PicoDiagnostics - Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH)
What it does
Our PicoDiagnostics NVH software (bundled with PicoScope 7 Automotive) works in combination with our NVH Diagnostics Kit to provide measurement and analysis tools for noise, vibration and harshness within vehicles and machinery.
PicoDiagnostics NVH captures and displays noise and vibration with respect to its offending frequencies and amplitudes so that you can identify its likely source and the cause of your customer’s complaints.
With a suitable set-up or vehicle interface, PicoDiagnostics NVH can also link offending the noise and vibrations to rotating machinery sources (such as motors and their drivetrains) by calculating vibration orders from its measured or calculated rotational speeds.
You can use up to a total of four outputs from any combination of accelerometers (in single and/or three-axis modes) and microphones.
Once you have captured your data you can save it, play it back for further analysis or export it to other formats for cross-platform analysis.
How it can help you
Customer interpretations of noise and vibrations can be highly subjective. In the absence of objective data, it can be difficult to distinguish those that cause justifiable complaints from those arising from the normal operating characteristics of a vehicle or piece of machinery. PicoDiagnostics NVH exists to provide objective data you can compare against product knowledge, reference data or manufacturer specifications to make informed judgements about the true nature of the customer’s complaint.
Typically, no amount of visual inspection will help you diagnose NVH faults and the temptation is to remove components to carry out further testing (e.g. to undertake wheel balancing) or carry out repairs and replacements in the hope that they will fix an issue. However, the time spent removing and replacing components costs your business time and money. These costs become especially expensive if the work or replacements are unnecessary. And your costs become unsustainable when you undertake unnecessary repairs or replacements of transmission, propshaft, driveshaft or differential components. However, PicoDiagnostics NVH provides totally non-intrusive tools to help you diagnose these difficult-to-find faults - so that you no longer have to haphazardly remove and replace components - and save a heap of time and money.
NVH fault diagnosis requires different knowledge to that needed for other mechanical or electrical faults. Partly, this is because the terminology is different, partly it is because you need an understanding of what noise and vibration are and how it is caused and transmitted and partly it is because the equipment and its use can be unfamiliar. For these reasons, PicoDiagnostics NVH includes an NVH diagnostics help guide to help you on your NVH diagnostics journey.
How to use it
With PicoDiagnostics open and a PicoScope Automotive oscilloscope connected to your PC, select NVH.
Select Start a new test to open the setup wizard, which takes you through the setup process for connecting a 3 axis accelerometer. Alternatively, you can load the settings from a previously saved test or from your last session.
To set up PicoDiagnostics NVH for specific customer complaints (e.g. complaint of noise only) refer to our NVH diagnostic help manual by clicking on Help > NVH Diagnostic Help > NVH tests by complaint.
