Hi All,
After coming across the following webpage (
https://sigrok.org/wiki/Pico_Technology_PicoScope_3206), it got me wondering if an upgrade to a higher bandwidth model would be possible by changing the contents of the 24AA256 eeprom chip.
After some experimentation, I discovered that byte "0B" actually defines the device type AND that it can be altered!
My scope, a 5442B, originally had the hex value of "1C" for byte "0B". Using the attached table with device models, a 5444B is listed
4 places "higher" than the 5442B. So I incremented "1C" => "20" for byte "0B"
AND lowered the serial number by
4 to keep the sum of the bytes equal (to maintain the checksum @byte "FE" and byte "FF"). My scope is now successfully detected as a 5444B and allows FFT up to 200MHz!
.Remark:ETS mode up to 10GS/s (instead of 2.5GS/s) does however not work, probably due to some hardware differences, but this is the least of my worries.
To allow for easy experimentation, I installed 2 eeprom chips on a socket, and a switch to select between them. This way I can easily switch between the original and the "upgraded" version.
Off course no guarantee this works for all Picoscope models (but the fact that the same structure was used for both 3000-series and 5000-series is a good sign), and also the usual disclaimer that fooling around can brick your device, so do so at your own risk and certainly back-up the original eeprom contents first.