Rigol DS1000D/E - which firmware version changed the waveform format?

[MartinL]

Hi all,

I'm one of the developers of the sigrok project (http://www.sigrok.org/), an open source software suite for all sorts of test & measurement gear. I wrote and maintain the Rigol DS driver for sigrok, which currently supports the VS5000, DS1000 and DS2000 series, as well as the Agilent DSO1000A series, over USB, serial and network connections.

We have a small but annoying issue with the DS1000 series support, in that it appears that the data format returned by the :WAV:DATA? command has changed between firmware versions. We can support both formats, but we need to be able to know which to expect for a given device. So we want to know which firmware versions return which format.

• In early versions, :WAV:DATA? simply returned a block of binary data, 600 bytes for each analog channel or 1200 for the LA channels. We see this e.g. on a DS1052E hacked to DS1102E, running firmware 2.02.
  
• In later versions, the block is prefixed by a 10-byte ASCII header e.g. #800000600 which indicates the length of the data to follow. This is the same format used in the DS2000 and other later series. We see this e.g. on a DS1102D that shipped with firmware 2.06.
  

Can you please help us out by running this command on your scope, and telling us your firmware version and whether you see a header?

If you're running Linux, plugging your scope in by USB and running this python script will probably do the trick:

Code: [Select]

import os
device = os.open('/dev/usbtmc0', os.O_RDWR)
os.write(device, ':WAV:DATA? CHAN1')
print os.read(device, 10)

You should get either a header of the form #800000600 or ten random characters. Tell us your firmware version and which you see!

You can also use the RS232 port, simply type in that command and look at the first 10 bytes you get back. You can follow any of the many threads on the forums for how to set up a serial connection to type commands to the scope.

We'd be particularly interested in firmware versions between 2.03 and 2.05, as well as 3.0 and higher.

Thank you! 

[rexxar]

I got 16 and #800000600. I've got firmware 00.04.01.00.02. This is a not-hacked DS1102E.

[jfuller000]

I got #800000600 with firmware 00.03.01.00.00 on a DS1102E (unhacked).

[Vtech]

I got #800000600 with firmware 00.03.01.00.00 on stock DS1102D

[MartinL]

Thanks folks. I also now have a report of a header on version 2.04, so it looks like 2.04 and upwards all have it, 2.02 and below do not.

The only version I'm not sure about would be 2.03, but it doesn't look like such a version was ever released - I can't find any reference to it anywhere.