Technical data

Waveform Commands 34
Agilent Infiniium 9000 Series Oscilloscopes Programmer's Reference 1113
:WAVeform:FORMat
Command :WAVeform:FORMat {ASCii | BINary | BYTE | WORD}
The :WAVeform:FORMat command sets the data transmission mode for
waveform data output. This command controls how the data is formatted
when it is sent from the oscilloscope, and pertains to all waveforms.
The default format is ASCii.
ASCii ASCii- formatted data consists of waveform data values converted to the
currently selected units, such as volts, and are output as a string of ASCII
characters with each value separated from the next value by a comma. The
values are formatted in floating point engineering notation. For example:
8.0836E+2,8.1090E+2,...,-3.1245E-3
In ASCii format:
Table 23 Selecting a Format
Type Advantages Disadvantages
ASCii
• Data is returned as voltage values
and does not need to be
converted.
• Is as accurate as WORD format.
• Supports HISTogram SOURce.
• Very slow data download rate.
BYTE
• Data download rate is twice as
fast as the WORD format.
• Data is less accurate than the
WORD format for analog
channels.
• Not compatible with digital bus
and pod data.
WORD
• Data is the most accurate for
analog channels.
• Data download rate takes twice as
long as the BYTE format.
BINary
• Supports HISTogram SOURce.
• Can be used for analog channels.
• Data download rate takes twice as
long as the BYTE format for
analog channels.
NOTE
The ASCii format does not send out the header information indicating the number of bytes
being downloaded.