Products > Test Equipment
Savecal5k: Calibration Backup Disk for Tektronix TDS5000 Oscilloscopes
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Jwalling:
Somebody has created software to Backup the factory calibration constants on TDS5000 (Non B) scopes. More scopes like the B versions are planned.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126049416547?

No affiliation.
colorburst:
Thank you Jay for sharing my listing.

I'm the developer of the backup disk and will be happy to answer any questions in this thread. The disk was in part inspired by this forum and is meant to prevent loss of calibration data as seen in the following cases: :-BROKE


* https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tds5104-cant-find-cal-data-during-starting-scope-application/
* https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tds5054-calibration-problem/
* https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tds5052-loss-of-calibration-data/
The included utility runs directly off the floppy disk and communicates with the TekScope application to retrieve the contents of the EEPROM. The backup file is written to the same floppy and named after the scope model and its serial number for easy tracking; one disk can be used to store backups for multiple scopes. It's all done in software, so there is no need to open up the scope and attach an external programmer.

In the event the EEPROM needs to be written to, an external programmer is still required at the moment. In theory, it's possible to write the calibration data back into the chip in software also, and if there's sufficient interest, this capability may be pursued further.

This utility is designed to work with TDS5000 and TDS5000B series scopes, e.g. TDS5104B, TDS5104, TDS5054B, TDS5054, TDS5052B, TDS5052, TDS5034B, TDS5034, TDS5032B, and TDS5032, as well as VM5000 instruments. It's compatible with any oscilloscope that uses the latest versions of TekScope firmware, 2.0.11, 1.2.1, and 1.1.5; support for other versions can be added by request.
Jwalling:
FYI: There are a number of reports on the board of the TDS7000 series losing the factory calibration constants as well. I've had it happen once myself. Could be your next project. ;)
colorburst:
I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm going to leave it to someone else. This has to be debugged on real hardware, and the last thing I need is one of those boat anchors!

Updated December 2024: a software-based method for backing up TDS7000 and TDS8000 cal constants was recently described in this EEVblog thread.
chronos42:
@colorburst

Hi,

I would like to ortder your disk for my TDS 5104 to be prepared if the EEPROM failes.
But: "No shipping to Germany", according to the eBay offer.   :-\
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