Please Recommend an Oscilloscope for Diagnostics

[bper]

Hi,

Can you recommend a useful oscilloscope or PC oscilloscope to handle AC and DC currents to check electrical auto components?

It would be nice if this could be PC based to view the readings on a PC monitor. Also recommend the type of leads that would be necessary and the kind of interface that would be used.

It should be able to handle different cars (even older models) and handle a decent range (up to 100 volts?)

Thanks!

[shorod]

Do you have a price constraint? If you're looking for something that is very versatile, robust, and accurate, find yourself a Fluke 867. That is a graphical multimeter (GMM) with plenty of resolution, frequency range, and usefulness for automotive systems. You can find the optional PC software and optically isolated cable to connect to the serial port of your computer and log, download, etc. The 867 is no longer available new from Fluke, but you can find these on eBay. I have a Fluke 867 and the newer 867B, both are very good for use with cars.

I also have a Fluke 199C handheld oscilloscope with is certainly overkill for automotive use, but offers a lot of features that are very handy for my other hobby of electronics repair. It does include a DMM function so it would do more than what you need for automotive diagnostics as well, and has a better computer interface than the 867.

If you're looking for an all-in-one automotive diagnostic tool, you might want to consider the OTC Genisys scan tool with 4-channel color oscilloscope module. This scan tool is pretty much top of the line for a general purpose (not brand-specific) scan tool and the scope has a lot of features aimed at automotive diagnostics. In my opinion, the scope is not as intuitive to use as the Flukes, and doesn't seem as accurate, but would certainly serve the purpose you are asking about. The Fluke scopes are more like what we use in our labs, which is probably why I find them more intuitive.

If you are looking to go with something less expensive, then I'd suggest one of the Velleman scopes. A Velleman K7105 got me through college in Electrical Engineering and I was very impressed with the performance for the price. It allowed me to do much of my lab work from home without having to travel to campus labs. Great price, good performance, and never gave me any problems. They have a lot of other reasonably priced scopes too, and I have no reason to believe they won't keep you just as pleased. Also, they sell the option PC software and cables at reasonable prices too.

-Rod