GW INSTEK GDS-1022 Hardware Hack: 25 MHz -> 100 MHz?

[cyberfuzzy]

Hi,

The bandwidth of the GW INSTEK GDS-1022 DSO is limited to 25 MHz. The top model of the GDS-1000 series is the GDS-1102 with a bandwidth of 100 MHz.

Does anyone know if all of the GDS-1000 series scopes have the same hardware?

I was wondering if it is possible to do a hardware hack to upgrade the bandwidth of the GDS-1022 up to 100 MHz.

In a German forum Mr. Thilo M. wrote that he updated the bandwidth of a 60 MHz scope to 100 MHz by changing some DIP-switches inside. You can find the discussion here: http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/107317#1006671

So if that is true - does anyone know how to set the DIP-switches to upgrade it to 100 MHz?

And would the hack depend of the scope's firmware version?

Thanks’ for your answers.

Cyberfuzzy

[ElektronikLabor]

DIP-switch? It sounds too good to be true.
Why don't you just open the scope and look inside?

[cyberfuzzy]

DIP-switch? It sounds too good to be true.
Why don't you just open the scope and look inside?

Yes, that would be the next thing to do. I just wanted to know if anybody already has experience with it.

[cyberfuzzy]

I opened it up and I couldn't find any DIP-switches. But as you can see in the attached image there is a 0 ohm resistor at 1022.

I thought that's it. But after moving it to 1102 nothing changed. The bandwidth is still limited to 25 MHz.

It would be interesting to see a picture of the 0 ohm bridges of a real GDS-1102. Maybe there are more resistors on A, B, C or D?

[cyberfuzzy]

I tried all 16 combinations with 0 ohm resistors at A, B, C and D. But that didn't change anything.

Any other ideas?

[tautech]

Maybe its likely a firmware update AFTER HW changes will update the BW. 

[gabiz_ro]

I know is an old and uninteresting topic but here are some info
That 0 ohm bridges have no electrical connection. Maybe they are used to know what software to write into or in what case to go.

As for firmware part all have same firmware available for many models.There are some other naming variants and even brands according to some strings in firmware.

I take a dump of mine GDS-1022 and also find one from GDS-71042 (models for RU have 7 added in model)
Then I write GDS-71042 dump into GDS-1022 update to same firmware , calibrate and read dump again.
Comparing dumps big differences are in first areas which I think are some hex stream or data for Cyclone II or Max II ? ,I'm not familiar with Altera or clpd or fpga
(Can't find a way to read Cyclone II via JTAG. Reading pof file from Max II via JTAG revealed few differences)
Next is some area where all I find in clear is serial number and few differences but that may be related to calibration.
Rest of dumps are identical.

One interesting thing I found looking for photos for GDS-71102, found on some RU site not hi-res photo but at first look boards looks identical,except markings that are for models with U suffix and have USB port instead of card slot.

So I'm looking for a dump of 29L160 from higher model to see if I can unlock my poor GDS-1022

[nctnico]

If they populate a board differently based on the version, then it is likely the bandwidth is set by hardware (different components in the front-end). You might have more succes identifying the components in the front-end that form the filter and change those. But you better be carefull not to break the hardware.

[cyberfuzzy]

Hello gabiz_ro,

Thank you for the information. I still use the GDS-1022 sometimes and I like the old scope. So this is very interesting for me. Please keep us up to date if you find out more details.

Greetings from Germany

[ptluis]

I know is an old and uninteresting topic but here are some info
That 0 ohm bridges have no electrical connection. Maybe they are used to know what software to write into or in what case to go.

As for firmware part all have same firmware available for many models.There are some other naming variants and even brands according to some strings in firmware.

I take a dump of mine GDS-1022 and also find one from GDS-71042 (models for RU have 7 added in model)
Then I write GDS-71042 dump into GDS-1022 update to same firmware , calibrate and read dump again.
Comparing dumps big differences are in first areas which I think are some hex stream or data for Cyclone II or Max II ? ,I'm not familiar with Altera or clpd or fpga
(Can't find a way to read Cyclone II via JTAG. Reading pof file from Max II via JTAG revealed few differences)
Next is some area where all I find in clear is serial number and few differences but that may be related to calibration.
Rest of dumps are identical.

One interesting thing I found looking for photos for GDS-71102, found on some RU site not hi-res photo but at first look boards looks identical,except markings that are for models with U suffix and have USB port instead of card slot.

So I'm looking for a dump of 29L160 from higher model to see if I can unlock my poor GDS-1022

The "U" version board is not the same. At hardware level only GDS-1042, GDS-1062 and GDS-1102 share the exactly same board as DSG-1022. Only a dump from those units will work.

[gabiz_ro]

Indeed but they look very close to each other.

[ptluis]

Indeed but they look very close to each other.

we just have to find a dump and try. but i have an idea that the firmware is different. i also have a gds-1022 and never got success in unlocking it. but also never try the dump approach because i could never access a superior scope model.

How did you dump your scope firmware?

[nctnico]

Make a picture of the analog front-end. Preferably from different bandwidth versions. My bet is that the difference is in the hardware and the software doesn't care (except for the possible time/div selection).

[gabiz_ro]

Using programmer I read content of flash chip 29l160 and using USB Blaster I read pof file from MAX II
I found only one dump of 29L160 from GDS-71042.

Tried that dump but at first sight didn't get any better.
Didn't do more testing, just measuring output 50Mhz from TCXO from some device and get same result as with original firmware, frequency measured OK sinusoid seems ok but little jagged in both cases.

Since I have dumps and can recovery I tried upgrade to A models by renaming update files,but no go. Next with U models files and that was working.
After that no more sdcard  but message on screen  Fail to init USB.
CH1 seems to work but CH2 acting weird, have a dashed trace and abnormal,and seems to trigger outside signal area.
Self calibration give some errors on CH2 also.   

Write back original dump and is back.

Spotted differences on photo from U model
AD9288 to another vendor maybe not clear WMD9288
HX8802C to HX881? lcd controller
One coil near SDMMC -USB connector,they may use some USB converter off board.
And some traces.

[ptluis]

Using programmer I read content of flash chip 29l160 and using USB Blaster I read pof file from MAX II
I found only one dump of 29L160 from GDS-71042.

Tried that dump but at first sight didn't get any better.
Didn't do more testing, just measuring output 50Mhz from TCXO from some device and get same result as with original firmware, frequency measured OK sinusoid seems ok but little jagged in both cases.

Since I have dumps and can recovery I tried upgrade to A models by renaming update files,but no go. Next with U models files and that was working.
After that no more sdcard  but message on screen  Fail to init USB.
CH1 seems to work but CH2 acting weird, have a dashed trace and abnormal,and seems to trigger outside signal area.
Self calibration give some errors on CH2 also.   

Write back original dump and is back.

Spotted differences on photo from U model
AD9288 to another vendor maybe not clear WMD9288
HX8802C to HX881? lcd controller
One coil near SDMMC -USB connector,they may use some USB converter off board.
And some traces.

Thank you, there should be another simple way to unlock this scope. I search many times but nobody did it.

[gabiz_ro]

Hard to find pictures for these models.
Here is GDS-1022
And IC used
U270 U170   AD8184 ARZ
U290 U190   AD8000 YRDZ
U291 U191   AD8000 YRDZ
U1002 U1003   14094BG
U104 U204   OPA132UA
From unclear pictures found seems to be same IC's on all models