Lab scope accessories

Hi everyone! I don't really post much on here but hopefully that changes soon since well...... I finally bought a labscope. Been studying and following all of you on here as well as watching Paul's labscope courses to get a good idea on what I was getting myself into. I was about to pull the trigger on a Autel MP408 but after my solus ultra took a dump on me (snap on could no longer repair them) I decided to bite on a 1 year old traded in Zeus my dealer had on the truck. I've been playing around with this scanner quiet a bit and all I gotta say is "WOW". I sure hope some day I can use this tool to it's full potential, I got a long way to go without a doubt. I recently purchased a PDI CA60 amp clamp and now I'm looking at purchasing a secondary ignition probe. I was wondering what everyone would recommend on these. Also would like some input on a COP probe as well. The vehicles I work on use a 3 wire coil which I hear are a little better then the 4 wire? I seen on another post that you can just use some wire wrapped around itself or just use your standard test lead with a alligator clip resting on the coil. Not sure if you all would recommend that to a rookie to try or not. I would prefer not to wreck this one because it was not cheap lol.

00Jake00 wrote:

...I decided to bite on a 1 year old traded in Zeus my dealer had on the truck. I've been playing around with this scanner quiet a bit and all I gotta say is "WOW". I sure hope some day I can use this tool to it's full potential, I got a long way to go without a doubt.

Congrats on the Zeus!

I recently purchased a PDI CA60 amp clamp and now I'm looking at purchasing a secondary ignition probe. I was wondering what everyone would recommend on these.

That clamp comes with banana jacks, no? If it does, I'd just roll with that one. :silly: I've been using the AESWave low amp probe (very similar to your PDI) on my Snap-On and Autel scopes for years and have always been happy.

Only other suggestion I'd make to get a high amp probe at some point for relative compression testing. You CAN use your low amp probe for this, but it's often a struggle to get the jaws around a battery cable. Voltage on AC Coupling works, too, but doesn't work for starter/alternator testing.

Also would like some input on a COP probe as well. The vehicles I work on use a 3 wire coil which I hear are a little better then the 4 wire? I seen on another post that you can just use some wire wrapped around itself or just use your standard test lead with a alligator clip resting on the coil. Not sure if you all would recommend that to a rookie to try or not. I would prefer not to wreck this one because it was not cheap lol.

Was that this thread?

www.scannerdanner.com/forum/lab-scope-di...need-to-buy-one.html

I'm all for making your own secondary probes these days. I own several different probes (AESWave, Pico, Rotkee) but the homemade ones always work better.

If it makes you feel better, I wouldn't worry about damaging the scope on the Zeus. I've never been able to damage a Snap-On scope, or known anyone that did.

Yup the amp clamp has the banana jacks on it. I was looking at a higher amp one but I see fuel pumps,lights,servo motor failures more often then starters so the low amp was higher on the list. A high amp clamp will be on my radar soon though and maybe a pressure transducer set up.
Yes that is the post I was referring too about the COP probes. I'll re read that post and play around with a home made one then. One question I still have is the secondary probes for distributor systems/ignition systems with plug wires. I was checking out the Hantek HT25 and 30's. These probes any good? I'm a bit confused on the attenuator's. On the Hantek spec sheet I found it looks like the probes already have one built in but when I look at the "kits" I see they come with a spare attenuator. Is that just for different scopes?