Newport ESP300 Series, User Manual

Page: 47 / 314

3.4 Command Syntax
As mentioned previously, the ESP controller utilizes an ASCII
command set and also outputs system status in ASCII format.
Commands may be either upper or lower case characters.
The diagram below illustrates the ESP controller command syntax. As
indicated in this diagram, a valid command consists of three main
fields. The first field consists of a numerical parameter “xx”, the
second field consists of a two letter ASCII mnemonic, and the third
field consists of numerical parameter “nn”. The command is finally
terminated by a carriage return. For example, 3PA10.0 is a valid
command.
If a command does not require parameter “xx” and/or parameter “nn”,
that field may be skipped by leaving a blank character (space). For
example, BO1, 3WS, and AB are all valid commands.
If a command requires multiple parameters in the third field, all these
parameters must be comma delimited. For example, 1HN1,2 is a valid
command.
In a similar fashion, multiple commands can be issued on a single
command line by separating the commands by a semi-colon (;). For
example, 3MO; 3PA10.0; 3WS; 3MF is a valid command line.
parameter
"xx"
command
parameter
"nn"
terminator
(carriage
return)
command
separator
( ; )
parameter
separator
( , )
Figure 3.1: Command Syntax Diagram
NOTE
A controller command (or a sequence of commands) has to be
terminated with a carriage return character. However, responses
from the controller are always terminated by a carriage
return/line feed combination. This setting may not be changed. If
the IEEE interface is used, the IEEE controller has to be
configured to terminate the input (read) function when it senses
the line feed character.
Section 3 – Remote Mode 3-7