{"id":2539,"date":"2009-11-05T17:52:57","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T01:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=2539"},"modified":"2015-09-26T11:11:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T18:11:04","slug":"agilent-dso1000-firmware-update-confirms-rigol-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/agilent-dso1000-firmware-update-confirms-rigol-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Agilent firmware update confirms Rigol connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Agilent<\/a> released a firmware update<\/a> for their 1000 series oscilloscopes<\/a>.\u00a0 The 1000 series, Agilent’s lowest end line, is a family of powerful yet reasonably priced digital storage oscilloscopes that includes my DSO1014A<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I downloaded the firmware update and copied it to a USB stick for transfer to the scope, I noticed that the suffix of the file was .RGL.\u00a0 This reminded me of some rumors I heard a few months back about how Agilent’s low-end scopes are actually manufactured by Rigol Technologies<\/a>.\u00a0 Rigol makes some very interesting low cost scopes, including the DS1052E<\/a>, which was reviewed favorably on EEVblog<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

I opened the .RGL file in a hex editor, and found this:<\/p>\n

\"Rigol<\/a><\/p>\n

The highlighted string, “Rigol Technologies<\/strong>“, confirms the Rigol connection.<\/p>\n

Later in the same file, Rigol shows up again:<\/p>\n

\"RIGOL\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Clearly Rigol is involved with (and probably wrote) the firmware for Agilent scopes.<\/p>\n

Interesting also is that the string “DS1204B” shows up in the file.\u00a0 The DS1204B<\/a> is a 200MHz Rigol model that looks pretty similar to my scope, and the screenshots are a perfect match too.<\/p>\n

I’m not implying that this is a bad thing, just interesting.\u00a0 If Agilent needs to outsource the design and\/or manufacturing of their low end scopes in order to provide an inexpensive entry-level scope with the Agilent badge on it, so be it.\u00a0 What I haven’t done is actually opened the scope to see if Rigol’s name appears on the hardware as well.\u00a0 Has anyone voided their warranty to investigate?<\/p>\n

One more note, I found the DS1204B for $1895<\/a>, over $500 less than the retail price of the corresponding Agilent DSO1024A<\/a>.\u00a0 This might make the Rigol an attractive alternative if having the Agilent name on your equipment isn’t important to you.\u00a0 Note that I have not made any effort to go through all the specs for each scope and look for differences.\u00a0 I wouldn’t be surprised if Agilent added their secret sauce to the DSO1000’s to tweak the performance.\u00a0 It would certainly be interesting to see a side by side comparison of both scopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Agilent released a firmware update for their 1000 series oscilloscopes.\u00a0 The 1000 series, Agilent’s lowest end line, is a family of powerful yet reasonably priced digital storage oscilloscopes that includes my DSO1014A. When I downloaded the firmware update and copied it to a USB stick for transfer to the scope, I noticed that … Continue reading Agilent firmware update confirms Rigol connection<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[220,304,221,222,303,305],"class_list":["post-2539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-agilent","tag-dso","tag-dso1014a","tag-oscilloscope","tag-rigol","tag-test-and-measurement"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-EX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1858,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/my-new-oscilloscope-the-agilent-dso1014a\/","url_meta":{"origin":2539,"position":0},"title":"My new oscilloscope – the Agilent DSO1014A","author":"Jeff","date":"May 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the Memorial Day weekend I had a chance to spend a little bit of time with my new Agilent DSO1014A oscilloscope. The Agilent 1000 family was just introduced on May 4th, 2009.\u00a0 Since it's a brand new model, I had to look around a bit to find one in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"New Oscilloscope","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3567905560_87dba5e2ec.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3029,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/the-original-oscilloscope-tetris\/","url_meta":{"origin":2539,"position":1},"title":"The ‘original’ oscilloscope Tetris","author":"Jeff","date":"August 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my electronics labs in college had a few of these scopes (Agilent 54600B). I can't remember who originally showed me how to access the game, but it was a great way to show off to the undergrads. You hold down two unlabeled buttons in the System\/Utility menu and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2476,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/guess-the-cable-length-to-win-stickers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2539,"position":2},"title":"Guess the cable length to win stickers!","author":"Jeff","date":"October 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1: An HP 3312A function generator is connected to an Agilent DSO1014A oscilloscope via a length of coaxial cable.\u00a0 The function generator is set to generate a square wave of frequency 1MHz. Based on the screen capture below, what is the length of the coax cable? The first person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Unterminated Cable","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/10v_unterm.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5576,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/design-and-construction-of-a-24-ghz-low-noise-amplifier\/","url_meta":{"origin":2539,"position":3},"title":"Design and Construction of a 24 GHz Low Noise Amplifier","author":"Jeff","date":"October 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Tony Long and I designed and built a 24 GHz low noise amplifier for our ECE192 undergraduate independent study project at UCSD. The amplifier was designed with an early version of Agilent ADS, PCBs were fabricated on Rogers 5880 (Duroid), and we hand built several prototypes on K-connector fixtures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"24GHz Low Noise Amplifier","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2644252495_fe04193fe0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2777,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/photos-of-the-black-hole\/","url_meta":{"origin":2539,"position":4},"title":"Photos of The Black Hole","author":"Jeff","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Last May, my brother and I went on a week-long roadtrip across the US.\u00a0 Ambling down the highway in a very large moving truck, we travelled from California to Texas by way of\u00a0 Tuscon, Socorro, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and quite a few rest stops, gas stations, and fast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Black Hole","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3516374199_6467b52aba.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3541,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/tips-for-finding-test-equipment-service-manuals\/","url_meta":{"origin":2539,"position":5},"title":"Tips for finding test equipment service manuals","author":"Jeff","date":"January 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When I buy a piece of electronic test equipment, the first thing I do is turn it on and see if it works. \u00a0This is the moment of truth: was that awesome eBay find the killer deal I thought it was? \u00a0(Hint: If it's missing case screws and came with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Resources"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Resources","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/books-and-resources\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2009:10:01 02:23:53","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3972358391_f92e1e1539.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2539"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7853,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions\/7853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}