Tektronix THS7xxx Scope Hack/Teardown/Discussion - FW 1.16 found

[HighVoltage]

I used these scopes a lot, sometimes more than one, to capture signals in vehicles.
But it was not so easy to capture the screen data and the official Tek software sucked big time.

I found a small piece of software once to make a relative fast screen shot to .JPG from the RS232 port.
It worked very well.
If anyone is interested, let me know and I will upload it somewhere.

The only problem hardware problem with these scopes are the rechargeable batteries
The original is really expensive and -I think- not even available any more.

[Fraser]

@Nixxon

I am currently en route to Oslo aboard Fred Olsen's MS Balmoral. We arrive 09:30 tomorrow morning for the Regatta and stay overnight .... looking forward to seeing all the boats 

Aurora

[nixxon]

@Nixxon

I am currently en route to Oslo aboard Fred Olsen's MS Balmoral. We arrive 09:30 tomorrow morning for the Regatta and stay overnight .... looking forward to seeing all the boats 

Aurora

That is cool. I wish you a nice trip to Oslo. According to marinetraffic.com, you and MS Balmoral are currently at position N57º47', E008º33.5' South East of Kristiansand, heading 35º at a calm 11.5 knots. Tomorrow there will be many sails on the fjord. We will sail by MS Balmoral beside Akershus-Fortress between 14:30 and 14:39 as we try to get a good starting position for our class start at 14:40. The starting line is just to the West of your ship and East of Aker Brygge wharf: http://www.visitoslo.com/en/activities-and-attractions/attractions/?TLp=282572&Aker-BrYgge-wharf

[R_G_B_]

If its possible to dump the firmware from the 720p so that you get the additional power measurement options if at all possible?


The firmware for the THS720P is shown on the screen as:


THS720P version 1.6 wed Dec 16 11:48:07 1998

R_G_B

[Zucca]

If it is possible to dump firmware by the RS-232 connection, I will give my RJ-45 <---> DB-9 cable another try when I get back home on Sunday after sailing The Færderen* 2015  - hmm, I wonder if the King** will participate this year...

That would be cool, moreover I want to try to desolder U1 and dump it out... Finally Weekend is here... and I will work on this.

Z

[R_G_B_]

There s a port on the actual PCB underneath the touch pad along side the inverter board have you seen it?

R_G_B

[z01z]

When I reverse R_G_B_'s numbering of both connectors, the measured pins by R_G_B_ matches the info on the Tek FAQ. Pin 8 (on RJ-45) seems not to be connected though.

So, when unscrambled the R_G_B_ values are:

RJ-45 --> DB-9
1 -------> 7
2 -------> 4
3 -------> 6
4 -------> 5
5 -------> 3
6 -------> 2
7 -------> 7
8 -------> not connected

There should be continuity between RJ-45 pins 1 and 7
Could anyone please check if there is continuity between DB-9 pins 1 and 8?
And if RJ-45 pin 8 is connected to DB-9 pin 1 and/or pin 8?

I've checked my cable and it is exactly the same as in the Tek FAQ, except that the RJ45 is reversed. As if the layout pictured the RJ45 socket in the scope, from the outside - or the plug looked at from above with pins on the top, the cable on the bottom and the locking tab underneath and not from the front as the picture shows.

[HighVoltage]

This is the flat-cable and adapter, that came with my THS-720P
Pin 9 is not connected at all.

[nixxon]

I've checked my cable and it is exactly the same as in the Tek FAQ, except that the RJ45 is reversed. As if the layout pictured the RJ45 socket in the scope, from the outside - or the plug looked at from above with pins on the top, the cable on the bottom and the locking tab underneath and not from the front as the picture shows.

That is very interesting news. If you are right, there is no wonder why my cable didn't work.

Now I will have to make a new cable with connectors that are wired like this:

RJ-45 --> DB-9
8 -------> 7
7 -------> 4
6 -------> 6
5 -------> 5
4 -------> 3
3 -------> 2
2 -------> 7
1 -------> 1 & 8

EDIT: It seems that I have managed to base my earlier illustration (in reply #17) on a drawing that shows the wrong RJ-45 pin numbers. My bad.
I will dig out the cable that I made a while back and check if the RJ-45 connector end of this cable is reversed or not.

[Zucca]

This is the flat-cable and adapter, that came with my THS-720P
Pin 9 is not connected at all.

Thanks HighVoltage, you save me to do the same this WE. nixxon I am now curious , does it work now?

[R_G_B_]

Comparing the firmware 1.08 to 1.6 you can see the update speed on the later firmware 1.6 seems faster. Maybe a couple of performance enhancement with regards to waveform update and responsiveness of the UI.

R_G_B

[Zucca]

Comparing the firmware 1.08 to 1.6 you can see the update speed on the later firmware 1.6 seems faster. Maybe a couple of performance enhancement with regards to waveform update and responsiveness of the UI.
R_G_B

I am temped to ship to you my 1.14 and see if you can find any differences... Problem: my THS is now in 2 boxes, after the tear down I never put it back together...
I am finishing my new lab bench and it is taking forever.... 

[R_G_B_]

The 720a I have the version 1.08 0f the firmware.  Tektronix dont seem to have mentioned the details  of each firmware revision.

[R_G_B_]

Looking around the net regards to firmware I found this interesting link:
http://jnaudin.free.fr/meg/ths720p.htm

R_G_B

[HighVoltage]

So, it is not True RMS.
What a surprise, I did not know this about the THS720P.

[Zucca]

So, it is not True RMS.
What a surprise, I did not know this about the THS720P.

Same here... thanks R_G_B for the head´s up.

[R_G_B_]

I think they were referring to this project:

http://jnaudin.free.fr/meg/megv21.htm

R_G_B

[nixxon]

...
Thanks HighVoltage, you save me to do the same this WE. nixxon I am now curious , does it work now?

I finally found the cable that I made a while back. I measured the pins, and it is wired according to the TEK FAQ. The cable itself actually seems to work. In PuTTY, when I enter the string "*IDN?", the return string is "TEKTRONIX, THS720A, 0, CF:91.1CT FV:v1.16".

Now I remember that the problem was to get Tektronix Instrument Manager Service to connect to the scope. I get the following error message no matter what I do: "Device proxy (<whatever name I gave the connection">) is running but the attached hardware is not responding. Response string is ()"

info table reads:
Connection: ASRL1::INSTR
Permissions: RWV
SW Status: Starting
HW Status: Connecting

It does not matter if the scope and/or cable is connected or not.

Both the scope and the PC is set to default values:
Baud rate: 9600
Data bits: 8 (on PC)
Stop bits: 1
Flow control: None
Flagging: Hard flagging ON, Soft flagging OFF (on scope)
EOL / Terminator: LF
Delay/Timeout: 0s / None

Any tips on how to make Tektronix Instrument Manager recognise the scope?

EDIT: I am using TekVISA v. 3.3.4 that came with the most recent WaveStar installer. In Windows 7 you have to use TekVISA v. 4.0.0 or later. Now I will uninstall existing TekVISA and install v. 4.

[HighVoltage]

Any tips on how to make Tektronix Instrument Manager recognise the scope?

I had many problems with the Tektronix Instrument Manager and remember calling Tektronix in those days a lot for help.
But it never worked in a reliable way.

At the end of the day I just needed to save the screen shots and for that I used a different software that worked extremely well.
Then I never went back to the Tektronix Instrument Manager.

At one time I got the LabView drives and integrated the scope in to LabView, which also worked perfectly.
That LabView driver even worked in DasyLab.

 

[nixxon]

Any tips on how to make Tektronix Instrument Manager recognise the scope?

I had many problems with the Tektronix Instrument Manager and remember calling Tektronix in those days a lot for help.
But it never worked in a reliable way.

At the end of the day I just needed to save the screen shots and for that I used a different software that worked extremely well.
Then I never went back to the Tektronix Instrument Manager.

At one time I got the LabView drives and integrated the scope in to LabView, which also worked perfectly.
That LabView driver even worked in DasyLab.

Thank you for your tips. First I will try installing TekVISA v. 4

[nixxon]

It works now    It was the outdated version of TekVISA on a Windows 7 PC that was the problem.    With TekVISA v.4, all is good 

[nixxon]

...
I found a small piece of software once to make a relative fast screen shot to .JPG from the RS232 port.
It worked very well.
If anyone is interested, let me know and I will upload it somewhere.
...

I am interested in this cute little software. Do you still have it available for upload?

[Fraser]

I would also be interested in the little software app to capture the screen.

Best Wishes

Aurora

[TheSteve]

This is the original page that has the screen capture program:
www.bobblick.com/techref/projects/ths720/ths720.html

The URL is long gone but you can still see it using the Way Back Machine. I used the tek.exe program for many years with my THS720.

I have attached the Dos/Windows versions, a Linux perl version(remove the .txt) and the original qbasic source code(again remove the .txt). All of it is credited to the original creator Bob Blick.

[HighVoltage]

The screen capture program that I liked so much is not from Bob Blick.
I am traveling right now, will upload it tomorrow with some screen shots.