Using a Terminal Without Menus

If you now see the “Select an instrument” menu labels:

Go to the beginning of this chapter and try the menus.

or

Turn the mainframe off and then on again.

You can still control instruments installed in your mainframe without using the terminal interface menus. In this case you will send Common Commands and SCPI commands to your instruments by typing them on your terminal keyboard, or through a computer interface.

Selecting Instruments To send commands to, and receive responses from an instrument, you must first select that instrument. Two commands are provided to select instruments. They are; SI (Select Instrument), and SA (Select Address). These commands only work from the “Select an instrument” prompt. The commands can be typed in upper case or lower case.

SI SI selects an instrument by its name, exactly as it would appear in the “Select an instrument” menu (see Table 3-2). If your mainframe has more than one instrument with the same name, follow the name with a comma (,) and the desired instrument’s logical address. Here are some examples of SI commands:

si voltmtr (selects a voltmeter instrument) si switch (selects a switchbox instrument) SI SWITCH (same as above)

si switch,16 (selects switchbox at logical address 16)

Table 3-2. Instrument Names for the SI Command

Menu Name

Instrument

 

 

SYSTEM

The System Instrument (built-in to the mainframe)

 

 

VOLTMTR

Agilent E1326A Standalone, or Agilent E1326A

 

Scanning Voltmeter Modules

 

 

SWITCH

Switchbox composed of one or more Agilent

 

Multiplexer Modules

 

 

DIG_I/O

Agilent E1330A Quad 8-Bit Digital Input/Output

 

Module

 

 

IBASIC

Optional IBASIC interpreter

 

 

COUNTER

Agilent E1332A 4-Channel Counter/Totalizer, or

 

Agilent E1333A Universal Counter Modules

 

 

D/A

Agilent E1328A Digital to Analog Converter

 

Module

 

 

SA SA selects an instrument by its logical address. For multiple module instruments, use the logical address of the first module in the instrument. For example; SA 8 selects the instrument at logical address 8. When you have selected an instrument, the terminal interface will respond with an instrument prompt which is the instrument’s menu name followed by its logical address (e.g. VOLTMTR_8:).

Using the Display Terminal Interface 3-21

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Agilent Technologies E1301B Using a Terminal Without Menus, Instrument Names for the SI Command, Menu Name Instrument