Apologies for going somewhat off topic on this, but I figured this would be the best place to ask for advice.
I'm looking to buy a scope. Had my eye on a fully loaded used MSOX2024A from the Keysight eBay store, but have had a busy time the past 1.5 years. Now that I'm finally getting around to it, I see the prices have shot up about 50%.
Plan B, and where this thread becomes relevant, is that I hunt for a DSOX20x4A and used a patched firmware. But on that I have questions, and I was really hoping to benefit from the experience of people who have actually done this or something like it:
Realistically, how much risk is there in doing the hack? From what I've been reading it's now dead simple. And if I understand correctly, we don't even need to telnet into the scope anymore? Just install the firmware from USB?
Is flash corruption still an issue with some units? I remember there was a thing a few years back about scopes suddenly not being able to boot anymore. I think that was flash related, and I know that at the time there was some sort of support from Keysight, but I figure that's long past. Was the cause ever identified?
At the end of the day, do you think I might be better off taking the hit on Keysight's new prices and buying from their eBay store. I realise that's hard to qualify given it's impossible to predict what the alternatives are. (And yes, I've read about their new B2B only policy). The plus points that I can see are there are less likely to be any issues with the scope, they come with full options enabled, and they come with at least a 30 day warranty. The minus is they don't come with accessories, so that would be an additional cost. Though the lack of accessories would probably be the case with other sellers as well.
On a related note, are the logic probes easy to find?
My biggest worry is ending up with a dead unit that's beyond my ability to fix. So I could really use the advice on what I should look out for or avoid.