DerekJ wrote on Apr 14
th, 2020 at 6:43pm:
So, this is a super noob question, I can only thoroughly assume.
For some background: I stumbled on this site when I was trying to determine some 6.0 power stroke tcm/ficm theory of operation. I am a diesel mechanic working at a John Deere dealer and do a lot of electrical diagnostics. When I went to school I learned about controller inputs/outputs/pwm etc. So I am fairly new generation. The only scope exposure I had in school was geared towards sine and square wave demonstrating position sensor and pwm. At work I do work with CAN (250K mostly), but admittedly I am not as knowledgable as I wish I was.
Ultimately, my question is... How more effective would I be at electronic diagnostics, if I had a good scope, in my profession? What are some diagnostics scenarios where resistance, voltage drop, and load tests would not be sufficient?
Thanks for any insight!
I will tell you what it will and won't do;
1. It will do the basic electrical tests you describe and give you a record of several synrronised events,
2. It will not do anything where you are limited by your lack of imagination.
Anything that you can think of to have an electrical signal can be exploited by your scope.
My recent development was to turn my dial indicator into a linear motion distance meter.
Bottom line you don't know what you don't know.
With a scope from Tom and the Picogroup you become open to the possibilities.
What it does the most is to assist you in your deveopment.