HP 53181A Programming Manual page 284

Errors
Introduction
Introduction
This chapter explains how to read any errors from the Counter, discusses the types
of errors, and provides a table of all of the Counter's errors and their probable
causes.
Displaying Errors
When an HP-IB error is detected, the HP-IB XXX message will appear on the front-
panel display, where XXX indicates the error number found in Table 5-2.
If an error occurs while the Counter is in remote, the front-panel Remote indicator
flashes until the error queue is read or cleared.
The front-panel error messages are most easily seen if the Counter is in Single
(:INIT:CONT OFF) or in the menu display mode. (When the Counter is configured
to display measurement results, the measurements will overwrite the HP-IB error
messages.)
Reading an Error
Executing the :SYSTem:ERRor? command reads the oldest error from the error
queue and erases that error from the queue. The :SYST:ERR? response has the
form:
<error number>, <error string>
An example response is:
-113,"Undefined header"
Positive error numbers are specific to the Counter. Negative error numbers are
command language related and are discussed later in this chapter.
All errors set a corresponding bit in the Standard Event Status Register (see the
section titled "Standard Event Status Register Group" on
page 3-25 of Chapter 3).
The following short program reads all errors (one at a time, oldest to newest) from
the error queue. After each error is read, it is automatically erased from the error
queue. When the error queue is empty (that is, all errors have been read from the
queue), further queries return the +0,"No error" response.
5-2