Specifications

26 Chapter 2
Programming Command Guidelines
Using the Status Registers
• *STB? (status byte) queries the value of the status byte register without erasing
its contents.
Setting and Querying the Registers
Each bit in a register is represented by a numerical value based on its location. See
Figure 2-1 below. This number is sent with the command, to enable a particular bit.
If you want to enable more than one bit, you would send the sum of all the bits that
you are interested in.
Figure 2-1 Status Register Bit Values
For example, to enable bit 0 and bit 6 of standard event status register, you would
send the command *ESE 65 (= 1 + 64).
The results of a query are evaluated in a similar way. If the command *STB?
returns a decimal value of 140 (= 128 + 8 + 4), then the bit 7, bit 3 and bit 2 are
true.