Pico Technology is excited to introduce a powerful new feature in PicoScope 7 Automotive: Waveform Overlay. Designed for technicians across the automotive, commercial, off-highway, agriculture, construction, and marine sectors, this tool helps you pinpoint those frustrating intermittent faults that don’t show up every time you test.
Purpose and Functionality
Traditionally, you might use persistence mode to spot signal changes over time—but that just blends everything into a blur, making it hard to see which waveform has the issue. Waveform Overlay solves this by keeping each waveform separate, so you can easily go back and find the exact one where the fault occurred.
Diagnostic Applications and Anomaly Detection
Waveform Overlay is especially effective when you’re dealing with repetitive signals where consistency is expected. Here are two typical use cases:
Ignition System Diagnostics
When testing ignition primary or secondary waveforms from the same cylinder, healthy signals should be nearly identical. An intermittent misfire—due to a voltage drop, missing spark, or unusual burn time—will only affect one or two waveforms. Waveform Overlay highlights these outliers, helping you quickly spot and isolate the issue.
Fuel Injector Analysis
If a fuel injector is sticking or malfunctioning intermittently, it might produce a slight variation in voltage or current. Waveform Overlay makes it easy to compare multiple injection events side by side and catch those subtle, one-off differences—revealing problems like inconsistent spray patterns or sluggish injector response.
Where to Find the Feature
You can find Waveform Overlay in PicoScope 7 Automotive by 1. clicking the Waveform control, which opens 2. the Waveform Navigator panel and finally 3. selecting the On option within the Overlay section. It works with both recent (in-memory) captures and imported files, using your PicoScope’s deep memory to display multiple waveforms clearly and efficiently.
Use the built-in controls to filter and trim the waveform set, focusing only on the signals that matter. While some features like serial decoding are temporarily disabled when Waveform Overlay is active, the diagnostic clarity it offers more than makes up for it.
Currently available in Early Access, Waveform Overlay supports all real-time PicoScopes and is ready to become an essential part of your diagnostic toolkit.
Get Involved – Try It and Tell Us
As this is an Early Access feature, your feedback is especially important. Download the latest Early Access version of PicoScope 7 Automotive from:
👉 https://www.picoauto.com/downloads
Put Waveform Overlay to the test and tell us what you think—your input helps shape the tools you rely on every day.