computer.