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Professional Motor Mechanic-July/August 2009
This month, Mark scopes out the Pico 4000 kit and gives us his considered verdict.
As a regular PicoScope user I believe the automotive kit is at the forefront of vehicle testing technology and user-friendliness. Ask any Pico user for their opinion of the kit and I am sure you will never hear a bad word said about the company or its products. When I heard about the new Pico 4000 kit I was intrigued to see how they could possibly improve the best Oscilloscope I have ever used? Well they have!
Available in 2 or 4 channel options, the Pico automotive kit can be used to test the voltage or current of any circuit, sensor, actuator, ignition signal or data bus transfer message. The comprehensive scope kit comes in a protective carry case and includes all you need to get started and a detailed training DVD from Frank Massey. The Scope module is powered directly by the USB 2.0 lead from your laptop which makes the system very versatile and portable to use.
What a memory
The Pico 4000 spec improvements include an increased input voltage to ±100 v before the use of an attenuator is required. The 'always on' memory buffer has been increased 64-fold and ensures that when fault finding, no vital information is missed and that when the scope capture is paused, up to the previous 1000 screens can be reviewed, saved and printed.
The extended bandwidth and real time sample rates mean the performance of this scope is much greater than before and high speed CANBus and Flexray systems are easily catered for. This future-proofs the Pico kit against forthcoming vehicle network system developments, giving peace of mind if you invest in it.
The scope screen is presented in a clear and workable format with a large display for waveforms and drop down menus are used to set the testing options, triggers and probe types. Advanced cursor measurements and signal calculations can be displayed onscreen in many options. The automotive tab leads to extensive pages of specific system info, testing methods and channel presets. The duration of time-base that can be displayed across the X axis can be as super fast as 1 micro second (100 nano seconds per division) allowing for extreme detail, or as long as 33 minutes 20 seconds (200 seconds per division), which is great for monitoring varying signals over time. The voltage scale (Y axis) can be set as sensitive as 10 mV per division right up to 50 Kv for secondary ignition.
Multi-coloured
Each of the four channels are represented by different colour traces on screen - blue, red, green and amber, which eases identification on complex multi channel testing. I like the windowed zoom function where any part of a captured waveform can be selected by dragging a box around the area of interest then the screen instantly zooms in to display the highlighted zone.
Onscreen help is provided by the user's guide and the beauty of working with this oscilloscope, especially on a system that you are not sure about, is that you cannot damage anything by probing a wrong wire. I particularly like the way that testing with a scope on any automotive system opens up the whole story of events and makes it so much easier to understand the relationships between various components. In some cases testing with the amps clamps can give much more reliable results monitoring current rather than voltage in a circuit.
Constant development
The PicoScope operating software is constantly being developed and the latest available version is always free to download from www.picoauto.ca. Even if you are not in the market for a scope it is well worth logging on to the website as it is a great resource for technical info and also hosts a user's forum which has some very experienced contributors. Monthly automotive e-mail news letters are great and always feature real life repair case studies by highly respected technicians.
Existing PicoScope users can upgrade the spec of their automotive kit by buying the latest Pico 4000 module only, as all the rest of the test kit contents are compatible. A great range of PicoScope accessories can be obtained to cover any testing eventuality and I am eagerly awaiting the release of the pressure transducer.
Verdict
It has been hard to do the Pico 4000 kit justice in the space of this review and it must really be seen to be appreciated - the best oscilloscope I have ever used!
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