Hey everyone,
I have a Rigol DS2072A that I upgraded the firmware to a DS2302A using a hack on this forum a long time ago. I can't remember what hack I used but it involved connecting the scope to the PC with a USB and some sort of command line tool. I do remember that the GUI based hack at the time would not work with my scope.
Anyways, it has worked perfectly fine for years but about a year ago I started experiencing occasional random freeze ups. The screen will continue updating and working normally but none of the controls or buttons will do anything at all. Rebooting the scope fixed the problem. This happened vary rarely so it was not an issue.
However, now I am attempting to use the ethernet connection and LXI commands to log the time between voltage changes for a project I am working on. Originally I used python with telnet library on windows and it worked fine for a short while until it would freeze. I then used a fresh linux install on a laptop with lxi-tools because I thought it was a problem with windows or python. The exact same problem remained. I then thought it was a problem with the LXI interface on the scope. I later realized that when the LXI program freezes, the controls on the scope are also frozen but the display continues working properly.
I am thinking there is a problem with the firmware because I would occasionally experience this problem when the scope was not connected via ethernet and just using it normally. Now when using the LXI commands the scope freezes up very quickly. It still seems to be completely random when it freezes.
I would like to do a software upgrade on the scope but I am unsure how to go about that on a scope with a hacked firmware as I do not want to end up bricking it. Is there a hacked DS2302A firmware that is more recent than version 00.03.00.SP1 which is what I have? Or is it likely that the hack is actually causing my issue? If so, can I safely upgrade to the latest DS2072A firmware or is there a special procedure to follow since my scope is running a hacked firmware?
If anyone has any advice on updating/rehacking the firmware or has any other ideas as to why my random freezes are occurring, it would be greatly appreciated.