The purpose of this thread is to help/support people with their broken Rigol DS1052E scope.
The most common problem is totally dead scope after unsuccessful firmware "downgrade/upgrade". The only way to recover it is to reprogramm the flash chip (Spansion S29GL064N90TFI04) either via BlackFins's JTAG interface or in external programmer. There is very important part inside the flash with the factory calibration data, which is unique to every unit. These data has to be preserved in a new flash image for proper operation.
Second common issue is partially working scope, which doesn't shows signals correctly after a 100MHz patch (see story of shafri and others for details). These problems are caused by corrupted factory calibraion data which may get corrupted probably when patching via serial cable (especially if you accidentally hit the ENTER instead of sending correct <LF> char). This is the reason, why I strongly recommend:
DO NOT USE SERIAL CABLE!Some people ask me about how to hack scope HW version "xy", FW version "xx.xx.xx". The fact is, that different firmware supports different HW version, so there is
always some risk when you are running the FW that doesn't support your HW version. Please don't ask me if it's safe to downgrade to FW 02.02, if you have HW version "57" or "58" - I don't know
Here's the table which FW supports which HW. Higher FW supports all older HW versions.
HW version | FW version |
58 | 00.02.04.01.00 |
57 | 00.02.04.00.03 |
07 | 00.02.02.02.00 |
WARNING: Do not experiment with undocumented SCPI commands especially if you don't know the correct syntax. You can corrupt or lost some of imortant calibraion data!
Repair history repair date | model | (nick)name | details |
08/28/2010 | DS1052E | lynx / SE | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
10/08/2010 | DS1052E | dimlow / UK | corrupted calibration data (same as shafri: problem description) |
10/08/2010 | DS1052E | shafri (Mechatrommer) | corrupted calibration data (problem description) |
09/20/2010 | DS1052E | jasper / US | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
09/26/2010 | DS1052E | Ben / AU | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
10/26/2010 | DS1052E | Viktor / BY | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
10/27/2010 | DS1052E | Giovambattista / IT | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
11/02/2010 | DS1052E | mainer / AT | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
11/03/2010 | DS1052E | Larry / US | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
11/22/2010 | DS1052E | Peter / AU | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
11/23/2010 | DS1052E | teixeluis | corrupted calibration data (problem description) |
01/03/2011 | DS1102E | Mohammad / IR | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
02/02/2011 | DS1052E | Chris / US | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
02/03/2011 | DS1052E | Mel / UK | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
02/06/2011 | DS1102E | Marlon / US | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
02/11/2011 | DS1052E | nasser32 | corrupted calibration data (same as shafri: problem description) |
02/21/2011 | DS1052E | Brian/ US | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
03/09/2011 | DS1052E | David / AU | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
04/28/2011 | DS1052E | Denis / RU | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
05/05/2011 | DS1052E | Hans / NL | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
06/01/2011 | DS1052D | Rob / NL | corrupted calibration data |
06/29/2011 | DS1052E | Andres / ES | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
10/01/2011 | DS1052E | Ray / UK | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
10/16/2011 | DS1052E | Jeremy / AU | corrupted calibration data |
10/17/2011 | DS1052E | Doug / US | corrupted calibration data |
11/24/2011 | DS1052E | Aleksandr / RU | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
04/10/2012 | DS1052E | Rob / UK | corrupted calibration data |
... |
02/11/2019 | DS1052E | Bruzzel / DE | wrong firmware flashed |
02/17/2019 | DS1042C | Taras / UA | bricked after unsuccessful FW upgrade |
02/21/2019 | DS1302CA | ivi_yak / UA | wrong firmware flashed |