Quick Tip: Over The Air (OTA) Software Upgrade

On recent Apollo, Triton, and Solace tools, you're now able to upgrade the Tools software over the air. 

So let's walk through the process on how to do that with this Triton D10. 

All right, so this tool does need an upgrade, and we can see at the top it's downloading right now. 

The little down arrow indicates that it is downloading. 

So we'll go into Tools and then we'll go down here to where it says Software Updates, and it'll show us that it is downloading the software update right now. 

So once that's done, we'll then be able to install it. 

But once it's done, you'll see a check mark up on the top. 

And all of this, by the way, can happen in the background. 

Just leave the tool on plugged in and you can just let it download and unpack and then it's time to install. 

So we'll click install now and then we have to agree to the terms and conditions of the software. 

Hit agree and then I'll restart a couple times and install OK. 

Once the install is complete then we need to restart the scanner and once it's done we're done. 

All up to date. 

So there we are tools already up to date and this is something that you can do yourself in your shop. 

You can update it automatically, don't have to wait for your snap on representative to come by. 

And like I said, you just do it by yourself. 

You can see there's a host of tests in here, but the first one there Alternator ripple test and it says the view alternator ripple with this tool coupling AC is used.

This subtracts the average value of a waveform and amplifies small variations in the waveform by blocking the DC portions of an input signal.

This method is ideal for viewing alternator ripples.

So this would be the ups and downs between the diodes.

So all we have to do is hook it up as instructed so it says positive on the alternator and negative on battery negative.

Or alternatively we can go alternator positive to battery positive, which is what we've done here.

All we have to do is hit view meter.

It will set it up for us and it'll show us what the ripple looks like.

All right, a little bit of noise but not a major issue here.

You can see a little bit, doesn't look too bad, looks pretty pretty normal.

Humps that appear in the waveform represent the condition of the diode.

So we see a known good pattern here on the top and then if we go down to the bottom you can see the most common failure are shorted or open diodes and you can see the example there where the pattern would drop out.

So as you can see, a quick easy way to test the internals of the alternator.