LEARNING TOOLS When the tools become the tutor Becoming a valuable technician takes time and comprehension. But using your tools to help conduct the lessons is a priceless commodity. By Brandon Steckler The DSO offers a visual representation of electricity and action/reaction comparative measure of different circuits simultaneously. A ny experienced automotive technician will tell you that most diagnosticians develop their skillset over time, they aren't necessarily born with it; I couldn't agree more. My rate of learning and comprehension drastically increased as I began to implement tools used for diagnostics. VISUALIZING ELECTRICITY I'll begin by describing one of the most valuable tools at a diagnostician's disposal, the DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscope). This tool is highly coveted because it performs all the duties of 16 DECEMBER 2022 VehicleServicePros.com most DVOMs but also offers a visual representation of what is occurring in the circuit. More importantly, most scopes today support this functionality for multiple channels. It's common to see four channels but some even support eight channels. Seeing multiple circuits operate before your eyes has many benefits. Here are a few of my favorites: * History of electrical activity (not just what occurs at a single moment in time) * Action/Reaction view (how these multiple signals interact with one another; example: Input vs Output) * Information stored in a buffer (no need to babysit the scope, it will capture and save the fault) MEASURING DEVICES Another brilliant technology is the ability to plot measuring cursors and rulers. Many scopes will allow for two cursors to be placed vertically (to allow for measuring a single point in time or the delta time between the two cursors). This becomes particularly handy when calculating events like the dwell of an ignition coil or the duration of a spark event. The waveform view itself mayhttp://www.VehicleServicePros.com