Tools to purchase

Hello All,

I am looking for some suggestions on the tools to purchase.. I am completely new to tuning and I would like to not purchase multiple of the same tools. Paying a little extra for the premium items usually pays out in the long run. I have a good multimeter, and the led test light I'm sure are all very similar, but as far as the timing light, oscilloscope, knock detector, and portable wideband could you make some suggestions. I believe you suggested Innovate LM-2 for the portable wideband and this device looks like it should handle everything perfectly. I will more than likely purchase that unit. I tried to do a little research on oscilloscopes and found one from picoauto .. have you seen this unit? I honestly don't know exactly what to look for in an oscilloscope so any suggestions would be great. Thank you for your time. -Josh

https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/tuning-tools/

Picoscope is my next scope that I'll be purchasing, at the moment I have a pocket scope which works perfectly, it is only single channel and can't stream huge amounts of data like the pico but has yet to fail me

Thanks for the reply... I knew I saw that article somewhere but I guess I forgot about it. Just what I was looking for.

If you're in the US, then the best support for Picoscope comes when you buy from these guys: They have a really great forum that is private to Picoscope owners that purchased through them (others pay a subscription fee to access the forum). Lots of clever tools and techniques they have figured out.

http://www.autonerdz.com

http://www.hps140.com/

This is the one I have, like I say it's small and 'limited' compared to the picoscope but has more than paid for itself in fault finding.

For travel I use an Amprobe PM51A (ultra small multimeter) and a DSO 201 (pocket oscilloscope).

Both are limited in functionality, but perfect for the purpose. At home I got a Fluke 179 and a Rigol DS1054Z.

For the timing light, I absolutely love my innova 5568.

For knock detection, the best on the market right now is the Plex knock monitor but at ~$900, it is quite expensive...

And finally for the wideband, it's up to personal preference. I'm not a big fan of Innovate, but the LM-2 is not the worst on the market.

I'm very new here, can someone please explain what you use the oscilloscope for?

I have had a PicoScope for many years, they are fantastic.

Uses include -

Frequency measurement

Voltage measurement, including ACCURATE fluctuation and dropouts

Waveform capture, analysis and comparison

And much more

Take a look at the companies web site. In particular the case studies under Library section, you'll get the idea.

https://www.picoauto.com/library/case-studies

One other thing I would recommend is a decent bench top power supply. Really handy for testing things off car, if your battery is flat or at different voltages (you would be surprised how many things work at one voltage and not at another).

I have been surprised how much I have used mine....even thinking of upgrading it.

Sitting on the sofa at home with the TV and heating on working on the loom/ECU etc is far easier than crawling around inside a fully caged sportscar in a garage with no heating....and the wife is more likely to bring drinks and biscuits.

I second that, a power supply is really helpful in many occasions.

Personally use a 30A CB power supply.