Series 3700A System Switch/Multimeter Reference Manual
Section 5: Switching and scanning
3700AS-901-01 Rev. D/June 2018
5-11
Channel list parameter for remote commands
The channel list parameter is a string-type parameter that is used when controlling the relays of the
Series 3700A using a remote command interface. You can specify a list of individual channels or a
range of channels in the channel list parameter.
In the command descriptions, the channel list parameter is shown as
channelList
.
When sending this parameter:
•
Enclose the contents of the channel list in either single (') or double (") quotes. The beginning and
end quotes must be the same style.
•
Use a comma or semicolon to separate the channel list or
(on page 5-19).
•
The string may contain a single channel, channel pattern, or analog backplane relay, as well as
multiple ones that are indicated by a range or comma-delimited.
•
Use a colon between the start and end channel to specify a range of channels. The lowest
channel must be first and the highest last.
Examples:
•
To perform an open or close operation on channels 1 and 3 of slot 1, use
("1001, 1003")
for
the
channelList
parameter.
•
To perform an open or close operation on all channels within the range of channels 1 through 5 of
slot 1, use
("1001:1005")
for the
channelList
parameter
Queries that return a list of channels
For queries that return a channel list parameter, a channel configured for 4-pole operations will
indicate the paired channel in parentheses. For example, if channel 3003 on a 60-channel card is
configured for 4-pole, its paired channel is 3033. Notice the response to the query in the code
example below:
channel.close('3003')
print(channel.getclose('slot3')
3003(3033)
Return value
Several of the channel functions return a value for specified channels and channel patterns.
The return value for these functions is a string containing a list of comma-delimited return items. The
channelList
argument of the remote command determines the number and order of these returned
items.
When the
channelList
parameter for these functions is
"slot
X
"
, the response first lists the
channels starting from lowest to highest. More specifically, the channels are returned in numeric
order.
When the
channelList
parameter for these functions is
"allslots"
, the response starts with slot
1 and increases to slot 6 for the Series 3700A. Each slot is processed completely before going to the
next. Therefore, all slot 1 channels are listed before slot 2 channels.
When the response is numeric, but in string format, use the
tonumber()
function to convert the
string to a number. For example, sending these commands:
x = tonumber("1403")
print(x)
Results in:
1.40303
