Hello
Auto Mechanic with far to many years in Industry, from Australia.
Trying to get info on the following seeing it is now in our workplace & our techs are not up with the Pico products
Our workshop has recently acquired a 3425 Bi Directional Scope. Is it logical to use in the Auto industry?
Have been trying to swat up on Auto units etc. Seeing we have it in the work place will we be able to make use of this scope or better to forget & purchase a Auto Kit.
Hi
From memory I think that model is 400v differential inputs, so you'll be fine for most tests, the lower voltages scales might be below the scope resolution compared to the Automotive units, but a simple comparison would tell you the differences. And to be honest it's very rare in automotive terms you'd be working at those extreme low voltages in any case, so not the biggest loss, verse the upside of 4 x400v differential inputs
The big difference, being you can't run the automotive version of the software, or the bundled NVH or Diagnostics program, but the standard pico software does everything the Auto version does, just without the guided diagnostics and without the access to the online waveform library.
There is plenty of info on their website to learn most of the setup, and you can always download the auto software and run it with a "demo scope" to learn about the different guided tests ... so your 3425 is not a chocolate tea pot by any stretch !!!
For newbies the automotive models are clearly an easier entry point to the whole scoping scene, but it's just going to be a steeper learning curve, once you've mastered the basics and got familiar then you'll barely notice, and if you ever get an automotive scope from Pico, all you've learnt is transferable as the software interface is identical for 99.99% of purposes.
Hope that helps
Richard Lukins Fiorano Cars Ferrari Maserati Lamborghini and Porsche Independent Specialists