Racal Instruments 3151, User Manual

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3151 And 3151A User Manual
Getting Started 1-11
Front Panel
Indicators
There are three LED’s on the front panel. The FAIL LED (Red)
illuminates at power-up until the Model 3151/3151A has passed self-
test. If the Model 3151/3151A self-test fails, the FAIL LED remains
illuminated. The FAIL LED may be illiminated during normal
operation if the Model 3151/3151A stops communication.
The ACCESS LED (Amber) iluminates each time a command has
been received by the Model 3151/3151A. This light remains on
during shared memory data transfer.
When the output state is on, the OUTPUT LED (Green) light
illuminates. It goes off when the output state is changed to off.
Programming The
Model 3151/3151A
The Model 3151/3151A has no controls on the front panel.
Instrument functions, parameters, and modes can only be accessed
through VXIbus commands. There are a number of ways to talk to
the instrument. They all require that an appropriate software driver
be installed in the Resource Manager (slot 0). The rest is a matter of
practice and knowledge of the language in use. There are other
system considerations like address selection that have to be settled
before programming the instrument. These topics are discussed in
later chapters.
Low level programming of the Model 3151/3151A is done using SCPI
(Standard Commands For Programmable Instruments) language.
Programming aspects are covered in Chapters 3 and 4.
High level drivers like VXIplug&play and WaveCAD are beyond the
scope of this manual. Contact your Racal representative for more
information about high level drivers for the Model 3151/3151A.