Hello, My name is Jacob. I am an Automotive Technician, and am also a huge tech nerd. I was wondering if possible how would I go about making an oscilloscope specifically for automotive electronics use. I want to get more into electrical diagnosis but with certain systems it is hard to do without an oscilloscope and I cannot spend thousands of dollars on an oscilloscope, especially if I can make one on my own. If there is anyone that can help me out that would be greatly appreciated.
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Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Hi @jakeprojects15.
Although it is definitely worthwhile to make a DIY oscilloscope for education and entertainment, I don't think it is worth doing as a way to save money. You aren't going to be able to DIY the equivalent of a thousand dollar oscilloscope. If you invest an equivalent amount into a commercial oscilloscope as you would have into the parts and time for the DIY oscilloscope, you are probably going to get something with at least equivalent performance.
Years ago, I bought a Hantek 6022BE USB scope for $40. Although the specs are not at all impressive, it has met all my very minimal needs. Of course you get what you pay for and this thing would be completely insufficient for someone who has more demanding requirements, but it goes to show that you don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to get your hands on a scope.
Not sure where you think a scope would be useful on a car from the 2020's. Even a dealer mechanic needs a proprietary diagnostic tool for his brand in order to get the best diagnosis.
Or maybe you only work on cars from the 1900's?
You don't have to spend thousands on a scope. There are a number of handheld battery-powered scopes available for under $100. Look on Youtube for the Zoyi ZT703S, for example. It's about $80 on Aliexpress. It's a combination multimeter and two-channel scope.
Edit: If you just want one to experiment with, you could start with the Zeewei DSO154Pro. It's single channel, but goes up to 18MHz, and only costs $25 including the battery and shipping. You would have no chance of coming anywhere close to that performance building your own Arduino scope.
It would be very useful. The diagnostic will show an error it will not show for example which spark plug is bad. Having a scope with high voltage probe will tell you in minutes which plug is dead. Often you can't read the data signal but you can see if the signal is bad noise or other distortion. So it is a case where your limited by which probes and breakout boxes you have available and your understanding of what you are trying to troubleshoot. Think I have spent ten times as much for probes than handheld oscilloscopes.
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