Timing Behavior; Error Handling - Agilent Technologies 8163A Programming Manual

Timing Behavior

Change
Command execution may be different.
GPIB will block during command execution, except when executing functions, such as
logging and sweep, that don't tolerate blocking. This is identical to the behavior of the
8167/8. A side effect of this is that *OPC? always returns 1.
When continuous triggering and averaging times are greater than 1 second, the read-out
values reset after the averaging time is over; there is no sliding behavior.
Expected Return Value
FLOAT(32/64)
(U)INT(16/32)
Block
Boolean Value
Enum
Command
FETCh:POWer? - without using a
preceding trigger
Agilent 8163A Lightwave Multimeter, Agilent 8164A Lightwave Measurement System, & Agilent 8166A Lightwave Multichannel
System, Third Edition
Timing Behavior
Table 14 details the ways in which timing behavior is different.
Table 14 Timing Behavior Changes

Error Handling

Most error commands and error texts for all instruments are new.
The HP 8153A timed out for every error. Errors are handled differently
by the HP 8163A/4A; instead of timing out for every error, special values
are returned for erroneous queries. Table 15 and Table 16 detail the new
errors
The error queue is written to as before.
Table 15 Error Handling Changes
Returned Value
FLT/DBL_MAX
(U)INT(16/32)_MA
" "
0
Time out
Table 16 Specific Errors
Change
Returns the last valid value instead of timing out.
No error is generated.
GPIB Command Compatibility List
Affects
Both
8153
8153
Affects
8153
8153
8153
8153
8153
Affects
8153
189