I have been thinking about buying an oscilloscope for quite sometime now. After reading some rave reviews, especially from the eevblog, I decided to purchase a Rigol DS1052E digital scope.
Can't wait to put my hands on it ;D
Are you going to hack it?
Well, that certainly was my first thought... but after reading (forgot where) about a few failed attempts that actually bricked the scope, I might give it a second thought. After all, besides bragging rights, I probably won't even utilize the full 50MHz bandwidth...
I have seen two work and two bricks, its a very simple change I mean essentially its just desolder a cap to kill the high pass filter circuit.
The two bricks were recent purchases, so there is a question if they made some changes to combat the alteration.
I mean one capacitor and you save $400 bux, does make a tempting target.
Where did you order it from?
I ordered it from NKCElectronics, I have ordered quite a few small things from them and my experience has been pretty good.
My order was just shipped and according to UPS it will arrive tomorrow! Anyway, after reading more and more failed attempt of the hack (The Rigol DS1052E - Page 28) I think I'll just stick with the default bandwidth... for now :-/
Yeah looks like it just may not be working as well as it originally did.
I read on other pages that a firmware hack is all you need... so no soldering required!
( ombouwen van een Rigol DS1052E - Forum - Circuits Online ) In dutch, sorry!
Well, it seems that people are having issues with this firmware downgrade method with the latest 2.04 firmware. Anyway, mine scope is coming today (quite impressed with NKCElectronics's shipping speed. It's only the third day after I placed the order!). I will take a look after I get home from work and let ya know what the firmware version it has...
Did I see a $200 version of this scope somewhere on this site? Anyone familiar?
Hey guys, I just received the scope ;D ! Anyway, it came in packaged nicely and securely (two layers of boxes) and it is quite a nice piece of equipment! In case you are wondering about the firmware version. It is 2.04. It looks all the 1052Es shipped recently have been updated to this firmware version, which means you can't do the 100MHz hack any more... at least for now.
Anyway, I wasn't planning to hack it anyway... 
Its a great scope either way, and you said you probably wouldn't be pushing the limits too much anyways. Have fun with it.
Well, I couldn't resist the temptation of hacking.... so I went ahead with the hack and I have a 100MHz scope now 
(changing the rigol DS1052E to DS1102E using USB , the dummy guide - Page 7)
You just bought me lunch, I bet someone you would "get the urge" just to look into it, but there were no guarantees you would report it here so the bet was I would ask back in a month and I wasn't allowed to encourage. 
Congrats on the upgrade and thanks for lunch.
;D ;D ;D ;D
BOZ
PS Did you grab a before and after pic, I d like like to do a quick write up from your forum post on my Tinker Tech blog, because it comes up alot and as I said I had two people who ended up bricking. so i t would be nice to show more than an anecdotal success.
BOZ
Good deal! After reading most of the related posts, I concluded that the potential rewards far outweigh the possible risks.
As a rule of thumb, whenever you are flashing anything (be it the scope or your BIOS), almost make sure that you have a stable power supply! For my mod, I used a UPS just to be sure...
PS Did you grab a before and after pic, I d like like to do a quick write up from your forum post on my Tinker Tech blog, because it comes up alot and as I said I had two people who ended up bricking. so i t would be nice to show more than an anecdotal success.
Yep, I am going to write up a blog entry for this (probably this weekend) and share the link.
Cool cool, thanks.
As promised, here is the write up: My New DS1052E Oscilloscope – Kerry D. Wong. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment :).
Here are a few pictures:
Before:
After:
More pictures are on my site.