Written by: G4ZTD_Gnome

My THANKS to the Forum below and its members for showing this guide.
By following the below i succesfully Hacked my Scope to 100Mhz.

changing the rigol DS1052E to DS1102E using USB , the dummy guide
The following is taken from: http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/changing-the-rigol-ds1052e-to-ds1102e-using-usb-the-dummy-guide/

These are the latest steps as of 19th Jan 2016 which will update / hack the Rigol DS1052E (Firmware – 00.04.02.01 from 50Mhz to 100Mhz
My Personal Experiences:

As a new DS1052E owner, these are my experiences for others who have never seen this forum before, and want do try the same 50Mhz to 100Mhz conversion:
(I just recently purchased a new DS1052E in mid December from an authorized Canadian Dealer.)

I had so many questions, and was apprehensive to upgrade the FW unless I felt confident it would work (again, thanks to Straycat and Hammy).

Upgrading FW on $50K to $100K hardware is a normal part of my job at work, and I am always cautiously nervous each time (even though the hardware at my work is under support) because upgrading FW is usually the point when things go wrong, it will brick the equipment. (note, I doubt you’d get warranty repair if you upgrade your DS1052E and it bricks it, so do at your own risk and make sure you’re comfortable with doing it).

For those with the same extended system info as mine (to start) should gain some confidence that the hack does work.

My scope system info was:


You have to get into an “extended system info menu to see this information by selecting the “Utility Button”, scroll down to “system info”, select CH1 twice, CH2 twice, and MATH once.

The 00.04.02.01.00 100Mhz firmware available here by Hammy/Straycat with the following MD5 hash worked seamlessly:

100mhz=5DD088F282E3D9653392E9CCBDEA6601.

(I also wanted a copy of the original 50Mhz FW to compare to).

I formatted the USB drive to FAT32, and copied the DS1000EUpdate.RGL FW file to it, and then I checked the hash (I can’t stress how important this is) AFTER it was on the USB flash drive to be double sure it was non-corrupted.

Once I inserted the USB drive, the DS1052E recognized it right away and asked me if I wanted to upgrade (even though it was the same version – but was the hacked one), and I selected yes and after it was done restarted the scope.

After the reboot of the scope, you can tell if the hack was successful by going to the horizontal scale potentiometer, and turn it all clockwise all the way and it should stop at 2.000 ns (the 50Mhz scopes stop at 5.000ns).

Also note, this FW hack does not affect the serial number, nor the DS1052E model, which all remain the same. This is most likely good, as should you have warranty issues, and have to send it in, perhaps they may not notice (however the SN/model change, they definitely would notice)?

You can view the change in the FW with a hex editor at Address: 00019690
E5 01 00 A8 61 08 08 05 10 09 60 89 E6 7D 00 50

and replace with (underlined only to point out the column)

E5 01 00 A8 61 08 08 05 10 01 60 89 E6 7D 00 50

Just make sure if you view in a hex editor you don’t accidently change any value without knowing, and double check the md5 checksum after to be sure.
Anyways I wanted to review this, since this thread is so long, and there is actually very valuable information thanks to a few very nice people, and it can be a bit tough to find (although working through the thread helps understand how things started and ended up with this FW hack method).

LINKS & HASHES
$ md5 /Rigol_original_firmware/v00.04.02.01.00/DS1000EUpdate.RGL
MD5 (DS1000EUpdate.RGL) = e92489296c98852d3ac49ae3e0102303

$ md5 /50_to_100_mhz_update/v00.04.02.01.00/DS1000EUpdate.RGL
MD5 (DS1000EUpdate.RGL) = 5dd088f282e3d9653392e9ccbdea6601

The hacked firmware archive http://www.linhadafrente.net/Luis/04.02.01.00.zip
$ md5 /Downloads/04.02.01.00.zip
MD5 (04.02.01.00.zip) = 4ff8b14d7df458db37b78682de412338

Could anyone please doublecheck and confirm to build a “net of trust”?
ORIGINAL BLOG POST:
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/changing-the-rigol-ds1052e-to-ds1102e-using-usb-the-dummy-guide/1750/
MD5 HASH POST:
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/changing-the-rigol-ds1052e-to-ds1102e-using-usb-the-dummy-guide/msg824444/#msg824444
HOW TO POST:
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/changing-the-rigol-ds1052e-to-ds1102e-using-usb-the-dummy-guide/msg825728/#msg825728
MD5 HASH CHECKING TOOL:
http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/

  • szafran

    Thanks!!

    • paul .a larner

      does this work on the ds1052d?

  • Rudy Albachten

    Thanks, I was able to upgrade my DS1052E using your instructions

  • Kemploe Banget
  • R Z

    Thanks. I did successfully update my DS1052E from 50MHz to 100MHz. The 100MHz h.a.c*k.e*d FW can be found also no github.

  • Rijk Valkenburg

    Thanks, Just did the ha*k/update, on the original 00.04.02.01.00 with hw 59, after 2 years thinking and reading about it, this worked as it looks good. with ONLY a usb-stick (cruzer 2GB){btw. it didnt work with a sdcard hub} go to github for the files by szafranski. choose the 100mhz file check the checksum 3 times, and make it 4 times!! undock the usb stick, dont pull it out you computer, insert it in the rigol 1052e and it will come up with asking for updating the scope, if you feel confident go on, if your not !! wait till you feel confident. regards

  • Randy hart

    hi I’m trying to find the files to upgrade my Rigol ds1052e from 50 to 100MHz can anyone help me out? my email is randyhart420@hotmail.com

  • mscheffel

    Worked for me, easy as can be!

    Doesn’t seem to affect the X-Y mode. I had hoped it would double the maximum sample rate there.

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