Section 4: Introduction to SCPI
Series 2230G Triple-Channel Power Supplies User's Manual
4-6
2230G-900-01 Rev. A / June 2018
Message terminator
A terminator informs the instrument that it has reached the end of a SCPI message. The following
message terminators are permitted.
Terminator
Description
<NL>
New line:
Decimal 10 or hexadecimal
0X0A in ASCII
<END>
End or identify
<NL><END>
New line and end or identify
In the examples in this manual, there is an assumed message terminator at the end of each
message.
Multiple commands in a message
You can group multiple SCPI command messages and send them as a single message with one
message terminator. There are two important considerations when sending several commands in a
single message.
•
Separate each command with a semicolon (
;
)
•
Header paths influence how the instrument interprets commands
The header path is a string that is inserted in front of every command in a message. The header path
in the first command message is a null string. For each subsequent command with the same header
path, the header is implied. For example:
CURR:LEV 3; PROT:STAT OFF
In the example above, the header path is
CURR
. Because the two commands are separated with a
semicolon (
;
) and the commands are in the same header path, the header path
CURR
is not needed
for the second command. The instrument automatically interprets the command following the
semicolon as:
CURR:PROT:STAT OFF
If
CURR
is explicitly included in the second command in the first example above, it is semantically
wrong. The instrument will interpret the second command as
CURR:CURR:PROT:STAT OFF
, and an
error will occur.