Agilent Technologies 86120C, User Manual

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3-3
Programming
Addressing and Initializing the Instrument
Addressing and Initializing the Instrument
The Agilent 86120C’s GPIB address is configured at the factory to a
value of 20. You must set the outp ut and inp ut functions of your p ro-
gramming language to send the commands to this address. You can
change the GPIB address from the front p anel as described in
“To
change the GPIB address” on p age 3- 4 .
Remote mode and front- panel lockout
Whenever the instrument is controlled by a comp uter, the Remote
message is disp layed on the instrument’s screen and the softkey menu
is blanked except for the
LOCAL softkey. This softkey can be p ressed
by the user to restore front p anel control of the instrument.
You can specify a local lockout mode that prevents the
LOCAL
softkey
from being disp layed. If the instrument is in local lockout mode, all the
softkeys may be blanked. For examp le, if the instrument is first p laced
in local lockout mode and then p laced in remote mode, no softkeys are
displayed.
Consult the documentation for your programming environment to
determine which commands are used to p ut an instrument in the
remote and local lockout modes. These are not Agilent 86120C com-
mands; they control GPIB control lines and do not send any characters
to the Agilent 86120C.
Initialize the instrument at start of every program
It is good p ractice to initialize the instrument at the start of every
program. This ensures that the bus and all appropriate interfaces are
in a known state. HP BASIC p rovides a CLEAR command which clears
the interface buffer and also resets the instrument’s p arser. (The
p arser is the p rogram that reads the instructions that you send.)
Whenever the instrument is under remote p rogramming control, it
should be in the single measurement acquisition mode. This is auto-
matically accomp lished when the *RST common command is used. The
*RST command initializes the instrument to a p reset state:
CLEAR 720
OUTPUT 720;”*RST”