Agilent Technologies 53220A, User Manual

Page: 156 / 294

156 53220A/53230A User’s Guide
5 Triggering and Gating
moves the counter to the triggered state and the beginning of the gate cycle.
The counter remains in the triggered state until the sample count (readings
per trigger) is reached. The counter then returns to the wait-for-trigger state
until the next system trigger is received. The counter returns to the idle state
once the product of the trigger count x sample count is reached.
Measurement Gate
Control of the measurement gate allows you to select the duration of the mea-
surement. The gating sequence of the trigger/gate cycle begins after a system
trigger signal is received, and is repeated for each measurement specified in
the sample count.
Gate Set Up
The counter’s gate source determines the path through the gate cycle and the
related parameters that must be considered. A gate source is required for all
frequency, totalizing, and time interval measurements.
Although selection of the gate source is shown at the beginning of the cycle
N O T E
The gate sequence occurs while the counter is in the triggered state (Figure 5-2).
Although shown in the figure after the counter is initiated, gate configuration
like system trigger configuration, occurs while counter is in the idle state.
N O T E
Counter measurements are based on configurations comprised of multiple param-
eters. The easiest and most common starting point for setting these parameters
programmatically is using commands within the CONFigure and MEASure sub-
systems (Chapter 3). These subsystem commands are considered “high-level”, as
multiple counter parameters are set or defaulted from a single command. “Low-
level” commands such as the gating commands described here allow you to
change selected gating parameters without altering other areas of the counter
configuration.