Ceyear 4051 Series, User Manual

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6 Remote control
6.1 Basis of Remote Control
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5) ―Appendix C Table of menu-based ASCPI Classification of Section 6.3‖ of the Remote Control Manual.
6.1.3.2 SCPI Command Specifications
1) General terms
The following terms are applicable to this section. In order to better understand the contents, you should know
the exact definitions of such terms.
a) Controller
Any computer used to communicate with SCPI devices. The PC, minicomputer or card in a card cage can be
used as the controller. Also, some intelligent devices can be used as controller.
b) Equipment
Any device supporting SCPI. The majority of devices are electrical measurement or excitation devices for
communication through the GPIB interface.
c) Remote control messages
A combination of one or more properly formatted SCPI commands. Programming messages instruct a device
how to measure and output signals.
d) Response messages
A combination of data in specified SCPI formats. Response messages are always transmitted from a device to
a controller or monitor. Response messages inform the controller of the internal status or measured values of a
device.
e) Commands
Any command compliant with SCPI standard. Messages control the combination of device commands.
Generally, the commands consist of keyword, parameter and punctuation.
f) Event commands
Some commands are events and cannot be queried. Generally, there is no front panel key corresponding to the
event command. The event command is used to trigger an event at the specific time.
g) Query
A special type of command. For query of control equipment, return to the response message conforming to the
controller grammar requirements. Query string always end with a question mark.
2) Command type
The SCPI command is divided into two types: general command and special instrument command. Common
commands are sued to manage macros, status registers, synchronization and data storage, and are defined by
IEEE 488.2. It can be easily identified with the star mark in front of the command. For example, *IDN
？ ,
*OPC and *RST are common commands. The general command is not the special instrument command and
can be explained in the same method, regardless of the current path setting.
The special instrument command is easy to identify with the colon (:). The colon is used at the beginning of a
command statement and between keywords, as in FREQuency[:CW?]. Based on the internal functional
modules of the instrument, special instrument commands are divided into corresponding subsystem command
subsets. For example, the power subsystem (:POWer) includes relevant power commands, and the status
subsystem (:STATus) includes the status control register commands.