Rohde & Schwarz RTO1024 upgrade ??

[analogRF]

does it show any signal at all on all channels?

[jjoonathan]

Ah, that does sound like it's in the analog frontend. I haven't seen that problem before, but here are some pictures of the section where it happens (on the RTO2000 which is very similar). It's not too hard to get to for a repair, but it's quite challenging to probe anything in that section during operation because of the heatsink and parent motherboard. I haven't put much effort into reverse engineering it. The cost of repair probably depends quite heavily on whether or not the problem is in the blue hybrid.

Here is a description of the power rails for the RTO2000 frontend (which, again, is very similar to RTO1000 but can't be assumed to be an exact match): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2tnuvt13vodakhyv98fvn/Frontend.pdf?rlkey=nf4cj00w3wx66a4lt68swqjeq&st=ssteonzn&dl=0

[esi_49]

On Channel 2 everything works perfectly. On Channel 1 there is a large offset at < 200 mV/div with 50 Ω coupling (the trace is at the top of the screen).

[esi_49]

Ah, that does sound like it's in the analog frontend. I haven't seen that problem before, but here are some pictures of the section where it happens (on the RTO2000 which is very similar). It's not too hard to get to for a repair, but it's quite challenging to probe anything in that section during operation because of the heatsink and parent motherboard. I haven't put much effort into reverse engineering it. The cost of repair probably depends quite heavily on whether or not the problem is in the blue hybrid.

Here is a description of the power rails for the RTO2000 frontend (which, again, is very similar to RTO1000 but can't be assumed to be an exact match): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2tnuvt13vodakhyv98fvn/Frontend.pdf?rlkey=nf4cj00w3wx66a4lt68swqjeq&st=ssteonzn&dl=0

Thank you very much! I will do my best to find the failure. I'll get back to you.

[esi_49]

Ah, that does sound like it's in the analog frontend. I haven't seen that problem before, but here are some pictures of the section where it happens (on the RTO2000 which is very similar). It's not too hard to get to for a repair, but it's quite challenging to probe anything in that section during operation because of the heatsink and parent motherboard. I haven't put much effort into reverse engineering it. The cost of repair probably depends quite heavily on whether or not the problem is in the blue hybrid.

Here is a description of the power rails for the RTO2000 frontend (which, again, is very similar to RTO1000 but can't be assumed to be an exact match): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2tnuvt13vodakhyv98fvn/Frontend.pdf?rlkey=nf4cj00w3wx66a4lt68swqjeq&st=ssteonzn&dl=0

The fault is definitely located in the blue hybrid module. The 50 Ω input does not match correctly down to 100 mV/div — it measures approximately 81 Ω. These components get very hot, and the unit is now about 15 years old, so it has probably reached the end of its service life.

Is there any way to disable Channel 1? One channel would actually be sufficient for me, but because of the defective channel I cannot get through the alignment procedure for Channel 2.

[jjoonathan]

I don't know how to do that, but I also haven't tried very hard to find out. If you want to experiment, try looking at the frontend EEPROM settings in C:/ProgramData/Rohde-Schwarz/RTO/EEPROM/Frontend/config.ini (and sibling files, also the path is from memory and likely slightly wrong).

[Aurelio]

@JJoonathan,
thx to your info, i was able to define 2 1.5V chips being dead. IC19 and 21. Going further on (because the issue is not solved), i've come to some shorts on the caps surrounding one of the R&S Chips.
As mine is a RT01024 scope, the measurement points don't all match.

Checked and approved measurements are points 1/2/3/4/6/7/8/9/16/23/19/20/21/22/25/26/37/39

Any insights might be helpfull
Thx!

[jjoonathan]

What is the basis for calling them short? Do they heat up uniquely when you apply power? Could you detail your resistance measurement?

I believe those capacitors are on the high current core power rail, which should have a lower resistance than most others but still 1-4 ohm, enough to cleanly distinguish it from a short condition of milliohms so long as one is reasonably careful about lead and contact resistance or using 4-wire.

[Aurelio]

Ah yes,forgot to mention the fuse in front of the powermodule in the middle keeps blowing. (nevermind the crooked caps on the module. Iv'e removed it and placed it back)and caps on 1 side are indeed above 4Ohms, but on the other side they are +/- 0.5Ohms. (just a quick reference using multimeter. )

[jjoonathan]

Have you gone short hunting? Either by injecting current until something appears on thermal camera or until you can track the short with a multimeter? If the problem is a capacitor, you should be able to identify it and replace it.

[mle]

install this driver:

https://www.eeti.com/touch_driver/Win10/20230414/eGalaxTouch_5.14.0.23406-Release-230406-SingleTouchDev.zip

nothing should crash, I run my scope with Windows 7 embedded and ALL updates without any issues.

That link is dead now. Current one:
https://www.eeti.com/touch_driver/Win10/20241106/eGalaxTouch_5.14.0.24308-Release-240108-SingleTouchDev-2.zip

This eGalax driver is SHA-256/attestation signed, so a Win7 x64 without SHA-2 code-signing support can't verify it — the driver won't bind (setup fails 0x800B010A) or won't load (Code 52 / error 577, CodeIntegrity event 3004 "file hash could not be found"), and Windows falls back to its own HID touch driver.

If you did a clean install and don't have all updates, install these two to get SHA-2 support, then (re)install the driver:

KB4490628 (2019-03 Servicing Stack Update, prerequisite)
KB4474419 (v3, SHA-2 code signing support)

After that even the latest driver loads fine.

[mbeldyga]

Thanks to this thread another RTO1000 scope with GB Transceivers fault has been revived and upgraded to Win7. Thank you to everyone who contributed!