In Cylinder Pressure Transducer providers
I have been diagnosing and finding more to do with pressure transducers. I have been working with them on various engine and hydraulic equipment for years.
Recently my PICO transducer kit suffered an accident and I miss having it in my tool arsenal. My questions are:
- As anyone had good luck with another provider or brand? I am sure I could fabricate my own, but I don't think it would provide a clean enough signal for critical testing purposes.
- As anyone out there fabricated their own good working unit and would be willing to share their design drawing and materials list
Due to current pandemic and the economy being in flux, I am watching my budget much closer so I am not inclined spend a lot of money to buy another PICO kit yet.
Has anyone used a Ditex PDS500X? Is there a U.S. Source to purchase.
They are happy to sell me new one, but I am not planning to go that route for the moment.
Did you contact Pico on repairing yours? They may give you some consideration on a new one if yours can't be repaired? I'm sure you probably could use a fuel rail pressure sensor from a gdi engine, but you would have to provide separate power and ground and it's probably a 5 volt sensor. Then there is calibrating it voltage/pressure unless you just trying to map out changes in pressure. Good luck
There is no repair for this one, it was stuck by an mechanical fan on and old truck I was testing.
autoscope.eu/products I had had the px 35 for years , great tool, get the extention. I have three vacuum transducer and ac couple adapper you will find them searching for accesorios for the usbauto scope 3. And on 4 the extention for transducer, contac them by email .
I have been using the Fluke pv350 for a few years and am happy with it. It is a good mid grade unit, not as good as the WPS, but better than the cheap ones you could buy to make your own. I can send you some waveforms if you want. It gives more resolution when used on metric setting. Beware the new one's are a digital output so they are no good for displaying in cylinder, have to get an old one…
The signal of th pv 350 is very noisye , but is good I have it , I love the px35. With out filter there
Thanks, I have never heard of that one, but the price is nice (as long as shipping isn't too high). It looks like it has a special plug on it and I did not see a banana or bnc adaptor. How are you attaching it to your Pico?
The one f auto usb scope 3 is the same connector as pico bnc I use it with pico with out adapters, not bad the shipping. I have difeent accesorios from them to use it with pico . You will need the extension for the incilinder transducer solid pipe .
Cool, thanks, for some reason it didn't look like BNC to me in the pics.
The IV Autoscope transducers use an XLR connector while the scope has a PIN-3 connector. The additional conductor is necessary since the transducer needs power to operate. So, the cable has PIN-3 connector on one end and an XLR connector on the other end. One could easily make an adapter, or simply remove and replace the PIN-3 connector.
How do you get the px35 to work with the picoscope? I have AutoscopeIV and Pico 4425. I love both scopes but anything to do with transducers and incylinder testing I go for the AutoscopeIV.
For the versión 4 and 5 the sell the adapters. The version 3 is same than pico the end of testing leads . That web site I sent have them .
youtu.be/TdVszkCzRYE I’ve been going to get one of these. The seller has several models that you can pick from. Only one is this 12v. All others are 5V. Rotkee.com is a Russian site that has pressure transducers at low costs. Though the shipping is a bit high.
Stephen, not bad for a DIY rig. However, the video tests only the 12v, 150psi (10bar) transducer. How other transducers handle pressures below atmospheric is yet to be seen – there had been surprises with eBay specials… Also, a high-volume compression hose is used, which skews pressure values significantly downward — may be not a big deal in DIY world, but the peak values will be nowhere close…
Since the hose is not supplied, it would be up to the user to connect an appropriate hose. Hose induced error should not be blamed on the unit. I prefer a short grease gun hose. The accuracy may not be up to laboratory standards but, I don’t find that required for repair work. I’ll send one to you if you’ll test it and report.
Let me clarify — with a 150 psi transducer you almost have to use a high-volume hose, otherwise cranking pressure peaks will be clipped for many engines (e.g, Toyota Camry 2AZ-FE, compression peak spec is 198psi).
You caught me, again. I knew what the upper pressure range was but didn’t think to relate it to normal compression. 150psi isn’t high enough for general testing. Thanks for your help.
Glenn, you will only spend more in the long run with this idea… your never going to be satisfied with anything else after using the WPS. This equipment is worth every penny!! I tried for years to get around paying for the WPS it was a mistake and I wasted time & money on inferior products.
Thanks Bill for your input on this. I have been watching several online DIY types fabricate their own and then show the results. Some of their results remind me of the old Snap On Vantage graphing multimeter patterns and are hard to discern good from bad when looking at the patterns. Not very good at all. I had already figured a $15.00 Ebay transducer would not be top quality. I like the ATS…
Another option I have found is the Honeywell absolute pressure transducer, this one will read the negative pressures that is required for in cylinder testing and is pretty economical price, you can pair it with a 5v reference box from Jarhead diagnostics and you have a cheaper solution. Here is a link to the youtube video from dave sterl youtube.com/watch?v=bSzT0E….
some folks are trying out the wps 500 clone or very close (8) 3 Range Pressure Transducer. In Cylinder Analysis Tool. JH APT-100 - YouTubePT-100 - YouTube another option might be: (8) Advanced In-Cylinder Pressure Transducer Kit PDS500x - YouTube
Thanks for the info, I will check into these a little further.
Glenn- The ATS transducers are very good. The only issue is,if you dont have an Escope, you'll have to buy add-ons for it to work with your Pscope. However. should you go that route, its cheaper to add more transducers or even a Pressure Pro later down the road.
Thanks Rudy M., I mostly used my Snap On Verus for mobile work and the PICO for in shop diags. I like the stuff ATS sells, they are the ‘Mercedes’ of diagnostic equipment and priced like it. I have to pick up a lot more field diagnostic work before I can ever consider getting into that level of equipment. As for their transducers, they are some of the best. I can buy the cable used with it and…
I will go ahead a call this resolved for now. I have a loaner unit with a commitment to show the tech how to use it more. Eventually I will pull enough money together and purchase a new unit. I like to buy things out right and not deal with drawn out payments. Thanks to all of you that replied.