Requesting teardown of Rigol MSO1000Z series - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: yifanlu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 08, 2017, 05:40:36 am
content: Dave's teardown of the DS1054Z showed what looks like an unfilled FPGA, SRAM, some passives, and a SCSI connector. I'm interested in seeing what happens if you fill them and hack the software. However, I can't find any good pictures online of the full MSO1000Z board. The best I could find is inthis threadand as one of the users noted, the secret might be on the underside of the board. I also saw a 1.04 DS1054Z boardherewhich has a similar layout (no unfilled pads on the front side). The GEL update file also includes both a "SparrowFPGA.hex" and a "SparrowDGFPGA.hex" which leads me to suspect that there is indeed two FPGAs on the MSO series.Can anyone with a MSO1000Z series take a high resolution shot of the back side of the main board? Thanks!

author: Hydron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2017, 06:16:40 am
content: From what I can tell the early DS1000Z boards had a different unpopulated MSO section than the MSO versions eventually used. I believe (from testing on a DS1074Z-Plus "MSO ready" scope) that for each 8 digital channels enabled you lose an analogue channel so it seems that they eventually didn't add the extra FPGA/RAM to do the LA function, but just bodged it into the existing FPGA (making it IMHO rather worthless).

author: yifanlu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 08, 2017, 06:59:07 am
content: Right, that sounds reasonable, but I would rather have empirical evidence from looking at a picture of the board. Like I said, the v1.04 DS1000Z board also doesn't have those unpopulated sections. Plus the fact of the two different FPGA hex files in the update...

author: technogeeky
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2017, 09:17:00 am
content: I guessed before I clicked that you might be linking to my pictures, and I was right!I never took off the front panel, so I am not totally sure about what's on the frontside of that board. But I remember my impression at the time was they simplified the board and deleted the extra FPGA and whatever spots.I admit that this did not then, nor does it now, make sense to me: The cost savings would be in not populating the board with components. You would not get a large cost savings from changing a board to remove FPGA pads. I think.I'd be interested to see, anyway.I should note that while the board said it's HW version 1.04, I had a newer version of the bootloader or whatever (1.14, if I recall) than anyone else claimed to have at the time.

author: yifanlu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 08, 2017, 05:00:20 pm
content: My theory (based on no evidence whatsoever) is when the 1.01 boards came out, they expected to put the DLA FPGA on the same side of the board for the MSO series. However, when they added the daughterboard for the -S series, they found either that it won't fit with the FPGA or that it'll be too close so they moved it to the underside in 1.02/1.03.

author: yifanlu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 11, 2017, 05:49:48 am
content: Let's approach it another way if nobody is willing to take apart their MSO. Can people help me guess what the missing components are? The big two are the FPGA and the SRAM. Considering the BGA layout for the FPGA, it must be a 484-FPGA so let's assume it's the same as the main one (XC6SLX25-2FGG484C). If we assume that, we may also use the same SRAM (H5PS5162GFR-Y5C). Now what appears to be left is two voltage regulators (label says 1.25V and 3.3V) along with caps for them and maybe inductors as well? Now for the 8 components by the SCSI connectorWhat could that be? Maybe 4-array common choke, any ideas?

author: skander36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2017, 06:01:55 am
content: Hi !There is nothing on the back as you can see in attached pics .Here is another discussion on this subject :https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope/3950/.In fact this is another version of the board without FPGA for Logic Analyzer , but with the connector linked directly to the main FPGA . First you need to figure out how to activate LA function : supposed from the jumpers or resistors (near JTAG connector ) as you see in pic3 ( factory configured ), and if that works you must solder voltage regulators and some IC missing (you must find the values somewhere or someone) , solder the connector , figure out a way to add a button on the keyboard , and finally you must buy a logic probe RPL1116 (approx.. 300 E) or find a schematic of it and try to clone or simulate with another sketch ...

author: yifanlu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 14, 2017, 06:05:06 am
content: Thank you! That settles it.