Queries; Coupled Commands - Keysight Technologies N6705C Operating And Service Manual

7 SCPI Programming Reference
OUTPut is the root keyword, PROTection is a second-level keyword, CLEar is a third-level keyword.
Colons ( : ) separate the keyword levels.
The command syntax shows most commands (and some parameters) as a mixture of upper- and
lower-case letters. The upper-case letters indicate the abbreviated spelling for the command. For
shorter program lines, you can send the abbreviated form. For better program readability, you can
send the long form.
In the above examples, OUTP and OUTPUT are both acceptable forms. You can use upper- or lower-
case letters. Therefore, OUTPUT, outp, and Outp are all acceptable. Other forms such as OUT, are not
valid and will generate an error.

Queries

Following a keyword with a question mark ( ? ) turns it into a query (Example: VOLTage?,
VOLTage:TRIGgered?). If a query contains parameters, place the query indicator at the end of the last
keyword, before the parameters. Insert a space between the query indicator and the first parameter.
You can query the programmed value of most parameters. For example, you can query the voltage
setting by sending:
VOLTage? (@1)
You can also query the minimum or maximum allowable voltage settings as follows:
VOLTage? MIN,(@1)
VOLTage? MAX,(@1)
You must read back all the results of a query before sending another command to the instrument.
Otherwise, a Query Interrupted error will occur and the unreturned data will be lost.

Coupled Commands

When commands are coupled it means that the value sent by one command is affected by the settings
of another command. The following commands are coupled:
[SOURce:]CURRent and [SOURce:]CURRent:RANGe.
[SOURce:]VOLTage and [SOURce:]VOLTage:RANGe.
If a range command is sent that places an output on a range with a lower maximum setting than the
present level, an error is generated. This also occurs if a level is programmed with a value too large for
the present range.
These types of errors can be avoided by sending the both level and range commands as a set, in the
same SCPI message. For example,
CURRent 10,(@1);CURRent:RANGe 10,(@1)<NL>
226 Keysight N6705C Operating and Service Guide