Pico Technical Support and Discussion Forum

Guest · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: mixmaster setup on 3423

hi guys

totally new to the pico experience, havent tested much yet

im trying to set up a mixmaster

ive looked in the user guide and it say to select Automotive menu-> ignition -> secondary -> secondary distributor

problem for me is that there are 2 options and neither give the same screen appearance as in the user manual

my choices are 1. secondary distributor (king lead) 2. secondary distributor (plug lead)

im using version 6 . 0 . 12 . 2

Autonerdz · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:33 pm Post subject: Mixmaster

I recommend that you do not use any of the automotive menu setups for live captures. None of them are optimized for good performance. They are a good resource for examples but not good for field setups.

You will have much better results setting up manually.

Choose a secondary custom probe range with the polarity to match the bank polarity attached to that channel. Dial samples up to the maximum and place enough time on the screen to see at least one engine cycle.

When setup properly for a split bank capture with trigger, it will look something like the example below.

Tom Roberts
(The Picotologist)
http://www.autonerdz.com
skype: autonerdz
THE PicoScope Automotive Authority
In North America

Guest · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:16 am Post subject:

the car doesnt have banks...

its an Australian Ford falcon (1995 EF) straight 6, it has a coil pack (3 coils)...

wondered should i use just bank A on the mixmaster, cause if i use 2 banks then 3 coils doesnt divide evenly...

ive got the 4 channel automotive kit.....do i use channel 4 as trigger and what settings would u suggest for it??

thanks

gogetta

Autonerdz · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:25 am Post subject: Mixmaster

Gogetta,

By banks, I meant positive and negative cylinder groups. I am not familiar with your application. If I understand correctly, you have three coils in a waste spark arrangement on a 6 cyl. Half the cylinders will be positively fired and the other half negatively fired. Divide the positive and negative cylinders between Bank A and Bank B on the Mixmaster. You can use a third channel on the scope for trigger. You may combine the output to Bank A with the A+B switch but you still must segregate the positive and negative firing cylinders because the negative fired ones will have to be inverted either with the appropriate scope probe setting or the invert switch for Bank B on the Mixmaster.

If your firing order is 153624, then cyls 1,5,and 3 will be on one bank and cyls 6,2, and 4 the other.

Hope this helps.

You can see most of the settings in the image I posted. If you cannot see it as a guest, then register Wink

Tom Roberts
(The Picotologist)
http://www.autonerdz.com
skype: autonerdz
THE PicoScope Automotive Authority
In North America

Guest · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:05 am Post subject:

hi there,

had some success with it all seems to be doing what its supposed to be doing

but i think the laptop cant display the results very smoothly.....seems the "framerate" is not fast enough

im running on a dell c610

P3 1GHz 256MB ram

it also uses usb 1.1

is it likely i need a faster system to run picoscope6

would using an older version of picoscope software make the laptop run better?

thanks for your help

Autonerdz · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject: PC Requirements

Glad you got it working correctly. Very Happy

You are right, you need a system upgrade.

That's not enough PC to run PicoScope 6. Not enough RAM or USB speed. You will be able to do some less demanding tasks with it but you will not be able to go into the high speed streaming modes. The RAM will get used up and the USB 1.1 will also fall down.

Here are the PC resources we recommend at Autonerdz:

Windows XP or Vista 32bit
A processor in the GHz ranges
USB 2.0
1 gig of RAM for XP and 2 gigs for Vista (Vista is a RAM hog)

You can revert to PicoScope 5 for now but you will not have the power and features of PicoScope 6. Pico 5 cannot high speed stream and collect over 2 million samples per channel like 6 can. But you won't be able do it with that PC anyway.

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