Oscilloscope for Troubleshooting

[Rednaxs60]

Decided a while back when I was researching information on throttle positions sensors (TPS) for my '85 LTD that an oscilloscope would be a good tool to have in the inventory. Found a web site that showed a good throttle valve potentiometer waveform - a smooth voltage rising and fast collapse, and faulty/failing voltage curves that showed voltage chatter and signal cuts. The interesting aspect of this is that a faulty/failing TPS may not trigger an error code from the ECU. here is the web site that I refer to: http://autoditex.com/page/throttle-posi ... -22-1.html

Have been looking for a while and found a Telequipment 43B oscilloscope and with some perusing of the net, an instruction manual as well.

Terribly rusty with using one of these so my learning curve is going to be huge.

A few days ago, before I had bought this oscilloscope, I had a new aftermarket TPS and installed it in my '85 LTD, but it did not work as it should have. Took it out and installed the original OEM TPS for the time being. The original OEM TPS is wearing as there is a low speed/RPM hesitation that I want to get rid of.

Hopefully with this oscilloscope I can find a TPS that has a "clean" voltage curve and not have to use the bike as the test bed for this. I have also noticed on the various forums that an oscilloscope is a good all round troubleshooting tool for a myriad of issues.

Cheers

[virgilmobile]

Yes they are.Much easier to see a spike or drop in voltage that a digital or analog meter cannot display.
Found the alternator on my Ford was so full of spikes it upset the ECM module.Throwing several erroneous error codes.
Good for looking at pulse generators and many other signal type systems.

[C-dub]

Wow! I haven't used an O-scope in 30+ years. I didn't know it could be so useful on a bike.

[WingAdmin]

I've had one for 20+ years. They are very useful for finding intermittent spikes, or noise on electrical circuits that you can't otherwise detect, checking coils, all sorts of things.

Mine has gotten a lot of use over the years. I'd have to look to see what kind it is, but it's a dual-trace digital storage scope.

You can get digital scopes now that use LCD displays and high-speed A/D converters that are pretty cheap, but I still prefer my analog CRT unit.

If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can buy a kit of one of those digital scopes for around $25:

https://www.amazon.com/KKmoon-Oscillosc ... 07C3F5BP3/

[Rednaxs60]

Have perused this and the other forums and not much chatter about oscilloscope usage. Good to hear that these are still being used to troubleshoot issues.

Cheers

[virgilmobile]

It's a tool.Seldom used and untill recently an expensive one.
Kinda like the thermal imaging camera I bought.
If a person doesn't have a need to diagnose problems (pay sombody else to do that)they don't need one.
If you never plan to wrench on your bike,there's no need to have a metric tool kit.

[FM-USA]

OOOoohhh give it time yet. When the electronics industry gets wind that O-Scopes are still in good use they'll design their stuff to make them O-Scopes obsolete.
Just like html5 is trying to make Win-XP obsolete (grrrRRRrrr).

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[dadztoy]

I still have my old Hitachi analog dual trace scope... Haven't used it in some time but I do drag it out occasionally for audio issues... I used a scope all my life in my electronic jobs - usually Tektronics but my little Hitachi serves me well... Don't remember the bandwidth specs but I wanna guess around 30-50 MHZ - perfect for trouble shooting the bike and other issues...

[AZgl1800]

I still have my old Phillips 200 mHz dual channel analog scope.

haven’t turned it on in 10 years, but if I need it, it will most likely still work.

[DenverWinger]

Techtronix B465 analog dual-trace I've had since the early 90's. Girlfriend's '99 Grand Prix was acting up, Trouble codes indicated bad MAF sensor. Brand-new sensor and no change. The 'scope was invaluable in proving the replacement sensor was no good, too.

[Rednaxs60]

My issue is figuring out how to use it. Being a better "pump kicker" as I was called in the Navy than an electronic person, it will be a good learning curve.

DenverWinger - from what I have read you are correct. Just because a sensor is new doesn't mean it's good.

Cheers