Rigol DS1052E 02.05.02 LCD Flicker Issue

[The1]

I had the flickering issue with my Rigol DS1052e HW58 upgraded to DS1102E with latest firmware 02.05.02, it never worried me much but mine developed a severe backlight issue after being carried around offsite and moved around a bit, it seems to be the power joiner connector between the backlight and the psu, so i took out the joiner and soldered the connection directly and there is now no issues, not even the flickering issue. I wonder if the new 02.05.02 firmware makes it more sensitive? Anyone else with the flickering issue willing to test this out? Sorry about the vid only have a phone to capture with.

[Armin_Balija]

Does the 1102E have different impedance values than the 1052E?

[The1]

do you mean for the connnector? I just checked it, mine has 0.4ohm resistance through the connector

[Armin_Balija]

do you mean for the connnector? I just checked it, mine has 0.4ohm resistance through the connector

What could be making it more sensitive after a firmware change?

[The1]

that is the question!

[Mechatrommer]

i think it got nothing to do with fw. its a placebo since the 2.05 bug (and hack protection) discussion in rigol hack thread. i think its something with poorer manufacturing by rigol lately (to reduce cost?). other issues... cracked knobs, non responsive trimpots, blown psu and this flickering screen. and you know what? a f*cking annoying help screen popped out of nowhere!

[The1]

yeh your probably on the money, rigol now knows they'l sell tons of those scopes so if they can cut costs ever so slightly a few extra $$ can be made, i guess it's down to how far will they go?

[Armin_Balija]

Yeah I was going to say is it even possible for firmware to control something like impedance..I know that's a strange (and probably stupid) question.

Then I realized it was on a connector and so I had to kind of take a step back and think if it's just a poorly constructed connector or a firmware bug?

Mech is definitely right I think.

Sorry for not being able to help and just wasting bandwidth

[marmad]

It's definitely firmware related (02.05.02). I've been writing software that takes measurements from the scope, and the faster I poll it, the more flickering that happens. But perhaps The1 (and others) can test the software and see if it produces (any or more) flickering for them as well; I'll upload it a little later and make a note here.

Also, I discovered (although perhaps someone has found this out earlier) why they don't mention reading the Phase measurements from the scope in the programming manual - even though they list all of the other 20 possible measurements.  That's because there's another screen redraw bug when you read the Phase, which causes the scope to write the Phase measurements to oddball parts of the LCD - and those errant writes will remain in the areas of the screen which aren't refreshed (the border all around) until you either swap skins or reboot. I actually think the two bugs are related - at least it seems like it might be when you run the software,

In any case, it's pretty damn annoying. I just bought my scope through a normal dealer here in Europe (with a 30 day free trial), so I'm planning to return it (and keep returning it) until they fix the bug.  Of course, if more customers did that (which I guess isn't likely, given cheap Chinese suppliers), they would have to address the issue.  I just wonder what they're going to do in my case - downgrade me to 02.04.02?


Edit: Uploaded my control software here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=4174.0  - Anyone suffering from the flickering (and even those who aren't) might test this to see if it exacerbates the problem.

Edit: Attached screen capture showing redraw bug of Phase measurement.

[marmad]

Video of flicker and screen redraw bug:

[The1]

nice post up, and ill go give your software a try sounds good! thanks

[The1]

i tried your software and mine still flickers every 30seconds or so, but i havn't yet seen it flicker normally. So it seems it's reduced the issue but not fixed it.