LDO in D1? For what?
CC FET OPAmp has to compare the voltage over the shunt
relative to to the PWM cycle which gets transformed to a DC voltage
The OPV changes the FET resistance to match both voltages the same
But for a constant max current the PWM voltage needs to be aleways the same amplitude so I have to use a 2.8V LDO
Got it. 
I didn’t mean to suggest switching entirely to FET on MCPCB but rather offering it as an option. LD4B can regulate 12A. And maybe FET removal would enable shrinking the driver so it fits more lights.
why buy it for 800€ when you can hack it in 30 minutes?
Legally your not supposed to. You lose the warranty as well. That’s the only reasons I can think of.
legally I can also set them back to original non A version, but why is it they sell me the hardware with locked features
unlocking cost 70-80% of the PSU?
So is it legal you reflash the firmware on a driver?
its just a few bits in a a code line that make A version or non A version, no hardware or special calibration
the calibrated PSU costs another 300€ more
I don’t know anything about it, but if it comes with any kind of user agreement, then that could be the basis for the “legally” that Jason mentions. Other than that, it’s just a loss of warranty, since they “legally” don’t have to honor a warranty on a modified piece of hardware. I say go ahead and do it, as long as you are willing to take the risk.
EDIT: I just want to add that people have been fighting this kind of “anti-feature” design for a long time with technology, including Microsoft Windows, Canon digital cameras, Apple iPhones, even Android phones (supposedly open source software). Those are just some of the examples off the top of my head, but it seems to me that the more expensive the technology is, the more likely that the manufacturer will install “anti-features” so you have to pay even more money to get full functionality.
Legally it’s complex and depends on jurisdiction. Manufacturers often want buyers to be licensors rather than owners. Some countries push back more some push back less.
They do it with lots of electronics. My to modify a Fluke 177 to a Fluke 179 takes 15min. It’s a lot cheaper! Well done Lexel!
I mean, Lexel is an individual, not a company.
What he does with what he bought is not the company’s business.
Yes, if he has to do a warranty claim, he’ll have problems.
He can just flash back the software if needed.
There’s what’s legal, and what shouldn’t be illegal.
the thing is both firmwares are identical, the hack changes only in a file DP811 to DP811A,
so its one byte of data changed which makes the difference from a limited to unlimited features supply
It is my property if I want I can throw it out of my window and beat it to a pile of scrap with a 4 pound hammer,
guess trying to claim warranty successful is kind of hard if I do so
Huh, wait, there’s no different firmware that you had to install? Just a different pointer address to the name of the machine?
Haha.
And yeah. What you buy belongs to you.
The reason they sell the cheaper model with all the same hardware is because it saves the company money. One item comes off the assembly line and they can make it either version depending on their needs.
The difference in price based on software features allows the company to offer 2 models to fit different people’s needs. If you don’t need all the features, you can buy the software limited version. The company makes a smaller profit on it, but they might make up for it in volume. They probably sell more of the cheaper ones than they do the more expensive ones.
It’s about product differentiation. If they did not offer the cheaper one their competitors will and they will lose money.
What driver is sold as having features turned off that you have to pay more to get turned on? I have never seen such drivers.
Some UI’s are illegal to flash such as Guppydrv. If you tried to sell drivers with it and you did not pay the fees to use it, you could be sued by the creator.
All of this gets into the digital copyrights act.
It is one thing to violate these clauses on your own personal equipment as it is hard to prove anything. It is another story if you buy a bunch of the DP832, convert it to the DP832A and then try to sell them for a profit.
Personally, I would not admit to any kind of illegal activity on a public forum. It could be fine or it might come back to bite you in the rear.
They will still make a good profit on the non A models
Its just ripp off to get a good profit with having minimum costs
for example they limit bandwith like on the function generator
for example the 20MHz DG1022Z costs about 400€ the DG1062Z costs 715€, same story only a byte is set different to enable 3 times more frequency
I dont even bothered to mess with this as I dont need that fast and luckyly also the small one got same poiunt count
for example Siglent dont do this they sell you a full featured scope for 400€,
while the limited Rigol costs also 400€ and it costs you another 250€ to upgrade to get the same features like bandwith and point storage
Another example of this - Alcatel Lucent selling POE switches with 10gbit uplinks and limiting them to 1gbit to sell a license to unlock. Just went through that at work. 
Now lets talk about a totally legal hack to make my Fluke 8845A use a PTC to show temperature, offical only supported in the 8846A
but with the maths functions you can do offset and multiplier to show the temperature reading in the kOhms range
Also build me for 5$ a probe instead paying 500$ for a way too big Fluke probe
Both of these are just your opinion. I’m sure Rigols opinion is different than yours. Since Rigol makes the product and sets the prices, their opinion is what matters.
If they see a rise in the lower model sales and a drop in the higher model sales they might figure out people are just hacking the lower models so then they might go to the trouble of leaving certain hardware pieces out of the lower models. Time will tell. Hack while you can. :+1:
Yeah, but the point is that if they are able to sell it at the lower price for a profit, with no hardware or firmware changes, then the top price model is over-priced. There’s actually a good business reason to do that. Some people are not happy unless they spend a lot on a product. They will buy the over-priced stuff because to them, it is not over-priced. Even if you told those people that the only difference is the “A” being included on the end of the name, and showed them how it worked, they wouldn’t believe you. They would swear that the “A” model is objectively better in some way. This is a confirmed psychological effect. Some companies choose to make money off of this effect. In a way, they’re meeting a very real “need” for those people. :money_mouth_face:
I can tell you one absolutely fantastic feature the A has
Its screen is actually not anymore monocromatic, wow colorful display
anyway I will also break the warranty label on the 832 installing a 92mm silent fan with maglev bearing instead the noisy original 80mm fan
a little bit more airflow at at about 14dB less noise
same with the DG1022Z, way too noisy fan