© 2015 Thorlabs
6
Series 4000 SCPI Programmers Reference Manual
2 Introduction to the SCPI Language
SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments) is an ASCII based instrument
command language designed for test and measurement instruments, based on a hierarchical
tree structure. It means associated commands are grouped together under a common node.
For example:
SOURce[1]
:CURRent
:LIMit
[:AMPLitude] {MIN|MAX|<amps>}
SOURce
is the root level keyword of the command,
CURRent
is the second level keyword,
LIMit
is the third level keyword and
AMPLitude
is the fourth level keyword, which can be omitted in
this case. A colon (
:
) separates between command levels.
For further information about SCPI please see SCPI Standard available at
2.1 Syntax Conventions
The format used in this manual for commands is illustrated below:
SOURce[1]:CURRent {MINimum|MAXimum|<amps>}
The command syntax shows most commands (and some parameters) as a mixture of upper-
and lower-case letters. The upper-case letters indicate the abbreviated spelling for the
command. For shorter program lines, you can use the abbreviated form. For better program
readability, you can send the long form. In the above example
CURR
and
CURRent
are both
acceptable syntax spellings. Other spellings like
CUR
or
CURRe
are not allowed and will generate
an error. Commands are not case sensitive.
Curly braces (
{}
)
enclose the parameter choices for a given command string. Braces are not
sent with the command string.
A vertical bar (
|
)
separates multiple parameter choices for a given command string. For
example,
{MINimum|MAXimum|<amps>}
in the above command indicates that you can specify a
numeric current parameter, or
MINimum
, or
MAXimum
. The bar is not sent with the command
string.
Triangle brackets (
<>
)
indicate that you must specify a value for the enclosed parameter. For
example, the above syntax statement shows the
<amps>
parameter enclosed in triangle
brackets. The brackets are not sent with the command string. You must specify a value for the
parameter (for example
5.0
) unless you select one of the other options shown in the syntax (for
example
MIN
).
Some parameters and even parts of the command itself are enclosed in square brackets (
[]
).
This indicates that the part of the command or the parameter is optional and can be omitted.
The brackets are not sent with the command string. If you do not specify a value for an optional
parameter, the instrument chooses a default value.
Summary of Contents for 4000 Series
Page 1: ...Series 4000 LDC40xx TED4015 ITC40xx SCPI Programmer s Reference Manual 2015 ...
Page 2: ...Version Date 3 3 08 Apr 2015 Copyright 2015 Thorlabs ...
Page 69: ... 2015 Thorlabs 3 Commands by Subsystem 67 Figure FIGURENO Status Structure ...
Page 92: ... 2015 Thorlabs 90 Series 4000 SCPI Programmers Reference Manual instrument ...