Has anyone successfully updated the firmware in an Instek GDS-1062A, or any GDS-1000A series oscilloscope? I've been trying, but just cannot get the scope to go into the "firmware upgrade mode".
Note that this model is from the GDS-1000A series, with 1 Gsample/sec sample rate and a SD card slot on the front panel. It's not from the earlier GDS-1000 series which is limited to 250 Msample/sec, nor is it from the later GDS-1000A-U series which switched to a USB "A" jack on the front panel.
Background:
I bought the 1062A a few years ago. It is running firmware 1.11. It seems to work fine. However, when I visit the Instek support page for this model at
http://www.gwinstek.com/en/product/productdetail.aspx?pid=3&mid=7&id=42 and check the "download" tab, I see that the current firmware is version 1.14, from 2012. So I downloaded the firmware file, plus the document described as "How to Upgrade the Firmware". Should be straightforward, right?
The upgrade document says it is for the GDS-1000/1000A, so it's supposed to cover both SD-card equipped scopes. The document says that the new firmware is in the form of 3 files named "dso1kh.rom", "dso1ks.rom", and "dso1kmon.rom". But the zip file of new firmware for the 1000A series contains files named "dso1kah.rom", "dso1kam.rom", and "dso1kas.rom". I figure that the names in the document were probably for the 1000 series, and got renamed for the 1000A series (note the "1k" in the names became "1ka") without updating the document to say that. So probably not a real problem.
The document says to put the three files into the root directory of a SD card, and insert it in the scope. Then power up the scope while pressing the F1 key (the top menu key just to the right of the screen) several times. The scope is supposed to boot into the firmware upgrade mode. But I've tried following the instructions at least a dozen times and the scope always goes directly into normal operation.
More details:
- I've tried 16 and 256 MB SD cards, freshly formatted as either FAT or FAT32, with nothing else on the card
- The scope detects that the card is inserted, and the scope's File Utilities mode sees the 3 files on the card
- I've tried holding pressing F1 before turning power on and then holding it. I've tried pressing F1 many times during boot.
But the scope never goes into firmware upgrade mode.
I can imagine all sort of possible things that might have gone wrong:
- The jump from 1.11 to 1.14 is too large; it requires something in some version after 1.11 to even recognize 1.14
- The upgrade document is wrong, and there is some other method needed to do firmware upgrades on the 1000A series
- Upgrading firmware requires something else (e.g. a jumper setting on the circuit board) that I don't know about.
But these are just guesses. What I really need is to find someone who has done a successful upgrade, knows how it can be done, and who can see what's wrong in the procedure described in the Instek document (or to point out where my reading comprehension has failed). If you have ever upgraded the firmware in a GDS-1000A series scope, please tell me what worked.
Thanks,
Dave