New Agilent scopes

[DavidDLC]

Here is a picture of my new scope !

[hacklordsniper]

I like the scope but it looks so ugly with right bottom side not populated 

[DavidDLC]

Yes, but well just for that I will not spend extra hundreds of dollars.

Time to look for cool stickers !

 

[saturation]

The blank area meant for channels 3/4 makes a good spot for post-it notes.

[Lance]

The blank area meant for channels 3/4 makes a good spot for post-it notes.

Note to self, buy more underwear.

[mikeselectricstuff]

The blank area meant for channels 3/4 makes a good spot for post-it notes.

Is there enough room to stick one of these on to get an extra channel?

[Leo Bodnar]

I am just about to bite the bullet and get 3000 series 4 channel 200MHz Agilent.
I have a few questions because I can't get my head around some things.

Is MSO-X3024A the same as DSO-X3024A but with a set of logic probe clips? 
I was hoping that MSO has at least SPI serial decoding enabled?  I.e. it is not just two items packed in the same box and given a new name.

How in reality purchasing (un-crippling) upgrades work?  Agilent website says that upgrade options have to be  bought at the same time as the scope itself but none of UK distributors carry any DSOX3000 upgrades.

Many thanks
Leo

[deephaven]

I am just about to bite the bullet and get 3000 series 4 channel 200MHz Agilent.
I have a few questions because I can't get my head around some things.

Is MSO-X3024A the same as DSO-X3024A but with a set of logic probe clips? 
I was hoping that MSO has at least SPI serial decoding enabled?  I.e. it is not just two items packed in the same box and given a new name.

How in reality purchasing (un-crippling) upgrades work?  Agilent website says that upgrade options have to be  bought at the same time as the scope itself but none of UK distributors carry any DSOX3000 upgrades.

Many thanks
Leo

I believe the MSO has the logic analyser circuitry disabled so you can't just get a DSO and plug your own leads into it! You don't get any of the decodes for nothing, but you should be able to buy any of them at a later date because Agilent make a big thing of the series being upgradable. I think it is a bit of a rip-off when each and every decode is seperately charged for - could cost you a fortune if you wanted all of them!

[Leo Bodnar]

I believe the MSO has the logic analyser circuitry disabled so you can't just get a DSO and plug your own leads into it! You don't get any of the decodes for nothing, but you should be able to buy any of them at a later date because Agilent make a big thing of the series being upgradable. I think it is a bit of a rip-off when each and every decode is seperately charged for - could cost you a fortune if you wanted all of them!

So MSO = DSO + logic probes + unlocked analyser input?

I wish there were some DEMO or Pay-As-You-Go codes available.  I would not mind paying e.g. £50 for SPI/I2C decoding option that works for a month or few weeks.  Sometimes you need an extra option for just one specific project and paying £600 for one off use makes no sense (i.e. lost sale for Agilent).  These things have become advanced enough for this sort of opportunities.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I believe the MSO has the logic analyser circuitry disabled so you can't just get a DSO and plug your own leads into it! You don't get any of the decodes for nothing, but you should be able to buy any of them at a later date because Agilent make a big thing of the series being upgradable. I think it is a bit of a rip-off when each and every decode is seperately charged for - could cost you a fortune if you wanted all of them!

So MSO = DSO + logic probes + unlocked analyser input?

I wish the were some DEMO or Pay-As-You-Go codes available.  I would not mind paying e.g. £50 for SPI/I2C decoding option that works for a month or few weeks.  Sometimes you need an extra option for just one specific project and paying £600 for one off use makes no sense (i.e. lost sale for Agilent).  These things have become advanced enough for this sort of opportunities.

There are 14-day evaluation licenses for many of the options, but a bit hidden on the website - find the product page for the option, e.g. UART and look for 'get a 14-day trial licence'.

Hopefully Agilent have streamlined the upgarde process since I upgraded the mem on my MSO6000 : Place enquiry on website, wait 2 days for call from sales guy, get piece of paper fedexed from USA, enter number on said paper on website to get key to enter into scope - total time about a week.
May be worth checking if upgrade price is more than price installed from new. May also be worth talking to distributor & humming & harring over whether to get the MSO to see if any discounts are forthcoming to swing the deal.

BTW I just noticed thay have released a software update

[Leo Bodnar]

BTW I just noticed thay have released a software update

Nice catch!

• CAN baud rate now supports up to 5 Mbits/s

Interesting, I have never seen CAN bus with speeds above 1Mbps.

[tnt]

BTW I just noticed thay have released a software update

I saw that this afternoon. I already requested their u-boot source code since it's GPL (very quick unpack shows they use it as bootloader and it's custom modified).

[mikeselectricstuff]

I just found this page with all the trial licenses on it

[EEVblog]

So MSO = DSO + logic probes + unlocked analyser input?

Correct. If you buy the DSO and then "upgrade" to MSO later, they ship you the leads and license.

I wish there were some DEMO or Pay-As-You-Go codes available.  I would not mind paying e.g. £50 for SPI/I2C decoding option that works for a month or few weeks.  Sometimes you need an extra option for just one specific project and paying £600 for one off use makes no sense (i.e. lost sale for Agilent).  These things have become advanced enough for this sort of opportunities.

You can download a timed trial of the options, so you get the full functionality for 14(?) days.

I agree that the rental model could work and would be good, they have everything in place for it. Shame they haven't done it.

Dave.

[tinhead]

Maybe you should change to date before you download that! to say maybe a few years in the future ?

Not possible, I set the time to 8:31 am instead of 8:31 pm, I didn't check the time format, and when tried to install the 14 days trial for the Wave Generator it complained about different time and didn't install.

this is what JTAG is for ... you should make a fw/NAND dump, use 14 days ... restore, use another 14 days .. only gues but probably it will work.

BTW I just noticed thay have released a software update

yep, i love it, all files compiled with debug information. Maybe I should ask Agilent how much they will pay
to prevent me from hack publishing ? Anyway, can't prove without hardware and trial license here
(and my "master" Eva said "no reason for another one scope, but a new kitchen"). Sooner or later someone else will post it anyway.


Interessting to see that there is 1M memory option already compiled, so probably as future option for DSOX2000.

[grenert]

Interessting to see that there is 1M memory option already compiled, so probably as future option for DSOX2000.

That sounds interesting!!!  Where did you find this?

[tinhead]

Interessting to see that there is 1M memory option already compiled, so probably as future option for DSOX2000.

That sounds interesting!!!  Where did you find this?

in the firmware, infiniiVisionCore.dll (which btw. is handling most licensing part - that's where you can force by patchiing some licences,
the another part is in Agilent.Cdf.Api.dll which defines the license storage, which is a clean way to define license - that's for those who whish to play a bit dangerous game)

"4Mpts   2Mpts   1Mpts   100Kpts Memory License" - i gues as 2Mpts is the lowest license value for DSOX3xxx the 1Mpts will be for DSOX2xxx.


And btw, Dave was right, IsExpired is calling license info (where the expiration date is stored) and System.DateTime::get_Today, so actually the date
trick should work for trail licences (and if not set always false for IsExpired)

[Leo Bodnar]

this is what JTAG is for ... you should make a fw/NAND dump, use 14 days ... restore, use another 14 days .. only gues but probably it will work.

This sort of temporary licensing usually has time limits embedded in a code that then checked against RTC time.  NAND dump won't alter the RTC time.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Interessting to see that there is 1M memory option already compiled, so probably as future option for DSOX2000.

That sounds interesting!!!  Where did you find this?

Is it not the case that the 2000 and 3000 use the same firmware ? If so then presence of other options in the FW doesn't necessarily imply the hardware is actually capable of it. 

[mikeselectricstuff]

this is what JTAG is for ... you should make a fw/NAND dump, use 14 days ... restore, use another 14 days .. only gues but probably it will work.

This sort of temporary licensing usually has time limits embedded in a code that then checked against RTC time.  NAND dump won't alter the RTC time.

I can think of some ways to  slow down the RTC though, assuming the crystal is accessible... Even if it checked it while running, there's no way it can know how long it has been switched off, so a 14 day licence could probably become a 14 days' run-time..

BTW where are those hi-res internal pics Dave?

[tinhead]

this is what JTAG is for ... you should make a fw/NAND dump, use 14 days ... restore, use another 14 days .. only gues but probably it will work.

This sort of temporary licensing usually has time limits embedded in a code that then checked against RTC time.  NAND dump won't alter the RTC time.

no actually not, but a full NAND dump (with OOB blocks) before trial has been installed will have no evidence of "already used once the license".
However there license/sn cross check and Agilent will probably not generate twice licences for same sn.

 

[tinhead]

Interessting to see that there is 1M memory option already compiled, so probably as future option for DSOX2000.

That sounds interesting!!!  Where did you find this?

Is it not the case that the 2000 and 3000 use the same firmware ? If so then presence of other options in the FW doesn't necessarily imply the hardware is actually capable of it. 

oh yeah, that's the big "if". From a production point of view probably the same ASIC, but you never know exactly.

[tnt]

oh yeah, that's the big "if". From a production point of view probably the same ASIC, but you never know exactly.

Something that would make sense is that all that on-die memory is present ... but at a later stage, if they determine that some of it is 'bad' / corrupted, they then use the die for the 2000 series instead of the 3000 series. (kind of like with cache on CPU). It would make sense since all those transistors would probably take up a good chunk of the silicon.

(purely a supposition tough ... you'd need to remove the heatsinks on 2000 & 3000 to at least compare part numbers)

[SrS]

Anyone noticed the file FPGA4000A.bin inside the update files?

[tinhead]

Anyone noticed the file FPGA4000A.bin inside the update files?

yeah, i was wondering too. FPGA3000A and FPGA2000A from second cab are exact the same as these from "main" cab,
the FPGA4000A seems to be common for both (no, it's not) or just copied by mistake (as there are no DSOX4000 DSOs available yet).

So Dave, when you will get the DSOX4000 ?