© Isothermal Technology
Page 79 of 102
923 milliK manual - issue: 1.10
8 SCPI Command Set
The command format and protocol used by the milliK is based on the SCPI (Standard
Commands for Programmable Instruments) standard. This was developed to provide a
consistent command language for all types of programmable instruments. The objective was
to reduce the development time required by users of these instruments by providing a
consistent programming environment through the use of defined messages, instrument
responses and data formats. Further information on SCPI can be obtained from the SCPI
Consortium (
http://www.scpiconsortium.org
).
8.1 Command Terminators
SCPI commands are ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character
strings and should be terminated with a Carriage Return character (ASCII character 13).
Responses from the milliK are always terminated by a Carriage Return character.
8.2 SCPI Command Structure
Commands are arranged in a hierarchical tree, similar to directory trees used in PCs. SCPI
uses a defined notation to represent the command tree structure. Each node in the tree
structure is a command keyword with keywords being separated by colons (:). To simplify
the description of the SCPI commands, the notation represents levels in the tree using
horizontal indentations with the root node being the left most column. For example, the
milliK includes the following command structure:
SENSe
:FUNCTION
:CHANNEL
:RESistance
:RANGe
:RANGe?
READ?
CALibrate
:VOLTage:GAIN
:VOLTage:GAIN?
A valid command is formed by following the tree structure from a root node until a node is
reached with no further nodes below it, for example in the above command tree we may use:
SENSe:RESistance:RANGe
