Hacking the Rigol MSO5000 - Dr Mefisto Licensing Method

[BTO]

- I make an effort whenever copying things from word to put it in a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++ before pasting

This isn't really a workable solution as even simple text editors these days support (and generally default to) Unicode.  You often have to go out of your way to get plain ASCII, and this can result in data loss as most Unicode symbols have no ASCII equivalent.

FYI, I originally copied and pasted the bad command line posted earlier into Visual Studio Code on Win10 and saved it as a text file.  I could then see the character data as Unicode in hex view, which I posted above.

Just now, I did the same on my Mac using textEdit - the native text editor app on MacOS.  By default it saves in RTF format, but I changed preferences to use plain text.  I then confirmed that it also saved that hyphen/en-dash as Unicode by using the Hex Fiend app.  For some reason Visual Studio Code on Mac isn't displaying anything for me in Hex Editor view.  I can of course also see the hex data using od or xxd command line tools.

As far as I know there is no Notepad++ for Mac.  The equivalent was probably TextWrangler, now replaced by BBEdit, but I don't have those as I have standardized to VS Code across all my machines these days.

This isn't really a workable solution as even simple text editors these days support (and generally default to) Unicode. 

- Well, putting all scope activation matters aside.
  I work on Linux (Zorin and Parrot) as well as Windows (7, 10, 11).
  I rarely jump on Mac but i do have one but the wife uses it more than i do.
  Now in the past whenever i've had to remove formatting i always threw it in notepad or notepad++ and it has ALWAYS Worked, Without Fail !

I've never personally had that problem with Mac, then again i haven't done a majority of coding in Mac only Windows and Linux really.

As far as I know there is no Notepad++ for Mac

- You're Correct... To my knowledge Notepad++ doesn't support Mac, although.. How hard is it really to find a text editor or source code editor ?

If Mac users are having these issues they can just throw the code into a text editor then copy it out of it can't they.
I can also (if it'll work) Create a Notepad document with the raw codes needed without the formatting

NB.  The formatting was put there in the first place (since you mentioned it earlier) to "Newbie Proof" the process so they don't brick their scopes or get confused as to what code to use. That's why i edited the text and colourized it.

So Instead of me changing the original document i suppose they have these 3 options

1. Copy it as is from the document and likely in most cases it will work
2. If it doesn't, Type it in Manually
3. I could make a text document and put a reference to it in the pdf and the txt document on the cloud so they can copy straight out of it

This also doesn't seem like it's a big problem
1. I've only heard of it happening once (now) over hundreds of successful activations
2. I mean... They can type it in manually can't they ? and it'll work
3. In any case, it's going to be occurring in a very very small number of cases so couldn't i then handle that on a case by case basis

But hey, i'm willing to put in a bit of effort if it'll help people, So far the PDF has been successful with many many activations so on those grounds
i'm inclined to keep it as is.
As i said, Maybe i could include a .txt doc    What do you think ?

[clefranc]

Hi,
Thanks a lot for the easy patch! I really appreciate it—I couldn’t afford all those options on my Rigol.

I did run into a small issue when using the script. After manually installing Python on my Windows 11 system, the "python" command wasn't recognized; only "py" was. Since the script uses "python" as the command, I resolved this by adding the following PowerShell alias so both "py" and "python" would work:

Code: [Select]

Set-Alias -Name python -Value py
Alternatively, installing Python from the Microsoft Store ensures "python" is recognized right away (who knew!).

[Kangfu]

Hi all,

first of all thank you for the great effort and tutorials on the MSO Series.

I just wanted to info about a fix I did for me in the python script, sorry if this was already covered and I didn't read the correct page.

I had to exchange the Regex from:
#SERIAL_PAT = re.compile(rb'RIGOL TECHNOLOGIES\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\n\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)$')
to this:
SERIAL_PAT = re.compile(rb'RIGOL TECHNOLOGIES\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\n\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\n\$(.+?)\$(.+?)$')

as there was a second new line in my response instead of a $, i have 4 times 3 digit ip adress.
so maybe these new lines can happen on different systems depending on string size?

So here is a general new Regex with matching $ or Newline and not interfering with the group numbers
SERIAL_PAT = re.compile(rb'RIGOL TECHNOLOGIES(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)$')

best regards and thanks again!

[andser]

Hi, BTO!
Thanks a lot for your great work!
I've successfully licenced my MSO5074.
One little question. Is it required to update my scope to the latest version 1.3.3.0 or I can stay at 1.3.2.2?

Thanks

[BTO]

Hi all,

first of all thank you for the great effort and tutorials on the MSO Series.

I just wanted to info about a fix I did for me in the python script, sorry if this was already covered and I didn't read the correct page.

I had to exchange the Regex from:
#SERIAL_PAT = re.compile(rb'RIGOL TECHNOLOGIES\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\n\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)$')
to this:
SERIAL_PAT = re.compile(rb'RIGOL TECHNOLOGIES\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\n\$(.+?)\$(.+?)\n\$(.+?)\$(.+?)$')

as there was a second new line in my response instead of a $, i have 4 times 3 digit ip adress.
so maybe these new lines can happen on different systems depending on string size?

So here is a general new Regex with matching $ or Newline and not interfering with the group numbers
SERIAL_PAT = re.compile(rb'RIGOL TECHNOLOGIES(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)(?:\n|\$)(.+?)$')

best regards and thanks again!

Thanks for that, i'll have a look at it over the next few days

[BTO]

Hi, BTO!
Thanks a lot for your great work!
I've successfully licenced my MSO5074.
One little question. Is it required to update my scope to the latest version 1.3.3.0 or I can stay at 1.3.2.2?

Thanks

Assuming you used the latest licensing Method script and not the Patch method.
NO. it's not strictly necessary to upgrade to the latest firmware version, Although it is recommended.
You can stay on 1.3.2.2 if you like.
Hell you can even stay on 1.3.1.1 if you like. it's up to you.  But i do recommend keeping up with the latest version
Also understand..... Regarding VNC Viewer ,  it isn't supported on versions below 1.3.2.2  i'm pretty sure on 2.2 is it , and i know it definitely is on 1.3.3.3.0
so keep that in mind as well

[andser]

And if I stay at 1.3.2.2 (which was installed at the factory), use licensing method, should i recalibrate the scope after all?

[BTO]

And if I stay at 1.3.2.2 (which was installed at the factory), use licensing method, should i recalibrate the scope after all?

1. You can stay on whichever version you like if you used the Licensing Method to activate your options on your scope.

2. Regardless of which version you choose to stay on IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED......AFTER EACH VERSION CHANGE that you run the following

SELF CALIBRATION
SELF TEST (this consists of 3 tests)

However of all of them the Calibration is the most important, Now it's not like your scope will blow up if you don't run a self cal
and it's not like your readings will be incorrect necessarily

but .. there are reasons why we follow these procedures, and you as a beginner should make it good practice to follow them until you understand
when and where you don't need to.

so YES, YOU SHOULD RUN A SELF CALIBRATION after the upgrade