Question 1

I bought the scope with free bundle option, which I thought should be unlimited, but now that I have the scope, there is a time limit. Why?

Accepted Answer

The time limit is a free trial of some features that you would normally need to pay for. After the timer expires, the scope will only have the features of the MSO5104. The free bundle that you received must be redeemed through the Rigol website. They'll ask you for your scope's serial number along with some other info. Once you submit that information to Rigol, it can take several weeks for them to email you the license key for the bundled upgrade. After they send you the upgrade key and instructions, you can permanently unlock the features that are included in the bundle.

Having said that, I didn't bother with upgrading my scope through Rigol. I just hacked mine the day after it arrived in the mail. There are plenty of resources online that can help you unlock all the features of your scope for free. It seems that Rigol engineered these scopes to be hackable. I was a little nervous about it at first because I'm not very familiar with software modding, but it was easy. If you just invest a few hours, you can have a fully unlocked 350MHz 4+16 channel scope while saving a couple thousand dollars.

Question 2

How do I enable the serial decoder option?

Accepted Answer

As of today (8/12/22), the MSO5104 comes with a promotional bundle that includes all serial decoding options. You'll need to register for this promotion online.

Question 3

Looks like this includes the wave generator in the free bundle option. is the spectrum analyzer, volt meter, & precision frequency counter included?

Accepted Answer

Yes, those features are all included by default

MSO5104 Digital Oscilloscope, 100MHz, 4CH, 8GSa/s Mixed Signal Scope

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