Even Xzibit Would Appreciate This Pimped Out, Liquid-Cooled $18K Oscilloscope

Customization is a major part of car culture and no TV show has exemplified that culture more than MTV’s Pimp My Ride. In that show, lucky car owners would have their boring econoboxes pimped out with fly paint jobs and ridiculous interior gimmicks, all under the watchful eye of rapper and meme legend Xzibit. But gearheads aren’t the only people who enjoy novelty customization, and we geeks know a thing or two about slapping some glowing LEDs on a build. To prove that, Zack Freedman gave an $18,000 Keysight oscilloscope a pimp treatment that even Xzibit would appreciate.

Keysight makes some of the best oscilloscopes on the market and every year they give away a handful of them during their Keysight University event. That kicks off on March 15th and they sent Freedman one of their high-end ‘scopes to tinker with in the hopes of drumming up some publicity. We think that has been achieved thanks to all of Freedman’s many modifications. As with the cars on Pimp My Ride, the modifications here are almost entirely aesthetic. The oscilloscope hasn’t really been improved in any way, but it sure looks flashy! That is thanks to a multitude of LEDs, an attached computer, and a massive liquid cooling system filled with coolant that looks uncannily like aged milk.

In addition to the standard strips of WS2812B individually-addressable RGB LEDs, Freedman replaced the standard rotary encoders with RGB LED versions. Those were outfitted with translucent resin 3D-printed knobs so that light comes through. All of the LEDs are controlled by the new Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller development board. There is also a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B single-board computer with a touchscreen. Those are attached to the side of the ‘scope in a 3D-printed mount and can be used to log data or adjust parameters. This particular Keysight oscilloscope has four chips that get hot and need to be cooled. Freedman setup a massive water cooling system for those and the Raspberry Pi computer. That milky coolant actually serves a purpose, because it is full of pearlescent particles that help you visualize the flow through the tubes. Now Freedman has a pimp oscilloscope befitting of his eccentricities.