Hello my name is John Kelly and this is the WeberAuto YouTube Channel. In the
early spring of 2015 I shot a five part video series on different vibration
analyzers there were available on the market. Since then some of them are no
longer available, and also a new vibration analyzer as hit the market and
that vibration analyzer is right here. It is just simply your smartphone. There is a
vibration analyzer app called NVH which stands for Noise Vibration and
Harshness, and it works on iPhones and iPads that have GPS built into them. it
works on all the other iPhones that run the current operating system, it only
works on iPads that have GPS, and those models are the ones that have wifi
connection and cellular connection capabilities. This one app along with the
hardware in your smartphone, and there is an Android version coming later this
summer,
can do almost everything that every one of these vibration analyzers does. And it
does it for a lot cheaper and is a lot quicker. So just a quick reminder of what
vibration analyzers are out there. There is the Syrometer which is still
available, you can buy it on the internet for around $35-$40, Briggs and Stratton
small engine places use it to set engine RPM. There is a resonant reed tachometer,
I did a video on the syrometer and the resonant reed tachometer,
that was my part 1 video along with basics of automotive vibrations. But also
in an additional video, the second video, was on the electronic vibration analyzer,
and there's a early version that came out in 1991 with the red
keypad, there's a blue version the came out in 1998 with the blue keypad, its a
later version called the EVA2, both of these I purchased off of ebay they cost
me around $400 each
both of them are in almost perfect shape because they have not been used by
dealership technicians these typically would sit in the back tool room and
nobody would ever use them because they were too difficult to use, it was too
difficult to understand what the EVA was displaying, an quite simply all it
was displaying was vibration frequencies and vibration amplitude levels, but it
did not help you determine what part on the vehicle was responsible for the
vibration, the second EVA the EVA2 with the blue keypad, it attempted to do
so but it only had software that was written up through 1998, and has only
worked on GM vehicles. the next tool that I did a separate video on is right
here, was from, initially from, Vetronix corporation, the MTS 4.000, there's also
an MTS 4100, and the price to go with it matches the model number, they were right
around $4,000, a whole bunch of money, but they were a little bit smarter than the
EVAs, they had a link connection to read engine rpm and and drive shaft speed and
then it had a vibration sensor that, just like the EVA's vibration sensor, would be
used to read vibration frequencies and
amplitude levels, but when I purchased this myself several years ago, it only
had Chrysler software on it yet I bought from Ford Rotunda tools, Ford is still
using this today, it's outdated you can't buy anymore from Vetronix, they've been
bought out by Bosch automotive service solutions. Rotonda still has
it on their website to purchase it around $2600, a whole bunch of money for a
really old outdated tool that doesn't work that well. All of these first five
tools here that have showed you could benefit from a piece of software called
Vibrate 5.1, I'm the one that actually wrote that software clear back in 1994
and have updated as ever since, and basically what this software does is it
takes vibration frequencies, so you take the software, you enter information
about the vehicle you, take the vehicle up to speed where it is vibrating, and across
the bottom of the screen is your engine RPM, across the upper left side of the
screen in the y axis there is your vibration frequency, and you just, while
the vehicle is vibrating, you just mark where your vibration frequency is and
your engine rpm is, and then draw some lines intersecting lines when you pull
over to the side of the road and can safely draw those lines and where those
two lines intersect it will land on top of, or real close to one of these diagonal
lines, well, those diagonal lines are labeled, and this is labeled T1, and
that means it's a first-order tire speed related vibration, and the help file
that's included in my software there has step-by-step instructions,
pardon me, it has step-by-step instructions of how to go through and
identify what is causing the T1 vibration on that vehicle.
Well, this NVH app includes all of the diagnostic procedures and help and even
more that came with original software package, and it's been updated ever
since for the last 22 years, and so that's part of this in NVH app package. This
will take the vibration frequencies, match them to the rotational parts on
the car, and tell you which group of parts is responsible for the vibration.
Now the latest vibration analyzer on the market prior to this NVH app coming out,
is from PicoScope. To use the Picoscope NVH analyzer you need the Pico
oscilloscope, this is from Picotech.com and you need to go on and
purchase a Pico oscilloscope, basically it's a digital storage oscilloscope that
is connected through USB cable to a laptop computer so you also need a
laptop computer along with this
Pico scope interface box and this is a full-fledged electronic oscilloscope it
does a great job for electrical diagnosis it's not just for vibration
diagnosis, they've been around for a long time they know what they're doing as far
as automotive oscilloscope is concerned and they do a great job with that and
they are constantly updating their software and the software updates
are free to download.
Well there's an accessory kit it's called the NVH diagnostic kit that you
can buy to connect to the Pico oscilloscope to turn it into a vibration
analyzer package, and there's a separate piece of software the download for free
from Picoauto.com and it will turn the oscilloscope into a vibration
analyzer, so in order to use the Pico scope you have a laptop, you have the
picoscope scope box itself, you have the NVH diagnostic kit, which they're two
different ones there's a three-axis one that measures the XY and Z axis which
are up and down left and right forward and backwards as far as vibrations on
the vehicle
some people think that's helpful, you need some sort of a data link connector
interface, a USB data link connector interface, here's a generic one from Elm,
an Elm 327 hardwired one, I've not been able to make any wireless or Bluetooth
327s work, but it works with all of the factory data link connector interfaces
that are out there that I've played with, you also have as an option as single
channel NVH interface box and as you can see here on this oscilloscope box I've
got the three colored wires for the three-axis oscilloscope we've got a
fourth wire connected up here, that's not a fourth axis as some people have heard
say, it's just an additional sensor. So you have got a possibility of two sensors there.
Well your iPhone or Android device has a three-axis accelerometer already built
into it the NVH diagnostic kit is around $850 the Picoscope box itself is
anywhere from $1300 to $1500
there is an optional kit that you can buy to balance driveshafts through them
it's another $800, and you're looking at close to $3,000 for a total vibration
diagnostic and drive shaft balancing kit now this and NVH as I may have mentioned
does not balance propshafts currently or driveshafts, just different name for
the same part, but we are working on that I think I've got away figured out to
make that happen, but my point here is guys; welcome to 2016, we have
everybody has this piece of hardware in their pocket you have a smartphone you
already have a three-axis accelerometer some of them have a six axis
accelerometer gyroscope so it has six inputs, they're very sensitive for gaming
they're very sensitive for vibration diagnostics, particularly in the
frequency ranges that automobiles have vibrations, and so you've already got the
hardware this app is around $400, that's a lot of money for a app, but your other
option is to spend a whole bunch more money on one of these other ones. I told
you that just off of ebay alone a paid almost $400 apiece for the to EVAs and
4,000 for the MTS 4000, and close to $3,000 for the Pico kit here through
our school, and we paid another
I think it is around $600-700 for the three-axis kit just to connect
to the existing picoscope that we already had, so it's a very inexpensive option to use
the NVH app, and look no cords! You're not carrying all of these extra cords
there's no huge amount of time getting it out, setting it up, I don't know
about you but every time I turn on my stupid laptop, if its Windows, there's
Windows updates to do, you don't have any of that, you just turn this thing on
and it goes, and that is the NVH app, and its available on, like I said he works
the same app is built for both iPads and iPhones, it'll work on Android's
later on this summer, so this is just been a quick introduction to the NVH
app that was just released a couple of weeks ago, and I will do another video
showing the use of the app
proving to you that it works just as well, if not better, than any of these
other vibration analyzers out there, but it does not do drive shaft balancing at
the moment.
Allright, thank you for watching.