Labscope Buyers Guide

Some labscopes are designed for automotive use with programmed tests built in, others are mainly designed for the electronics field and you will have to learn how to set them up and get waveforms on the display. Some have an auto ranging feature that will get the waveform on the display and then you can change the settings to your preference. Most labscopes are expensive, so make sure you get the one that's right for you. If you buy one that is not setup for automotive, be prepared to spend some time learning how to use it. If you want one that's easy to use, get one that's built for automotive. Not sure if you even need one? Read my personal opinion on handheld labscopes, and how they have helped me. Check out the page on help choosing one. For a basic tutorial on labscopes, I recommend the Tektronix site.

Go to these sites for some of the more popular Automotive Labscopes.

See a video here about the power of this system.

USB Autoscope High Quality Kit with Powerful Software, the software is probably worth more than the hardware.

Cylinder pressure waveform from a vehicle with early valve timing, the software automatically detects deviations from normal graphics and marks them using pointers.

Tektronix THS3000

AES sells mostly the Picoscope brand of scopes, and they offer high quality probes and accessories.

Fluke's roundup from left to right, the 233 and 88 digital meters, 190 and 120 scopes, the finest anywhere, you won't do better than these.

The scopes will require probes geared for automotive use, and they take time to master. The 233 has the remove-able head for remote work.

Check out the Bosch diagnostics MTS 5200 4 channel scope, now available pressure/vacuum transducer kit

The Automotive kit ATS5004D is a four channel pc based automotive oscilloscope with differential inputs.

Besides the normal features of a professional USB oscilloscope, it

has some specific features like SureConnect connection test and resistance measurement that make it an ideal instrument for automotive measurements.

DSO3064 PC Based Automotive Kit VII 4 Channels, 10K-16M Memory Depth, Frequency Counter, FFT, USB 2.0 interface plug and play; LAN optional.

Micsig ATO1000

Micsig STO1000

On the left, Owon SDS6062 60 MHz, 500 MS/s Digital Storage Oscilloscope.

On the right Owon HDS1022M-N 20 MHz Handheld Digital Storage Oscilloscope, 100MS/s, Dual Channel.

On the bottom Owon HDS1022M-I handheld Digital Storage Oscilloscope w/ channel isolation.

Not automotive, but very nice units for the money.