Section 4: Introduction to SCPI
Series 2230G Triple-Channel Power Supplies User's Manual
4-8
2230G-900-01 Rev. A / June 2018
SCPI data formats
All data programmed to or returned from the power supply is ASCII. The data may be numerical or it
can be a character string. The following topics provide more details about SCPI data formats.
Talking and listening data formats
There are talking data formats and listening data formats. The following tables define the differences.
Talking formats
Symbol
Description
<NR1>
Digits with an implied decimal point assumed after the least-significant digit
Example:
273
<NR2>
Digits with an explicit decimal point
Example:
.0273
<NR3>
Digits with an explicit decimal point and an exponent
Example:
2.73e+2
Listening formats
Symbol
Description
<Nrf>
Extended format that includes
<NR1>
,
<NR2>
and
<NR3>
formats.
Example:
273 273. 2.73e2
<Nrf+>
Extended decimal format that includes
<NRf>
and
MIN MAX DEF
Example:
273 273. 2.73e2.MAX
MIN
and
MAX
are the minimum and maximum values; within the scope of the
parameter definitions,
DEF
is the default value
<Bool>
Boolean data
Example:
0|1
or
ON|OFF
Suffixes and multipliers
The following table describes the SCPI command format for suffixes and multipliers.
Class
Suffix
Unit
Unit with multiplier
Voltage
V
volts
mV (millivolt)
Current
A
amperes
mA (milliampere)
Power
W
watts
mW (milliwatt)
Resistance
OHM
Ohms
MOHM (megohm)
Ω
Ohms
MΩ (megohm)
Time
s
seconds
mS (millisecond)
Common multipliers
1e3
K
kilo
1e-3
m
milli
1e-6
µ
micro