Product review - Hantek 1008C - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Stretch · #1 01-01-2015, 08:49 AM

G'day Folks,

With the purchase of a petrol engined monstrosity I've found the need for an oscilloscope to set up the ignition system and fuel injection system.

At first I thought I could pick up a conventional oscilloscope for a few quid (well here it is euros) and see how things go. Unfortunately in my neck of the woods two channel pieces of junk with round 1950s screens seem to be fetching serious money for what they are...

...shopping around for the same money (just under 85 euros) I found a Hantek 1008C USB oscilloscope that plugs into ye olde laptoppe

It runs on ****dows (XP / 7 / 8) which for me is a serious down side but if I can boot up ****dows and leave it for half an hour to sort itself out (so there's a bit of forward thinking needed here!) I reckon I might be able to get some measurements done on the W201.

Here's a rough breakdown of what this little box of tricks has

It has a signal generator - I won't be needing this for W201 work but could come in handy later on

It has eight analogue input channels

It came with four BNC connectors and wires connected to crocodile clips

It came with one inductance probe that you can clip onto a spark plug wire (only on the insulation!!!) so you can do timing jiggery pokery

The system is designed for "Automotive" use so the bandwidth isn't quite like a normal Oscilloscope but seems pretty much ideal for what I think I can use it for.

So far I haven't used it in anger but I intend to be giving it a go quite soon.

I'll report back and say how I'm getting along with it and perhaps show some pictures of it in use.

If anyone has either this model or something similar I'm interested in hearing from you!

Stretch · #2 01-04-2015, 12:00 PM

Slow progress - bit of a steep learning curve trying to figure out the dodgy translated owners manual (the only other option is Chinese)

Note to self the attenuation for the HT25 probe (that fits on the insulation of the HT leads) is CC65 - CC1100 <= pain in the arse finding that in the documentation

I've got some measurements made but at the moment I don't know what they mean - oh well...

...here's what I'm trying to measure

I've got the HT probe fitted on the lead for cylinder #1

The connections to the X11 socket are well dodgy at the moment => welding wire and crocodile clips is not ideal. (I'm in the process of getting a solution sorted here though => Plug for small X11 diagnostic socket? )

Pin 1 is for the flywheel sensor
Pin 3 is for the O2 / lambda
Pin 4 is on the low tension -tve side of the coil
Pin 7 is the TDC sensor on the front of the engine

I've saved some data from a rough measurement. I'll show that later once I've worked out what it means and where I've gone wrong.

Stretch · #3 01-04-2015, 01:54 PM

Right I think this data is believable

The vertical resolution is pretty dreadful - far too close to the quantisation step sizes - so I need to work out how to get that a bit better. I hope I don't have to amplify the signals before they go into the scope (shouldn't have to - but hey this is cheap stuff)

All the horizontal plots are in seconds

Rough measurements at idle (didn't measure the O2 output because those pins were gonna touch)

This is a strange one - front TDC sensor looks like it "blips" twice.

I'll have to check this out to be sure - the length of the measurement isn't long enough to really see that here.

This has the worst vertical resolution - I couldn't find the calibration value of the inductance probe (found it now - see above)

I got lucky seeing this one pulse on cylinder #1 within this measurement length.

If you look at the top graph you can see the four blips that come off the lumps on the flywheel on the M102. Four blips = one whole revolution of the crank.

Looking at the time of those blips you can see they happen within 0.7 seconds - that's about 14Hz (so 14 crank revolutions in a second) - that's about 840 rpm - idle speed which is what I did the measurement at...

pryantcc · #4 02-21-2015, 05:58 PM

This is interesting Stretch, please keep posting even if there aren't replies! I'm always interested in ways of peeking into the invisible stuff that's going on.
Does the 'scope unit run off the USB power, or is there a separate power supply for it?

Zulfiqar · #5 03-03-2015, 02:48 PM

Im also planning to buy this same unit, its a nice tool to own to look into ignition problems on coil over plug setup cars.

Stretch · #6 03-04-2015, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pryantcc

This is interesting Stretch, please keep posting even if there aren't replies! I'm always interested in ways of peeking into the invisible stuff that's going on.
Does the 'scope unit run off the USB power, or is there a separate power supply for it?

I sure will. I've recently been moving house and have just made a big leap westwards => I'm currently staying with my brother on the edge of Pembrokeshire...

...when I get to grips with the functionality of the thing I'll post up some more information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zulfiqar

Im also planning to buy this same unit, its a nice tool to own to look into ignition problems on coil over plug setup cars.

I thought so too. But I'm not really sure if it is going to be as useful and I thought. I'd like to be able to change the X-axis to show degrees of crank revolution based on TDC trigger pulses which would then help with timing => so far I haven't managed it. It is all very well looking at seconds (or milliseconds) but it doesn't mean all that much for an automotive mechanic's perspective.

TnBob · #7 04-13-2015, 05:31 PM

If you cant adjust the height and horizontal with this... might consider picking up an old O scope and hooking that up. I picked up a dual trace for $15 here.

Stretch · #8 04-14-2015, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnBob

If you cant adjust the height and horizontal with this... might consider picking up an old O scope and hooking that up. I picked up a dual trace for $15 here.

That was exactly what I wanted in the first place but unfortunately round here there's a one in front of the 15...

TnBob · #9 04-14-2015, 02:10 PM

Here ya just gotta love ebay and CL at times.
My scope came from ebay and was calibrated
about a yr before I got it.

TnBob · #10 04-14-2015, 02:46 PM

Lots of user tips on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dgZJ3mM_o

You mentioned the attenuation doc issue. This link take you to a pretty nice set.
www.hantek.com/Product/Hantek1008/Hantek1008_Manual.pdf

Stretch · #11 04-16-2015, 09:15 AM

Thanks Bob,

I'll have a look at that later on when I've got me ducks back in a straight line

Stretch · #12 04-24-2015, 11:46 AM

Look what I needed to buy in a panic =>

To be fair(ish) to the Hantek it is in Wales and I'm in Holland at the moment - though figuring out duty cycle on that silly Windows computer interface was something I'm glad I don't have to worry about just yet.

I will continue with the Hantek thing later on once I get my living circumstances re-arranged.

TnBob · #13 04-24-2015, 10:06 PM

The Extech seems to be a decent meter.