User Manual 3153
SCPI Command Reference 4-4
SCPI Command
Terminator
A command string sent to the function generator must terminate with a
<new line> character. The IEEE-STD-488 EOI message is a <new line>
character. A <carriage return> followed by a <new line> is also
accepted. Command string termination always resets the current SCPI
command path to the root level.
IEEE-STD-488.2
Common Commands
The IEEE-STD-488.2 standard defines a set of common commands that
perform functions like reset, trigger and status operations. Common
commands begin with an asterisk ( * ), are four to five characters in
length, and may include one or more parameters. The command
keyword is separated from the first parameter by a blank space. Use a
semicolon ( ; ) to separate multiple commands as shown below:
*RST; *STB?; *IDN?
SCPI Parameter
Type
The SCPI language defines four different data formats to be used in
program messages and response messages: numeric, discrete,
boolean, and arbitrary block.
Numeric Parameters
Commands that require numeric parameters will accept all commonly
used decimal representations of numbers including optional signs,
decimal points, and scientific notation. Special values for numeric
parameters like MINimum and MAXimum are also accepted.
Engineering unit suffices with numeric parameters (e.g., MHz or kHz) can
also be sent. If only specific numeric values are accepted, the function
generator will ignore values, which are not allowed and will generate an
error message. The following command is an example of a command
that uses a numeric parameter:
VOLT:AMPL <amplitude>
Discrete Parameters
Discrete parameters are used to program settings that have a limited
number of values (i.e., FIXed, USER and SEQuence). They have short
and long form command keywords. Upper and lowercase letters can be
mixed. Query responses always return the short form in all uppercase
letters. The following command uses discrete parameters:
SOUR:FUNC:MODE {FIXed | USER | SEQuence}
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