cut front panel is easy, soldering bga is risky for me... so i'll leave it like that.. better not having LA than loosing the whole DHO...
I can't really imagine that there could be people who, in order to "save" 200 bucks(DHO804-->DHO914), would tinker with their scope by cutting holes in the case and soldering around the circuit board.
Honestly, I don't think it's that difficult. The front panel is covered by a label, you make a nice cover for it from PC, paper or carbon fiber or whatever, and then your plastic cutting skills won't even show.
I can't really imagine that there could be people who, in order to "save" 200 bucks(DHO804-->DHO914), would tinker with their scope by cutting holes in the case and soldering around the circuit board.
Wouldn't be for me either. With the DHO800/900 series, the only "hack" worth doing is the bandwidth upgrade from DHO804 to 814, in my opinion. With the DHO900 models, you get actual hardware upgrades for every increment in price, and I think the pricing is reasonable:
- Logic analyzer port $100 (all DHO900 models)
- Signal generator $100 (DHO9xxS models)
- Four 350 MHz probes and more bandwidth, although with marginal sampling rate, $100 (DHO924 model)
The only nuisance is that there is no DHO904 model to start with. Hence if one is interested in any of the 9xx features, one actually has to pay an additional $100 (over the 804) for the 125 MHz bandwidth and can't apply any hack...
I really don't think the bigger models are worth it. There are better models at the same price, or just slightly above. The price all adds up. Plus this thing is tiny, I would much rather have a bigger scope with bigger screen and more buttons and features. You know the ones that you only need few times, but if you don't have it...
BTW did we figure it out already if the 12 bitis just a marketing gimmick or actually useful on this scope?