User`s guide

Table Of Contents

36 Chapter 2

Overview of Remote Control

Sending SCPI command messages

Types and structure of commands

The SCPI commands available for the E5061A/E5062A are classified into 2 groups as

follows.

E5061A/E5062A commands

Commands specific to the E5061A/E5062A. They cover all measurement functions that

the E5061A/E5062A has and some general-purpose functions. The commands in this

group are arranged in a hierarchical structure called the command tree (see “Command

tree” on page 486). Each command consists of character strings (mnemonics) indicating

each hierarchical level and colon (:) separators between hierarchical levels.

IEEE common commands

Commands to cover general-purpose functions defined in IEEE488.2 that are available

commonly to instruments that support this standard. The commands in this group have an

asterisk (*) at the beginning. For the commands in this group, there is no hierarchical

structure.

Concepts of the command tree

The commands at the top of the command tree are called “root command” or simply

“root.” To access lower level commands in the tree, you need to specify a specific path like

a directory path in the DOS file system. After power-on or reset, the current path is set to

the root. Special characters in messages change the path setting as described below.

Message terminator A message terminator such as the

<new line> character sets the current path to the root.

Colon (:) A colon between 2 command mnemonics lowers the level of the

current path in the command tree. A colon used as the first character of

a command specifies the command mnemonic that follows as the

root-level command.

Semicolon (;) A semicolon does not change the current path and separates 2

commands in the same message.

Figure 2-6 shows an example of how to use colons and semicolons to efficiently access

commands in the command tree.