User manual

Series 3700 System Switch/Multimeter Reference Manual Section 8: Scanning
3700S-901-01 Rev. C / July 2008 8-7
Stimulus
Description
Measure Action Trigger
Affects the "Wait Measure Trigger" block of the trigger model. This
trigger is associated with the ICL
scan.trigger.measure.stimulus (on page 13-247).
Scan and step counts
When running a scan, it may be necessary to determine the scan progress. Use
scan and step count to determine the point in the scan table being executed.
"Scan count" represents the number of the current iteration through the scan
portion of the trigger model. This number does not increment until after the scan
begins. Therefore, if a unit is waiting for an input to trigger a scan start, the scan
count will represent the previous number of scan iterations. If no scan has yet to
begin, the scan count will be zero.
"Step count" represents the number of times the scan has completed a pass
through the channel action portion of the trigger model. This number does not
increment until after the action completes. Therefore, if the unit is waiting for an
input to trigger a channel action, the step count will represent the previous step.
If no step has yet to complete, the step count will be zero. If the step count has
yet to complete the first step in a subsequent pass through a scan, the scan
count represents the last step in the previous scan pass.
Basic scan procedure
To perform a scan:
1. Configure the channels for scanning as needed. Select (or create, if
necessary) the reading buffer to store measurements (if desired).
2. Build the scan list:
Front panel: Press the INSERT key.
Bus: Send the scan.create() or scan.add() command.
3. Configure the scan settings (for example, scan count, bypass, mode, and so
on).
4. To start the scan:
Front panel: Press the STEP key or the SCAN key and select the
BACKGROUND menu item.
Bus: Send an ICL command such as scan.execute,
scan.background, scan.nobufferbackground, or other
appropriate scan command.