Pretty straightforward setup. Wanting to be more precise on the actual current (or not having the amp clamp), you can place a low Ohm resistor (e.g. 1 Ohm, @ 1 to 5 Watt) in series with the battery, and monitor the voltage drop across it. Applying Ohm's Law, you can calculate the exact current I = Vdrop / R (with R = 1 Ohm, I = Vdrop).

I never realized drift was because the battery voltage was changing, Thanks!

I owned a Buick with an air ride system with a slow leak. The pump would come on at times at night and drain the battery. I ran the power to the air ride system through a relay powered from the ignition circuit. Problem solved LOL!

Great tutorial video! Thanks for sharing.

Jake, thanks for taking us through this, Intermittent draws can cause us to pull our hair out! Oops, I'm not mentioning any names here! Thanks for Sharing!

Thanks for your time sir

As a BMW technician I have encountered intermittent draws and will answer how this can help you find a draw if there's spikes intermittently and to be honest it just means you have a slow nightmare. I used a guide that bmw has for telecommunications wake up to see if it matches that, the amount of draws also helps pin point ( BMW blower motor final stages coming on ) , also a short test and look at all faults ABL energy diagnosis and wake up analysis may help and as a BMW specialist common pattern failures for that model

I use the BMW IMIB scope it has a close current draw guided test up to 30 hours after 30 hours all is one page. The clamp calibration is by opening and closing the jaw ( it vibrates) this clamp never drifts , reads up to 5ma no problem and the jaw is wide up to 1.5 inches. The best amp clamp on the market. What I don't understand is your set up. I put the negative clamp around the negative cable and monitor voltage directly on the battery posts, disconnecting a battery post will reset modules and may cure draw temporary.

most of the time i will use my fluke 88v with a fluke i30s amp clamp and just hit min, max for the night and see what i have when i come back in the morning.

Sure is an advantage to the BNC+. Got me wondering how long that battery in my clamp will run before dying now. ps i liked the short vid with the analogue meter something about them old needle sweeps, ,A blast from the past lol👍👍

First thumbs up buddy.! 😂

did you end up finding the problem . if so how did you narrow it down to the root cause. thanks for all your videos.

Nice. How much is the amp clamp. Micsig amp clamp is also powered

Why did you remove the main battery connection to install a test lead? Is it as simple as your amp clamp wouldn't fit around the battery cable, or is there some deeper reason?

Grasias

Nice setup Jake! I personally don't trust amp clamps in the mA range... Voltage readings are always more reliable and never drift. Maybe a 1 Ohm resistor would work so the voltage drop would be directly proportional to the current draw? Or a 5A test light that you could calibrate for low amp draws?

I have the Snapon Verus with the low amp clamp that has the 9 volt battery. Could you remove the battery and use a power supply and run it through the night? Nice video and explanation.

Those little spikes are likely just an LED that is flashing somewhere.

OK. SO you log it for hours and hours. And you see at some random times current spikes up. How does that further your diagnosis of the problem??

Have you tried PicoLog 6? Has infinite logging whereas PicoScope 7 has ~14 hr limit. No need for waveform pages either because it all logged into a single waveform with multiple channels. Another cool thing are formulas for the low Ohm resistor method to calculate and convert readings to Amps for you. It supports automotive pico scopes like the 4425A.

PicoLog 6

Generally anything below 100ma is Ok for IOD

Happy Good Friday 👍 My Mentor Automotive Diagnostics & Programming QUICK-WITTED Automotive Diagnostics & Programming Tutorial great thank you very much helpful information video Enjoy your weekend with all your family around you QUICK-WITTED Automotive Diagnostics & Programming From Nick Ayivor from London England UK 🇬🇧 ⏰️ 20:38pm

Great if you can verify an intermittent drainage is happening.. so if yes, then what? Only way you can figure out what the problem is is while it’s happening. So how do you do that? Sync pico to your phone to wake you up when it happens?😏

WELL THAT'S JUST GREAT ,,, I DON'T HAVE THE NEWER PICO SCOPE AND I AM RUNNING PICO 6 I UNDERSTAND THAT'S NO FAULT OF YOURS . I MUST SAY THOUGH THIS IS TRUE ADVANCED LEVEL TESTING SOMETHING I ASSUME YOU DON'T SEE OUTSIDE OF SUPER-SATURDAY OR ONLY AT OTHER HIGH LEVEL TRAINING EVENTS . SO JUST WONDERING IF ,,,,,,, AND I KNOW WE IN THIS AUTO DIAGNOSTIC FIELD DO NOT LIKE THE WORD (IF) BUT HUMOUR ME,,, COULD I BASICALLY DO THIS TEST WITH MY PICO 2204a WHILE RUNNING PICO 6 SOFTWARE AND USING A GOOD BATTERY POWERED AMP CLAMP . MAN YOUR TESTING TECHNIQUES ARE SO FAR AHEAD OF THE REGULAR GUY IT'S AMAZING . PLEASE FOR EVERYBODY'S SAKE PLEASE CONTINUE WITH YOUR CONTENT IT'S LIGHT-YEARS FROM WHAT I SEE ON THE DAILY🙏🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????