Tektronix THS7xxx Scope Hack/Teardown/Discussion - FW 1.16 found

[harrimansat]

W8 & W10 & WXP with a USB to serial CH340

[harrimansat]

check this

[walter.aranda]

W8 & W10 & WXP with a USB to serial CH340

Hi I use W10 64bit, and the same USB-RJ45 (serial chip CH340) I attach a photo of product and also the driver.

[harrimansat]

Your cable isn´t compatible with the THS, you need to change pins position. You will need to change the connector or buy a custom RJ45 to RJ45 box

[walter.aranda]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that detail. It's true, the pinout of that cable is different from the THS, so I changed the pin order to match, but I have not received a response. I am using THS7XX.exe and wintek32.exe to perform Hard copy tests. I noticed a peculiarity: I created a program in Python to use the serial port (attached). The program sends a request through the Tx pin and waits for a response on the Rx pin. Looking at the pin order provided by the cable manufacturer, I noticed it does not match, and according to what I saw on the pins (with a logic analyzer), I have the following:

pin 4: GND (blue)
pin 5: Tx (brown)
pin 6: Rx (orange)

This does not match the manufacturer's information, and I have not received any response from the oscilloscope. I also changed the pins to match what the manufacturer indicates and still got no response. Is it possible that to open the THS serial port, a request must first be sent on a certain pin (in the THS.exe program, a series of data is sent through the DCD pin)? Another thing I noticed is that when I press HARDCOPY on the oscilloscope and look at its own pins (with the same scope), I do not get any response from any of its pins when I press that button, is it correct?
Regards

[TERRA Operative]

I used a 'Cisco compatible' RJ45 to USB cable and here's the pinout I used.
I've built a few of these and they work great.

[walter.aranda]

Hello, I followed your advice and bought a cable with an FTDI chip (the ones that are compatible with Cisco). However, I have seen the pin order that you provided in the photo you sent, and I can't understand it since, according to the documentation of this cable, I have the following order:

**Original FTDI cable pinout:**

**RJ45 Male** | **Description** | **Tektronix** 
1. Brown          | CTS                  | DCD 
2. Purple          | DSR                  | DSR 
3. Yellow          | RXD                  | DTR 
4. Red             | GND                  | GND 
5. Black           | GND                  | RxD 
6. Orange        | TXD                   | TxD 
7. Blue            | DTR                   | CTS 
8. Green         | RTS                    | RTS 

And according to what you sent, the pin configuration is:

**RJ45 Male** 
1. RTS 
2. DTR 
3. DSR 
4. GND 
5. TX 
6. RXD 
7. RTS 
8. CTS 

I am attaching an image of:
a) Recommended pin order by Tektronix: (in the panel is the order of the female connector) 
b) Pin order of the FTDI USB-RJ45 cable 

Finally, I don't understand why the Green pin is repeated twice, as for the THS720P this pin is not repeated. I would appreciate it if you could help me. Regards!

[TERRA Operative]

I followed what was done in this link. It's roughly a null-modem setup.
It worked so I didn't look any further into it...
https://ameblo-jp.translate.goog/taku-tp2019/entry-12557695619.html?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ja

RXD/TXD, RTS/CTS, DSR/DTR all need to be transposed between themselves from end to end.
Looking at a null modem pinout, maybe DSR should be connected to DCD at the scope end. Maybe try it and let me know what happens?

[walter.aranda]

I just bought an FTDI cable, and I noticed that the driver was automatically recognized in Windows 10. Another thing I noticed is that the color pattern that arrived here is different from the one commonly used on the internet. This corresponds to the following link:
https://rocstor.com/product/rocstor-premium-cisco-usb-console-cable-usb-type-a-to-rj45-rollover-cable/
However, the pin order follows the Cisco pattern and does not alter its functionality:

| FTDI Cable | Description | New Color Pattern |
|------------|-------------|-------------------|
| 1 Brown    | CTS         | Black             |
| 2 Purple   | DSR         | Brown             |
| 3 Yellow   | RXD         | Red               |
| 4 Red      | GND         | Orange            |
| 5 Black    | GND         | Yellow            |
| 6 Orange   | TXD         | Green             |
| 7 Blue     | DTR         | Blue              |
| 8 Green    | RTS         | Purple            |

I followed your recommendations and arranged the pin order according to the photo you sent me. I also wrote a small program that tests the behavior of the RTS, DTR, and TXD output pins, which I am attaching. The program can work in conjunction with a cheaper network tester (network testers use GND on pin 4 and work perfectly for our purpose).

To summarize, I have not yet succeeded in connecting with the THS. I also noticed that if I connect a network cable and the network tester, pressing the Hardcopy button does not produce any variations in the outputs (I am sending a short video). I now suspect that the serial chip of the THS (hacked THS720P (FV 1.08)from THS710A) might be defective, but I have no way to quickly verify this without another THS to compare with. If anyone has one and could perform this test, it would be helpful...

[walter.aranda]

I just bought an FTDI cable, and I noticed that the driver was automatically recognized in Windows 10. Another thing I noticed is that the color pattern that arrived here is different from the one commonly used on the internet. This corresponds to the following link:
https://rocstor.com/product/rocstor-premium-cisco-usb-console-cable-usb-type-a-to-rj45-rollover-cable/
However, the pin order follows the Cisco pattern and does not alter its functionality:

| FTDI Cable | Description | New Color Pattern |
|------------|-------------|-------------------|
| 1 Brown    | CTS         | Black             |
| 2 Purple   | DSR         | Brown             |
| 3 Yellow   | RXD         | Red               |
| 4 Red      | GND         | Orange            |
| 5 Black    | GND         | Yellow            |
| 6 Orange   | TXD         | Green             |
| 7 Blue     | DTR         | Blue              |
| 8 Green    | RTS         | Purple            |

I followed your recommendations and arranged the pin order according to the photo you sent me. I also wrote a small program that tests the behavior of the RTS, DTR, and TXD output pins, which I am attaching. The program can work in conjunction with a cheaper network tester (network testers use GND on pin 4 and work perfectly for our purpose).

To summarize, I have not yet succeeded in connecting with the THS. I also noticed that if I connect a network cable and the network tester, pressing the Hardcopy button does not produce any variations in the outputs (I am sending a short video). I now suspect that the serial chip of the THS (hacked THS720P (FV 1.08)from THS710A) might be defective, but I have no way to quickly verify this without another THS to compare with. If anyone has one and could perform this test, it would be helpful...

Update: I noticed that by changing the baud rate to 38400 and testing with the THS7XXX HardCopy v1.3.exe program, I successfully performed a HardCopy!!!

Many thanks to 'TERRA Operative' for the help; without you, it would have taken me longer to achieve a good result.

Connection Summary:
- Device: THS710A hacked to THS720P
- Operating System: Windows 10 X64
- FTDI USB-to-RJ45 Cable
- Scope Configuration: baud rate 38400
- Test Program: THS7XX.exe

[walter.aranda]

Hello, thank you for your input. I have been doing some tests here and I noticed that the post-processing options are not working in the program. What could be causing this?

[jal1234]

I am having a similar issue. I've installed THS7xx.exe and SignalAnalysis apps. I can get a hard copy, either single or continuous. But when I press Ch1 under SignalAnalyzer, I either get "The selected channel is not activated" when it is, or "The values of the scope display could not be read out.", or both. HardCopy shows my THS720A as connected. I'm on firmware version 1.11 for the 720A, HardCopy v1.3, and SignalAnalyser v4.0. I'm at the 38,400 baud, using the Tektronix serial cable, direct to a serial port on my CF-19 laptop.
Any ideas?

Jon

[walter.aranda]

Yes, I have not yet been able to solve this problem with the error in post processing, at the moment I am using Wavestar (official Tektronix software), it is a good idea since Tek released the use licenses. It's good, the only bad thing I think is that sometimes it hangs and doesn't let me reopen it and I have to restart the PC.

[jal1234]

I also found SignalAnalysis v4.2, but the same issue.
Where did you find the Wavestar software and license info?
Jon

[harrimansat]

I had the same problem, until I fount out that if you close in process manager some 32 bits process, I don´t remember the name, you can restart wavestar.

[jal1234]

Harrimansat and Walter,
I found a link to various Wavestar versions and the license number to use. What version are you using? I'm having a devil of a time getting the last version to connect. I get a little further with an earlier version that isn't so dependent on TekVisa, but am still having issues. Any tricks?
Edit: I got Version 2.6 to work. I'd like to get version 2.8.1 to work, as 2.6 is limited to 9600 baud, and 2.8.1 can do 38,400 baud.

Jon

[harrimansat]

wavestar 3.0

[jal1234]

I didn't realize 3.0 was available. Just found it. I'll give it a try. Thanks!
Jon

[harrimansat]

For my only works well at 9600 max

[jal1234]

I got 3.0 to work at 9600. I didn't even find an option for anything over that in version 3.0. The option was there in some versions of 2.x, but I couldn't get it to work at all. I someone has figured how to use a higher baud rate in 3.0, I'd like to know about it.
Jon