Technical data

542 Agilent N8201A Performance Downconverter Synthetic Instrument Module, 250 kHz to 26.5 GHz
27 Using the STATus System
Event Enable Register controls which of the bits, being set in the event register, will be
summarized as a single output for the register set. Summary bits are then used by the next
higher register.
The STATus:QUEStionable registers report abnormal operating conditions. The status
register hierarchy is:
1 The summary outputs from the six STATus:QUEStionable:<keyword> detail registers are
inputs to the STATus:QUEStionable register.
2 The summary output from the STATus:QUEStionable register is an input to the Status
Byte Register. See the Section “N8201A Core Status Register System (Page 2 of 2)" on
page 547.
The STATus:OPERation register set has no summarized inputs. The inputs to the
STATus:OPERation:CONDition register indicate the real time state of the instrument. The
STATus:OPERation:EVENt register summary output is an input to the Status Byte Register.
What Are Status Register SCPI Commands?
Most monitoring of the instrument conditions is done at the highest level using the IEEE
common commands indicated below. Complete command descriptions are available in the
IEEE commands section at the beginning of the language reference. Individual status
registers can be set and queried using the commands in the STATus subsystem of the
language reference.
• *CLS (clear status) clears the status byte by emptying the error queue and clearing all
the event registers.
• *ESE, *ESE? (event status enable) sets and queries the bits in the enable register part of
the standard event status register.
• *ESR? (event status register) queries and clears the event register part of the standard
event status register.
• *OPC, *OPC? (operation complete) sets the standard event status register to monitor the
completion of all commands. The query stops any new commands from being processed
until the current processing is complete, then returns a ‘1’.
• *PSC, *PSC? (power-on state clear) sets the power-on state so that it clears the service
request enable register and the event status enable register at power on.
• *SRE, *SRE? (service request enable) sets and queries the value of the service request
enable register.
• *STB? (status byte) queries the value of the status byte register without erasing its
contents.
How to Use the Status Registers
A program often needs to be able to detect and manage error conditions or changes in
instrument status. There are two methods you can use to programmatically access the
information in status registers:
• The polling method