Time base settings!

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Technician
TwoWaves
TwoWaves
Posts: 705
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:32 pm

Time base settings!

Post by Technician »

I'm not using PicoScope anywhere as near as should be so will probably tell people why I'm asking this question.

My own car started to become difficult to start a few weeks ago and gradually got worse. Over the last couple of days misfiring and smoke from the exhaust tailpipe were present. As the engine warmed up the misfiring and smoke disappeared. The engine then ran smoothly. The car is a Kia 1.6 CRDi.

Five years ago the heater plugs had failed before the car was past over to me. The plugs (two of them) were broken into the cylinder head and needed drilling out. When I put four new NGK plugs in I decided to put lubricant on the threads and stems and only nip then tight when fitted. The sound of the engine gave me the impression that the heater plugs had failed, and me being me, I decided to buy four new heater plugs and fit them. Turns out the NKG plugs came out easily without problems.

The heater plugs were not the problem. While changing them I noticed an injector leaking compression but only ever so slightly. I cleaned out the injector port and injector and put new seals in. The engine on startup still misfired for a while and the engine shook indicating a missing cylinder. Eventually the engine settled and ran okay. using the scanner no fault codes were recorded, live data did not show any problems.

I put the scope on the heater plugs main power supply and measured the current demand and time. I found using both Pico 6 and 7 that the time base from automotive settings seemed too long and by the time I'd started the scope running got to the ignition switch and switched on that the time taken for the heater relay to switch on, measure the duration and switch off moved into the second screen, hence I could not look on the screen and see switch on current demand, time taken to heat the plugs (duration) and switch off on the same screen. Being unfamiliar with the scope useage I can't seem to find a way to adjust the time base to give more time to each screen!

Is that possible?

Thanks.

User avatar
Rfmotors1
TwoWaves
TwoWaves
Posts: 86
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:14 am

Re: Time base settings!

Post by Rfmotors1 »

Hi Technician,
IMO PS7 is the best choice to practice. With regards to time-base change, it is very easy once you get familiar with the control functions mapping and menu content.
See the simple screenshot that can help you or even better read through the training material, which is very intuitive.
PS7 timebase.jpg
Below is link to training section which explains this topic very well with many pictures and annotations.
https://www.picoauto.com/library/traini ... -picoscope
Hope it helps,
Roman
Last edited by Rfmotors1 on Sun Jun 04, 2023 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Technician
TwoWaves
TwoWaves
Posts: 705
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:32 pm

Re: Time base settings!

Post by Technician »

Thanks Roman yes I've found that function now.

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