new killer scope in town - a true game changer from R&S - RTB2002 & RTB2004

[2N3055]

Yes, putting all this basic stuff out of the reach of private customers is a nonsense that degrades perception of the brand imo

I don't understand the reasoning here. What's the plus side of deciding to do this?
I think there was talk about Keysight also doing this in some regions or under some circumstances? and IIRC it had to do with some local government regulations or something?
It almost feels like R&S were forced to do this for some reason? 

Keysight will not sell you equipment directly if private person. But you can access all the downloads and docs. You have to give them your data (email and such) for downloads but no restrictions. FW and all. AFAIK.

IMHO, if you change the policy to not deal with private customers directly (which is fine, their company decision) this is the way to do it.
Firewalling FW and manuals is weird decision. I see no upside..

[voltsandjolts]

It almost feels like R&S were forced to do this for some reason? 

My guess is the costs of adhering to consumer law, across all the jurisdictions they sell in, outweighs the profits from that customer segment. Particularly in light of Chinese TE competitors who have very keen pricing, and perhaps less attention to such laws.

They need to be seen as strictly B2B.

[Takasaka Chikuho]

And the last problem is probably Rigol and other cheap brands that put high preasure on the entry level scopes. I wonder sometimes what was the reason for them to made the RTB. I thought the main reason, they want something for the freshman at university so this people know the company name. It would be a shame if  they graduated and only know Rigol isn't?

I agree your point, RTB is very expensive for me, In China, the salary is lower much than Europe or America.
I now 19yrs. old, as a university student, that's undoubtedly a huge expense, although I didn't buy the expensive option.
But why choose R&S aren't rigol? Because I think R&S can provide me more service, but NO.

They think personal user should not use their product?
We even can't download the User's manual as a "user", cuz it is "premium" access?
In next time, I think I'll pass R&S. Yokowaga should be better, right?

[Vojtech]

What is the maximum number of samples for FFT calculation in firmware v.3.00? Is it still 128k as in the old version?

[Ecogeek]

However, R&S still wants to sell to everyone and will now only support businesses.  These days it's easy to support "consumer" products with a simple website, manuals and Firmware.   
Separate to these issues in Australia my RTB2004 failed with two faults, the keyboard was unresponsive and the LAN access stopped working, it was successfully repaired under warranty, with good service and no complaints. They even wanted me to give feedback on customer service, but you guessed it I was denied access to log on. 
The other issue was one of calibration, the price quoted was equivalent to a Rigol scope! I declined as the unit self-calibrates mostly with the timebase the only exception, thanks to the eevblog members providing a way to do that using a GPS locked 10Mhz, which is easily acquired at very reasonable prices.

[Darkover]

I agree your point, RTB is very expensive for me, In China, the salary is lower much than Europe or America.

Thats cool, I just saw a video to learn about hot pot. 

But why choose R&S aren't rigol? Because I think R&S can provide me more service, but NO.

The question is what means service to you. Last year I had a problem with my RTB. R&S refused
to talk with me, but my dealer send it back to R&S, they repaired it for free and did a new calibration
with a very sophisticated calibration protocol, I never expected so big protocol for a scope.
So service in case of warranty worked very well, but needed a few day more for second post transfer.

Until now it is only bothersome to download the firmware, wich is of course the wrong direction of thinking for a company.

Olaf

[Evariste]

Merci beaucoup pour votre lien 

[KaneTW]

Yes, putting all this basic stuff out of the reach of private customers is a nonsense that degrades perception of the brand imo

I don't understand the reasoning here. What's the plus side of deciding to do this?
I think there was talk about Keysight also doing this in some regions or under some circumstances? and IIRC it had to do with some local government regulations or something?
It almost feels like R&S were forced to do this for some reason? 

From what I remember, if you target the consumer market in any way you become subject to a significantly increased amount of regulations. I don't know the details, unfortunately. Pretty much every major Western T&M equipment company closed off support for non-companies though.

[EEVblog]

Pretty much every major Western T&M equipment company closed off support for non-companies though.

Do we have a confirmed list?

[charliedelta]

Outside of Germany the support life for R&S equipment is much shorter especially if you making  private inquiries about firmware updates. I just found them to be rude, arrogant and have no concept that ordinary people work hard to buy their products and they just want to treat customers like scum because they are big not government or a big company. After buying a FSH18, signal generator and some other pieces equipment brand new from them and following my inquiries for upgraded firmware and calibration. I will ever buy a piece  of new R&S equipment new or old again. The best BS excuse I  got from them was " the firmware tools are old" and we no longer have them" I can just imagine buying car and then less than 5 years later that the car company has no parts or upgrades and you have  to buy a new. I would call that a money making scam.

[goaty]

After buying a FSH18, signal generator and some other pieces equipment brand new from them ... just imagine buying car and then less than 5 years later that the car company has no parts or upgrades

I´m not totally sure, but FSH3 came to market in 2005 or so. Maby FSH18 is younger, but FSH3 is really old and I would probably not expect much from R&S anymore after almost 20 years.

[pdenisowski]

Outside of Germany the support life for R&S equipment is much shorter especially if you making  private inquiries about firmware updates. I just found them to be rude, arrogant and have no concept that ordinary people work hard to buy their products and they just want to treat customers like scum because they are big not government or a big company. After buying a FSH18, signal generator and some other pieces equipment brand new from them and following my inquiries for upgraded firmware and calibration. I will ever buy a piece  of new R&S equipment new or old again. The best BS excuse I  got from them was " the firmware tools are old" and we no longer have them" I can just imagine buying car and then less than 5 years later that the car company has no parts or upgrades and you have  to buy a new. I would call that a money making scam.

Who did you speak to at R&S?  And when was this?  I would be very happy to follow up on this if you like (you can DM me the details).

The FSH18 was introduced in 2007 and was discontinued in June 2014.  Like all of our other products, we provide repair and calibration for a minimum of 5 years (in this case, up to 2019), after which we will provide repair on a best effort basis.  So even someone bought it on the last day it was available, they would still have at least 5 years for support. 

And as someone who personally supported the FSH3/6/18 face-to-face with customers in the field, we provided support and training, etc. for many years after it was discontinued.  I would gladly give you any help that I am able to, even today - just let me know 

[RBBVNL9]

Yesterday, I decided to recalibrate the internal reference standard of my RTB2004, using the hidden menu shared long ago by member EcoGeek here on the forum. My oscilloscope was still easily within its 3.5ppm specs, but I felt there was room for improvement…

Using Leo Bodnar’s LBE-1421 as a timing reference, I found the tinyPFA a useful tool to do this - and brand new, these two instruments together cost only some 250 Euro, including tax (for the single output GPSDO Bodnar). But you can also replace the tinyPFA with any scope.

Anyway, this is how I did it:


Best, Rudi

[slburris]

Can someone who downloaded the firmware share it with those who can't download it themselves?

You can find it here:
https://filebin.net/344znf03k6pgur5p

Hmm, does this expire?  Not there now.

[Hydron]

Yesterday, I decided to recalibrate the internal reference standard of my RTB2004, using the hidden menu shared long ago by member EcoGeek here on the forum. My oscilloscope was still easily within its 3.5ppm specs, but I felt there was room for improvement…

You mentioned it's not in the RTB service manual - do you have a copy of it? I assume it's not super useful, but I didn't know it was available (I did a search on Gloris a while back and I think I found the RTA or RTM manual but not RTB).

[aramova]

Outside of Germany the support life for R&S equipment is much shorter especially if you making  private inquiries about firmware updates. I just found them to be rude, arrogant and have no concept that ordinary people work hard to buy their products and they just want to treat customers like scum because they are big not government or a big company. After buying a FSH18, signal generator and some other pieces equipment brand new from them and following my inquiries for upgraded firmware and calibration. I will ever buy a piece  of new R&S equipment new or old again. The best BS excuse I  got from them was " the firmware tools are old" and we no longer have them" I can just imagine buying car and then less than 5 years later that the car company has no parts or upgrades and you have  to buy a new. I would call that a money making scam.

Who did you speak to at R&S?  And when was this?  I would be very happy to follow up on this if you like (you can DM me the details).

The FSH18 was introduced in 2007 and was discontinued in June 2014.  Like all of our other products, we provide repair and calibration for a minimum of 5 years (in this case, up to 2019), after which we will provide repair on a best effort basis.  So even someone bought it on the last day it was available, they would still have at least 5 years for support. 

And as someone who personally supported the FSH3/6/18 face-to-face with customers in the field, we provided support and training, etc. for many years after it was discontinued.  I would gladly give you any help that I am able to, even today - just let me know 

Not the OP, but I found similar experience trying to even download the manual for my HMO1542.

Get shut out with a
"We regret to inform you that your request to access "Product Downloads" could not be granted because your profile does not meet the necessary requirements."

[squadchannel]

Can someone who downloaded the firmware share it with those who can't download it themselves?

You can find it here:
https://filebin.net/344znf03k6pgur5p

Hmm, does this expire?  Not there now.

https://mega.nz/folder/ybZHERDJ#gNQtOQA10Qq502ePwJsG0g
only for a short time.

[gdr771]

Just to add to the experience log: I tried getting the update, ran into the your-account-needs-access-permission speedbump, requested access, and was granted access to directly download the firmware in about 30 minutes.  I'm a microscopically small consulting company with only a couple pieces of R&S gear.

I couldn't find any release notes or other documentation describing the changes compared to the previous version.  Does anyone from R&S know if doc # 1333.2518.00 will be getting updated?

[Takasaka Chikuho]

There a big problem about my RTB2002, I bought a RTB-Z1, It is a front panel shield , after I used it, the calibration seal sticker stamped on that shield, will it getting any worse? Do I still keep warranty?

[Darkover]

Warranty can be different in different countrys, but I would not worry about it because it is only a calibration sticker.

However, you can switch on the German inside of you and make a flame war, because they did not put the sticker on the right place. I expect there is a special sticker place in the secret manual.

Olaf

[masto]

Dang, I missed it. Twice!

I also missed the offer to get the bode plots for my so-called "all-options bundle". I used to be overjoyed with this instrument, but the shine has really come off dealing with R&S.

[hageman202]

Good afternoon. please share the firmware file v3 and v2.4 I can not get the download from the official site for my rtb2004.

[Fenstergucker]

Please put the link and the file name together yourself. I want to avoid bots downloading the files as well.

Peter

Code: [Select]

[url]https://www.dreisiebner.at/temp/[/url]
R&S_RTB2000_Firmware_v02.400.zip
R&S_RTB2000_Firmware_v03.000.zip

v02.400 RTB2002.FWU
MD5: 36b7a574ebd4e6e779cd43375a425301
SHA-256: 7267651477704325045e586efb16450eea4918007f3c70e4f6b2e667cceca5d8

v02.400 RTB2004.FWU
MD5: e874ce759aa630a86206839b45ba7128
SHA-256: 53adcb30093ace392415949de267f952cb5eb6e865695c4617b28bc03b52c7c4

v03.000 RTB2002.FWU
MD5: 17e86718dca9d982b5c110c3c6643ba8
SHA-256: ced7c8cca2053d9bbd78b4c99aec8c83c729ea8be71d0c05697bbae4b7769c1f

v03.000 RTB2004.FWU
MD5: 0e8080173593aa0d4ac8fec47ad60a1c
SHA-256: 73d6a8a695ea9338f4cf9a6672721d82d5afc4a8bbe1ab6dfefa2607872bb3c2

[hageman202]

I love you   Thank you very much!!! but dislikes to the manufacturer. that they closed access to service and firmware of their devices.

[bayjelly]

Thanks a lot! Can some more people with official access to the firmware also post the SHA2-256 sum of the firmware? (MD5 has been mentioned, but that's been obsolete for almost 30 years.)