herramientas diagnostico electronico

When really toughjobs come into theshop, you needtechnicians withthe skills to diag-nose the problem

and find the solution. What thosetechnicians need are the rightelectronic test tools that will leadto a fix that is both complete andprofitable. Finding the best elec-

tronic test equipment for yourshop takes planning and organi-zation.The first step is to analyze your

business operation. What kindsof jobs do you really do? Thework at most independent shopsmight be a blend of conventionalor routine jobs that don’t requiremuch electronic test gear to oc-casional specialty or diagnostic

24 May 2014

ELECTRONIC TEST TOOLS UPDATE

BY MIKE DALE

Selecting the most appropriate electronictest equipment for your shop is only the

beginning of your responsibility.Learning to use it to its fullest potential

while keeping it up-to-date and in workingorder are equally important.

Photoillustration: H

arold A. Perry; images: Thinkstock

25May 2014

jobs that do. Other shops, includ-ing dealerships, will specialize inone type or brand of vehicle andmay need special tools for that.Analyzing your shop’s workloadcan help you answer the ques-tion, Do I have enough workcoming in on a regular basis tojustify the purchase of this newelectronic test equipment?

Then there’s the question ofsimply keeping up. Nowadaysyou need tools to program sen-sors and tools that can updatecomputer software. This is a con-stantly changing business and ifyou don’t keep up, well, beforelong you’ll fall behind.You could help yourself with

these questions by “data mining”

a stack of old invoices. Divideyour completed invoices for thelast year into two piles—one forroutine jobs and the other for themore difficult diagnostic jobs. Nodoubt the larger pile will be theroutine jobs you and your staffhandled just fine.As for the difficult jobs, was

there some special tool or train-ing that would have helped?Maybe you lost profits on somejobs because you had to send thework out to a specialty shop ordealership with more advancedcapabilities. That stack of old in-voices is reality; it shows whatreally happened at your shop. Itcan help you better understandwhere your shop going and whatyou need to do next.If yours is a specialty shop, do

you have the basic tools neededto do your specific kind of work?A brake shop might need anABS system scan tool thatwouldn’t really get much use atan HVAC specialty shop. If youspecialize in VW products, say,you may need tools that wouldn’tbe justified for a “we fix any-thing” kind of shop. It seems ob-vious, but keeping your businessand your tools focused on what


Many devices, like the Snap-on MODIS, use touchscreen controls with icons. This displaytechnology uses walk-through menus that guide the technician through the repair.

Any good measurement starts with a good connection at the vehicle, and well-engineered test leads (left photo) are the place tostart. Test leads can be made stronger to endure the rigorous automotive testing environment. In the photo on the right, thestrain relief added to the base of the probe reduces the chance of the leads being pulled or broken.

26 May 2014

Photos courtesy Fluke

Photo courtesy Snap-on Tools

you’re really good at is crucial toyour success.It could be that you’re looking

to buy something new becauseyou want to branch off into workyou’re not doing now. This isokay, so long as you have all ofthe other pieces of the puzzle inplace. It’s reasonable to expectthat most technicians can use atest light and a DMM. It’s a dif-ferent story when it comes to os-cilloscopes, flash programmingdevices and other sophisticatedpieces of test equipment.You’ll need to do your home-

work regardless of what equip-ment you may have in mind topurchase. OBD II Generic scantools can be had for as little as$50. Much more capable scantools can cost thousands but doso many more things. Bluetooth,wireless and internet-connectedtools are currently popular. It willtake time and effort to comparethe capabilities of the testers vs.their cost and your shop’s gen-uine needs.It’s reasonable to be a little cau-

tious of outlandish claims for anypiece of test equipment, but it’snatural to want to make one pur-

chase that satisfies all possibleneeds. That said, the one-size-fits-all concept is hard to turn into re-ality. There are just too many dif-ferent systems and variables with-in those systems to be consideredto test them all in the best way

with a single device. It’s better toconsider your actual needs andthen find the testers that willmeet them.To make any test equipment

purchase pay for itself, you haveto have a steady flow of work


This Picoscope device converts four-channel signals from oscilloscope probes intographical data that can be viewed, stored and analyzed on laptop computers. The cartin the foreground is great for holding and protecting the equipment.

This specialty box from Picoscope has all of the tools and con-nectors needed for diesel equipment service. All of this ismeant to hook up to a laptop for displaying voltage, current,pressure and other electronic waveforms.

This low-current probe attaches to leads that will connect it toa conventional DVM. This uses and expands the test capabili-ties of existing equipment without having to buy all new.

28 May 2014

Photo courtesy Picoscope

Photo courtesy Picoscope

Photo courtesy AES W

ave

coming in that will use that equip-ment. You also must have thetechnicians who can make theequipment perform, along withthe ability to charge for the use ofthat equipment. The equipmentcannot do it on its own; you needall three pieces of the puzzle.Once you figure out the busi-

ness planning side of it, then it be-comes a question of what to buy.For the tools to really have value,

they must match the skill sets ofthe technicians who’ll be usingthem.At the basic level is the automo-

tive technician who’s been to atrade school and has had electri-cal system training. At a bare min-imum, this person needs a digitalmultimeter and a scan tool. You’dexpect this person to be able toread electrical diagrams and beable to troubleshoot power win-

dows, alternators and starting sys-tems. Using the scan tool, heshould be able to replace sensorsand actuators as needed.At the middle level is the tech-

nician with years of experienceand factory training in additionto a trade school background.He’s able to pick up a lot fromon-the-job training. In additionto the basic test equipment,these technicians will need ac-cess to higher level diagnostictools. Often the special toolsneeded for this kind of work canbe shared among all the techs ina shop, since they’re not neededby every technician every day.The highest level technician—

whether you call him an automo-tive electronic technician, a diag-nostics expert or a driveabilitytech—is the fellow who can goafter issues the scan tools don’tdefine and where changing partscan get to be a very expensive,much-too-experimental way tosolve problems. Techs at this lev-el need to be fluent with the os-cilloscope and other advanceddiagnostic tools.Traditionally, automotive techs

have been expected to buy theirown tools, and this is still true forthe basic stuff. For more expen-


Test bundles like this one are intended to supply all of the needed test gear for specif-ic applications. In this case, all of the related equipment is for HVAC testing.

Test lead kits can actually expand the utility of test equipment byproviding better electrical access to the test points you’re tryingto reach. Some kits are designed specifically for automotive use.

A key element in any oscilloscope reading is knowing what agood waveform is supposed to look like. Waveform libraries canbe offered by the test equipment manufacturer, the iATN net-work and OEM sources. You can also build your own library.

30 May 2014

Photo courtesy HLPcontrols.com.au

Photo courtesy Autonumen.com

Photo courtesy Fluke

sive electronic test equipment—tools a tech may not use on aneveryday basis—it may makemore sense for the shop to buyand maintain it. Sophisticatedscan tools and flash program-ming devices, for example, mayrequire purchase of an annual

software update package. A tech-nician may not have enough usefor an expensive advanced tool tojustify the purchase of one on hisown.The issue of tool ownership is

not just about dollars and cents.It’s also about who will have “own-

ership” in terms of taking care ofthe equipment, making sure itgets updated when needed andrepaired when it breaks. Owner-ship also means making sure thetools are kept clean, treated gen-tly and put away safely at night.Regardless of how you choose torun your shop, you should assignone person the responsibility formaintaining and safeguardingcostly electronic equipment.The most important part of any

test equipment purchase is thetraining and service that shouldcome with it. Over time, it hasbeen shown that hands-on class-room training is the most effec-tive way to teach. It’s also themost expensive in terms of timeoff the job, meals and hotels, etc.All test instruments come withinstruction manuals. The ques-tion is whether your techs’ pa-tience and reading skills are reallygood enough for them to learnthat way.Something of a middle ground

in training are online videos.These can be set up to show howthe equipment connects to thevehicle, what the measurementbeing made looks like and whatto do in response. What can beparticularly effective is to havethe equipment seller come in,show the video, demonstrate themachine and then answer ques-tions. This can often be doneover the lunch break.Of course, it depends on what

you buy, but don’t forget to con-sider what happens to the equip-ment once a new model comesout. In making your businessplan for the tool, it’s reasonableto plan on a five-year life for anytest equipment. You’ll want toknow from the seller what he’lldo to keep your tool up-to-dateand effective into the future.You’ll also need to budget and

plan for this annual updating ex-pense. Believe me, it alwayscomes as an unpleasant expensewhen it comes due if you haven’tbudgeted for it. Lots of test


32 May 2014

Circle #19

equipment becomes obsoletebecause the updates for it werenever budgeted for.Especially for automotive ap-

plications, the desirable thing inelectronic test equipment isportability. Equipment that canmove to the service bay and evenout on the roads for active diag-nostics is a big plus. All of thisdepends on batteries. For sharedtools, it can be very frustratingfor a tech to come to use a pieceof equipment, only to find thelast user didn’t recharge it. Somedealerships keep the tools in theparts department where one per-son is assigned to check out thetools, make sure they stay in us-able condition and see that thebatteries are fully charged.By their nature, test probes

and other connectors seem vul-nerable to breakage. This is es-pecially true in the automotiveservice environment. Even inlaboratory usage, scope probesjust get “used up.” You can saveyourself a lot of heartburn bymaking sure to get the wear &tear items repaired or replacedwhen necessary. Your equipmentsuppliers should be able to tellyou how this can be taken care ofand what will it cost.Another side of this is to have a

good look at the probes, testleads and connectors being of-fered with any piece of equip-ment you might be looking at.These connectors can be some-thing of an afterthought insteadof the critical interface betweenvery sophisticated test equip-ment and the vehicle. It’s also agreat place to look to judge thequality that has been built intoyour big-ticket purchase.Aftermarket universal test

probe kits are available that fit avariety of test devices. Theseprobe kits can actually expandand improve the underlying testinstrument by giving better ac-cess to test points. Backprobes,insulation-piercing probes andcurrent-sensing probes can all

add value to the underlying me-ter or instrument.Devices such as pressure trans-

ducers and thermal couplers canadd capabilities to existing testequipment. These devices convertmeasurements into data that canbe read on a DMM. Another

good example of this are the scopekits that can turn laptops into os-cilloscopes capable of convertingvariable voltages and currents intotime-related information.It’s unfortunate, but equip-

ment does get broken. Laptopscan fall off a fender, cables can


33May 2014

Circle #20

get pulled, stretched or pinched.You need to be prepared for it.The first defense is equipment

that has been built for the envi-ronment in which it will be used.

Tablet-type computers with rub-ber bumpers on the outside willsimply outlast laptop computersoriginally designed for offices.The rubber not only reduces

shock damage, but also the risk ofthe test gear sliding or falling offthe surface on which it’s resting.Your goal should be to buy only

what your shop genuinely needsand can effectively use. This re-quires focus and planning. Yourfirst task is to identify the test ca-pability you need. The internetcan then be a great help in termsof identifying all of the possiblesuppliers of that kind of equip-ment. Further reading will showyou how the different machinescompare. Once the machine isselected, it then becomes a mat-ter of installation and training. Ifyou’ve done your homework andplanned well, what happens afterthat will be profits.


34 May 2014

This article can be found online atwww.motormagazine.com.

Circle #21 Circle #22

This CAN breakout box is a tool for advanced technicians knowledgeable about databus structures and problems. By giving full access to the system without disturbing it,it opens the door to more diagnostic information.

Photo courtesy OTC

herramientas diagnostico electronico

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