Agilent Technologies General Information

Introduction 7
1
General Information
About this Guide
This guide provides remote programming information for the following series of GPIB programmable power supplies:
• AGILENT Series 664xA, 665xA, 667xA, 668xA, and 669xA
You will find the following information in the rest of this guide:
Chapter 2 Introduction to SCPI messages structure, syntax, and data formats. Examples of SCPI programs.
Chapter 3 Dictionary of SCPI commands. Table of programming parameters.
Chapter 4 Description of the status registers.
Chapter 5 Error messages.
Appendix A SCPI conformance information.
Appendix B Use of the alternate Compatibility programming language.
Documentation Summary
User’s Guide
The Operating Guide, shipped with the power supply, has information helpful to programming the power supply and
explains the SCPI commands used for remote calibration. Sample calibration and verification programs are included.
External Documents
SCPI References
The following documents will assist you with programming in SCPI:
• Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments Volume 1, Syntax and Style
• Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments Volume 2, Command References
• Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments Volume 3, Data Interchange Format
• Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments Volume 4, Instrument Classes
To obtain a copy of the above documents, contact: Fred Bode, Executive Director, SCPI Consortium, 8380 Hercules Drive,
Suite P3, Ls Mesa, CA 91942, USA
GPIB References
The most important GPIB documents are your co ntroller programming manuals - Agilent BASIC, GPIB Command Library
for MS DOS, etc. Refer to these for all non-SCPI commands (for example: Local Lockout).
The following are two formal documents concerning the GPIB interface:
aANSI/IEEE Std. 488.1-1987 IEEE Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation. Defines the
technical details of the GPIB interface. While much of the information is beyond the need of most programmers, it can serve
to clarify terms used in this guide and in related documents.
aANSI/IEEE Std. 488.2-1987 IEEE Standard Codes, Formats, Protocols, and Common Commands. Recommended
as a reference only if you intend to do fairly sophisticated programming. Helpful for finding precise definitions of certain
types of SCPI message formats, data types, or common commands.
The previous two documents are available from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), 345 East 47th
Street, New York, NY 10017, USA. The WEB address is www.ieee.org.