Author Topic: GW Instek GDS-3000 scope bandwidth hack  (Read 2021 times)

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Offline mepprTopic starter

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GW Instek GDS-3000 scope bandwidth hack
« on: March 10, 2022, 12:05:48 am »
This might not be of interest to anyone, but just in case…

The GDS-3000 scopes were launched a decade or so ago, with a choice of 2 and 4 channel models at 150Mhz/250Mhz/350Mhz up to 5GS/s and 500Mhz up to 4GS/s.  The GDS-3152 was the bottom of the range model (150Mhz 2 channel), but it still offered 1 x 2.5GS/s or 2 x 1.25GS/s.

The range was also sold under the Iso-Tech brand with IDS rather than GDS model naming, but the same numbering scheme.

All except the 500Mhz models seem to have been discontinued some time back.  I suspect that the 500Mhz has slightly different hardware, but that the lower models are all essentially the same (possibly with an extra ADC in the 2-channel 350MHz).  There was no bandwidth upgrade option AFAIK, so if you had a 150 or 250Mhz model you were stuck there.

However these run an old Linux variant, with telnet available, and looking around it seems there's a 1-byte file in the /home/dso folder which determines the model and bandwidth.  The value of this byte appears to correlate to models as follows (though I've only been able to test the first 4):

00 : GDS-3152
01 : GDS-3252
02 : GDS-3352
03 : GDS-3502
04 : GDS-3154
05 : GDS-3254
06 : GDS-3354
07 : GDS-3504

I tried editing it on an Iso-tech IDS-3152 and was able to change the reported model to IDS-3252 or IDS-3352.

More importantly : with the latter it was pretty much flat out to 350Mhz with the -3 dB point just past 400MHz.  The decent sample rate makes this interesting compared to similar hacks on some other scopes.

I was also able to change it to the ‘500Mhz’ IDS-3502, and it reported as such but there was no actual improvement over the 350Mhz config.

The current firmware has telnet access enabled; if networking is set up (Utility button) it's easy to get command line access, for example:

Code: [Select]
telnet 172.16.5.195 23

Log in as root (the password is the same on more recent GW Instek scopes so can be readily found by searching this forum...)

First make a backup copy of the bandwidth conf file, more out of good habit than necessity:

Code: [Select]
cp /home/dso/bwconf /home/dso/bwconf.bak

Then change the model by overwriting the content with the byte value above.  In this case I want the 2 channel 350Mhz, which is GDS-3352 and byte 02:

Code: [Select]
echo -n -e \\x02 > /home/dso/bwconf

Finally power the scope off and back on.

Tested on an IDS-3152, firmware 1.29.  YMMV, you may brick your scope, etc.

 
The following users thanked this post: thm_w, Markus2801A

Offline andrewkrot

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  • Country: ru
Re: GW Instek GDS-3000 scope bandwidth hack
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2023, 12:44:44 pm »
My oscilloscope did not have such a bwconf file. I had to create a file, after which the frequency change was successful.
 

Offline s0nic0nslaught

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  • Country: us
Re: GW Instek GDS-3000 scope bandwidth hack
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2023, 06:25:14 pm »
This seems to do something, but not quite as described.

Quote
00 : GDS-3152, GDS-3154 150 MHz
01 : GDS-3252, GDS-3254 250 MHz
02 : GDS-3352, GDS-3354 350 MHz
03 : GDS-3502, GDS-3504 500 MHz

This was tested on a physically marked GDS-3154. A value of 0x02 in the `/home/dso/bwconf` resulted in the unit to reporting a model of GDS-3354. I do not have access to a high frequency function generator to test the bandwidth effects of making this change though.

It looks like `/home/dso/bwconf` only pertains to bandwidth and has nothing to do with channel count. It is simply an file with a byte value from 0x00 to 0x03 that sets model number and corresponding bandwidth (presumably).

Firmware was v1.29 (seemingly the latest for the 350 MHz and below GDS-3000 variants). Telnet runs on port 23 as expected and login credentials are `root` with password `rd2423`.

Either way good find. Hopefully this helps someone.
 

Offline Wade2019

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  • Posts: 21
  • Country: cn
Re: GW Instek GDS-3000 scope bandwidth hack
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2023, 03:45:43 am »
Has anyone tried the KG on the GDS-3000 family?

I have an IDS-3154 with firmware v1.29 and had no luck trying to enable the bus feature.

Any feedback would be very helpful!
 


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