New Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope

[hammy]

It won't allow me to reinstall an older firmware, is there a way to do it?

Try this:

To downgrade do the following:
-Copy the .GEL file with the firmware version you want to a USB stick that you know is compatible with the DS1000Z series.
-With the scope powered OFF plug the USB stick into the scope.
-Power the scope on.
-When the splash screen with “Rigol” appears you should hear a quick beep which indicates it sees a USB device.
-As soon as you hear the beep press the “Help” button 3 times quickly.
-In a few seconds you should see the channel 1 LED blinking - this indicates it is flashing the firmware.
-Once done flashing the scope will boot as normal and tell you it found a firmware update with the same version it just flashed, you can press cancel.
-You can then verify the new detailed version info by pressing “menu menu force menu” quickly, then pressing “utility”,“system”, “system info”.
-I'd reboot at this point before using the scope just for good measure.

[tv84]

It won't allow me to reinstall an older firmware, is there a way to do it?

Here. Needs some homework.

[Adrian_Arg.]

Thanks Hammy, I'm going to test your method, and if I won't stick with this firmware, until they release another

[ebastler]

Try this:

To downgrade do the following:
-Copy the .GEL file with the firmware version you want to a USB stick that you know is compatible with the DS1000Z series.
[...]

You gave only an excerpt from the first post of an earlier thread on this forum. But the subsequent discussion in that thread indicates that this downgrading method only works with very early bootloaders: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds1000z-series-firmware-downgrade-*is*-possible-and-here-is-how/

So unless Adrian's scope is a very early version, I don't think this will work for him.

[hammy]

You gave only an excerpt from the first post of an earlier thread on this forum. But the subsequent discussion in that thread indicates that this downgrading method only works with very early bootloaders: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds1000z-series-firmware-downgrade-*is*-possible-and-here-is-how/

So unless Adrian's scope is a very early version, I don't think this will work for him.

What a bummer! 
I missed that. Thank you for the clarification.

[Adrian_Arg.]

It did not work for me for the boot version 0.0.1.4, well this version is not that serious either  , can I solve the problem of the capture in 24Mbit deep?

[Adrian_Arg.]

Did the upgrade, then recalibrate.  The previous version was
00.04.04.SP3, now it's
00.04.05.SP1

Couldn't identify any visible changes in the math or measurement functions.

Still works just like before the upgrade, won't bother trying to downgrade it back, but the traces seems thicker to me, and brighter, much brighter.  It's a sunny summer day outside but still had to dial down the intensity.   

Anybody else seeing thicker and brighter traces with the latest firmware?

I see thicker lines, but not brighter like this.

in spanish
Yo veo trazos mas gruesos, pero no asi mas brillantes.

[MarkF]

Is there any good list of what the benefits, feature additions, and feature removals / breaking changes have come with the various
specific firmware revisions, bootloader revisions, hardware revisions, et. al.?

I've got a fairly old model which is running whatever its original firmware / bootloader was and I'm sure there may have been some beneficial
changes but I've heard about things getting broken / worse / limited, too, by firmware "upgrades".

So I'm in a similar position as others have commented here lately: So FW vx.y is available along with many others -- the question : SHOULD (and can) I upgrade, and to which version, and why / at what cost & risk?

I bought my DS1074Z back in 2014 and never had any problems upgrading the firmware.  I'm currently running 00.04.04.04.03
The most important upgrade that I can think of is the phase-lock-loop tuning to fix the jitter problem.
Dave did a couple videos on it.

I have never upgraded the bootloader.

Download the 00.04.04.04.03 release, unzip it onto a thumb drive that you know works with the scope and install. 
The zip file also has the install instructions and release notes. 
This version has been out for a long time and there doesn't appear to be any reasons not to install it.

Then you can decide if you want the new version.  (Personally, I'm going to wait until it hits the north america site.) 
As you have probably read, it is next to impossible to revert to an earlier version.

[bayati]

@evb149
Just upgrade to this version and you'll be fine:
https://www.rigolna.com/firmware/

It's so unlikly that you brake your DS by just upgrading it. If you did, that's just bad luck.

[Fungus]

I've heard about things getting broken / worse / limited, too, by firmware "upgrades".

Where did you hear that? It's not true.

[RoGeorge]

This is what I'm seeing.  I don't recall it to be like that before update.  Not that it is brighter/thicker, but also the intensity flickers randomly.

There are huge sinx/x artifacts when the signal is very fast.
Sync is on the magenta (Ch3).
All trace intensity is flickering randomly, like in the animated gif attached.  Display and acquaire are set to normal.
There seems to be always more than one trace on the screen, even when persistence is set to minimum, as seen in the capture.  I guess that's why I perceived the traces as brighter, IDK.

- Yellow is from the generator output, probe 10x, no terminators, 20 MHz, square wave, 50%, 0 to 3V
- Magenta is the high speed sync output from the signal generator (also 20 MHz, but TTL output with a 50 ohms cable and 50 ohms pass-through terminator near the oscilloscope input)
- Blue dark and light (Ch2 and Ch4) inputs have no probes/cables attached



Questions:
0.  Is anybody else seeing the same, or is it something wrong with my hardware?

1.  How can I downgrade to the previous firmware, please?  Is there any way without unpacking, fake an old version as being newer than 00.04.05.01, then repacking all back.  If not, is there any step by step example of how to do the modification

2.  Why, and where from is this fashion of blocking a downgrade?  What's the technical reason of not letting one to use whatever version one wants?

[ebastler]

Sorry, I only get a static .GIF displayed. Is it really animated?

Looking at the static screenshots, this looks normal to me -- provided that your signal generator actually exhibits the jitter which the scope displays. Having more than one trace even at minimum persistence time is normal, I think. My DS1054Z does that too, with the 00.04.04 SP4 firmware.

[RoGeorge]

Seems like EEVblog turns animated GIFs into static GIF.  This one is saved externally, I hope it will show animated (and it is animated in my Firefox browser).  Here the animation is constant lighter/darker alternations, but in reality it is flickering between the two intensity levels like a candle.



Also note how the jitter of the magenta signal is much larger than the jitter of the yellow edges.  Since the two signals are synchronous, I'll say the jitter is in fact caused by numerical artifacts of sinx/x, maybe bad sync detection, too.

[Adrian_Arg.]

Try this:

To downgrade do the following:
-Copy the .GEL file with the firmware version you want to a USB stick that you know is compatible with the DS1000Z series.
-With the scope powered OFF plug the USB stick into the scope.
-Power the scope on.
-When the splash screen with “Rigol” appears you should hear a quick beep which indicates it sees a USB device.
-As soon as you hear the beep press the “Help” button 3 times quickly.
-In a few seconds you should see the channel 1 LED blinking - this indicates it is flashing the firmware.
-Once done flashing the scope will boot as normal and tell you it found a firmware update with the same version it just flashed, you can press cancel.
-You can then verify the new detailed version info by pressing “menu menu force menu” quickly, then pressing “utility”,“system”, “system info”.
-I'd reboot at this point before using the scope just for good measure.

[/quote]

After trying 1000 times I do not know what happened, today the first attempt it worked, I tried with almost all the firmware versions and it did not work, until a revision that corrects the problem of the 24 Mbit of depth and the measurement does not come out, I do not return to install .



in spanish
Despues de intentarlo 1000 veces no se que paso, hoy al primer intento funciono, probe con casi todas las versiones de firmware y no funcionaba, hasta que no salga un revision que corrija el problema de los 24 Mbit de profundidad y la medicion, no vuelvo una instalación

[ebastler]

Yes, now the animated GIF works for me too. Thanks for fixing that.

Hmm, that flicker looks disconcerting indeed. Any chance that some unusual trigger condition or trigger delay is active? Although I am not quite sure how that would cause this effect.

Regarding the jitter: Since the yellow trace is phase-shifted vs. the magenta one by approx. 90°, I would expect the yellow trace to show half the jitter amplitude of the magenta one, when comparing the yellow rising & falling edges directly to the left and right from the trigger time with the jitter on the magenta falling edge which follows the trigger. That seems to be the case. For the edges further away from the trigger time, the yellow jitter should be reduced accordingly. To the far left of the screen, that relationship does indeed not seem to hold up, but otherwise it might be OK?  So I am not sure whether this is indeed an artefact of the scope.

[RoGeorge]

The generator frequency/jitter is rock-solid.  If it were to be that bad it would be unusable.  Also, I would have seen it as a wide spectrum, in the jitter test (where I output a spike at each 1 second to test the stability of the two instrument's PLL/oscillator, etc.)

Even more, with a single signal at Ch1 all the other channels without cables, Ch1 has 50 ohms cable with 50 ohms pass through terminator at the oscilloscope side i see this:
- only CH1 enabled, brighter trace but relatively OK, no visible jitter
- Ch1 + Ch2 enabled, even thicker trace for CH1, almost no jitter
- Ch1 + Ch2 + Ch3, even more noise, visible sinx/x artifacts and visible edge jitter, but almost no visible flicker yet
- Ch1 + Ch2 + Ch3 + Ch4 enabled, horrible artifacts, jitter and flickering   

I'll try to revert, at first using the above procedure without editing the FW version, thank you all for posting that.

[RoGeorge]

Try this:

To downgrade do the following:
-Copy the .GEL file with the firmware version you want to a USB stick that you know is compatible with the DS1000Z series.
-With the scope powered OFF plug the USB stick into the scope.
-Power the scope on.
-When the splash screen with “Rigol” appears you should hear a quick beep which indicates it sees a USB device.
-As soon as you hear the beep press the “Help” button 3 times quickly.
-In a few seconds you should see the channel 1 LED blinking - this indicates it is flashing the firmware.
-Once done flashing the scope will boot as normal and tell you it found a firmware update with the same version it just flashed, you can press cancel.
-You can then verify the new detailed version info by pressing “menu menu force menu” quickly, then pressing “utility”,“system”, “system info”.
-I'd reboot at this point before using the scope just for good measure.

After trying 1000 times I do not know what happened, today the first attempt it worked, I tried with almost all the firmware versions and it did not work, until a revision that corrects the problem of the 24 Mbit of depth and the measurement does not come out, I do not return to install .



in spanish
Despues de intentarlo 1000 veces no se que paso, hoy al primer intento funciono, probe con casi todas las versiones de firmware y no funcionaba, hasta que no salga un revision que corrija el problema de los 24 Mbit de profundidad y la medicion, no vuelvo una instalación

Are you sure that's the correct picture attached?

I am asking because I noticed my startup counter was reset by the latest firmware 00.04.05.01.00, while your picture after downgrade shows 1242 power up cycles, which is strange.
"StartUp Cnter: 1242".

Maybe the old value wasn't overwritten by 00.04.05.01.00, or maybe that's the wrong picture?  

[Adrian_Arg.]

If it is correct, I captured it when I saw that the firmware had been reversed, and I am not going to try again to get the counter reversed. I leave it for the daredevils.
The truth is, do not pay attention to that, I did not like the change in the signal traces that became thick and I did not see that the synchronization error has been solved 

[Anthocyanina]

I bought my DS1074Z back in 2014 and never had any problems upgrading the firmware.  I'm currently running 00.04.04.04.03
The most important upgrade that I can think of is the phase-lock-loop tuning to fix the jitter problem.
Dave did a couple videos on it.

I have never upgraded the bootloader.

Download the 00.04.04.04.03 release, unzip it onto a thumb drive that you know works with the scope and install. 
The zip file also has the install instructions and release notes. 
This version has been out for a long time and there doesn't appear to be any reasons not to install it.

Then you can decide if you want the new version.  (Personally, I'm going to wait until it hits the north america site.) 
As you have probably read, it is next to impossible to revert to an earlier version.

Hi! I see your system info shows boot, firmware, CPLD, Build date, and startup counter. Is there a way to enable that information? or is that linked to the model? in mine i can only see manufacturer, model, SN, software version and board version. My software version says 00.04.04.SP4 I installed that version a few months ago, this year, when it was the latest version available. My board version is also 0.1.1 so i think it's not a hardware thing that i can't see the other information? Thank you!

[RoGeorge]

I see your system info shows boot, firmware, CPLD, Build date, and startup counter. Is there a way to enable that information?

Yes, as written above:
- quickly press buttons MENU -> MENU -> FORCE -> MENU on "TRIGGER" buttons group
- then go to info panel by pressing buttons UTILITY -> SYSTEM -> SYSTEM INFO in the "MENU" buttons group

[Anthocyanina]

I see your system info shows boot, firmware, CPLD, Build date, and startup counter. Is there a way to enable that information?

Yes, as written above:
- quickly press buttons MENU -> MENU -> FORCE -> MENU on "TRIGGER" buttons group
- then go to info panel by pressing buttons UTILITY -> SYSTEM -> SYSTEM INFO in the "MENU" buttons group

Thank you very much! Could you please link the post where they mention that? I've read pretty much the entire thread but i think i've missed it  Thanks again! 

[RoGeorge]

All of them, the 185 x 25 posts each?!?   

Try this:

To downgrade do the following:
-Copy the .GEL file with the firmware version you want to a USB stick that you know is compatible with the DS1000Z series.
-With the scope powered OFF plug the USB stick into the scope.
-Power the scope on.
-When the splash screen with “Rigol” appears you should hear a quick beep which indicates it sees a USB device.
-As soon as you hear the beep press the “Help” button 3 times quickly.
-In a few seconds you should see the channel 1 LED blinking - this indicates it is flashing the firmware.
-Once done flashing the scope will boot as normal and tell you it found a firmware update with the same version it just flashed, you can press cancel.
-You can then verify the new detailed version info by pressing “menu menu force menu” quickly, then pressing “utility”,“system”, “system info”.
-I'd reboot at this point before using the scope just for good measure.

After trying 1000 times I do not know what happened, today the first attempt it worked, I tried with almost all the firmware versions and it did not work, until a revision that corrects the problem of the 24 Mbit of depth and the measurement does not come out, I do not return to install .
...

[Anthocyanina]

All of them, the 185 x 25 posts each?!?   

not all the posts i'm sure    and of course one of the ones i skipped (because it started with downgrade instructions and i have no intention to do that  ) is the one which has that information!  Thank you!   

[ebastler]

Thank you very much! Could you please link the post where they mention that? I've read pretty much the entire thread but i think i've missed it  Thanks again! 

You must have overlooked this glaringly obvious post from 2016: 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope/msg923437/#msg923437

I am sure it shows up a few more times in this and other threads.
Important extra info: The MENU-MENU-FORCE-MENU sequence must be pushed quickly.

[RoGeorge]

Well, in the end it turned out the latest firmware v00.04.05.01.00 (AKA Software Version 00.04.05.SP1) is just fine.   

I guess it was just me, and the weather   
(it was after many rainy days, with more than 30*C and humidity more than 60%)

This is the jitter (between both the generator and the oscilloscope clocks) seen at 1 second after the triggering point, for a signal of a 50MHz square wave, but the signal is gated by the generator, so only a single period (of the 50MHz train) is allowed to go out each second:



Not bad at all after 180 triggers (3 minutes).



Anyways, found an easy way to downgrade the firmware to the previous v04.04.04.03 I use to have before, so I downgraded and do the same tests last night.

It turned out that:
- the "jittery" trace is the same, in both the new and the old FW
- the flickering does not happen any more (last night was not so hot and humid, only 28*C and ~40%RH), there still is a very rare flickering, but it happens about the same in the old FW, too, both old and new flicker appears only when all 4 channels are on, and only when the Mem Depth is forced to 3K, and apparently at high temp/humidity, so a very corner case
- the address of the "StartupCnter" has changed between the old and the new FW.  After I downgraded the startup counter was showing some 17 millions starts. 

- the best part, now I have an easy way to go back and forth between firmware versions (so to downgrade eventually    ), without altering the original .GEL firmware files.    

This is none of my merits, I've just applied the konnor piece of code shown in https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds1000z-firmware-patch-plugins/msg1473517/#msg1473517 and made a "Rigol sign disk".  Thank you very much to konnor and everybody else who contributed in finding that method.



When a "Rigol sign disk" is inserted, some extra service menus will become visible:





Some service buttons pressing combinations, too, many of which might brick the oscilloscope if operated wrongly.  Also, if an older firmware is copied on such a disk, the older firmware will be accepted to "downgrade" the oscilloscope.

I didn't use any of the extra menus (don't want to accidentally brick my oscilloscope), so only used the "Rigol sign disk" to downgrade from v04.05.01.00 to v04.04.04.03 and the downgrade just worked.  Then I repeated my test with the old version, then noticed the results are the same, so then I upgraded again to the latest v04.05.01.00 firmware, which I plan to keep until the next firmware release from Rigol.

konnor only gave an excerpt of code, because there is a danger to brick the oscilloscope while the "Rigol sign disk" is inserted (if one does stupid things with it).  Though, this took me a lot of time to figure out how to use that code excerpt and prepare a "Rigol sign disk" from it.  This is different from the Rigol key-disk attached in https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/need-help-hacking-dp832-for-multicolour-option/msg2475702/#msg2475702 That key-disk.zip didn't work for me to downgrade the oscilloscope, but it worked just fine to change the model of a Rigol DP800 power supply.   



Maybe it should be a separate topic to detail the steps for those who will prefer to prepare their own disk with Linux, though for now I'll just attach the "Rigol sign disk" prepared for myself.  Worked for me to make a firmware downgrade.  The disk is labeled "BRICK" as a reminder.  It's only your responsibility to not brick your oscilloscope, don't blame others.

I have no idea how to recover a bricked oscilloscope, so just don't use the "Rigol sign disk" if you are not sure how to use that "Rigol sign disk".

To deploy the "Rigol sign disk", find a USB known to work for firmware upgrades and dd it with the content of the zip file.  Everything else on that USB will be lost.  The format type of the USB disk doesn't matter, because the dd starts from sector 0 and contains the partition table, too.

Code: [Select]

# identify your USB drive, mine was /dev/sde
lsblk

# cd to the directory where the Rigol sign disk was unpacked, then dd it to /dev/sde
sudo dd if=card_FAT32_w_SIGN_manually_added_103E00 of=/dev/sde

# ignore any dd warnings/errors caused by any disk size mismatch
#     but force a physical write on the USB before ejecting/unmounting/unplugging it
sync

# now plug the USB disk again into PC, copy any DS1000ZUpdate.GEL firmware
#     then unplug from the PC and plug the USB disk into oscilloscope
#     the oscilloscope should detect the USB disk and the firmware,
#     and pop a message asking if OK/Cancel to upgrade