Getting The Best Speed Performance; Measurement Rate - Agilent Technologies N1911A Programming Manual

1 Power Meter Remote Operation

Getting the Best Speed Performance

This section discusses the factors that influence the speed of operation
(number of readings/sec) of a P- Series power meter.
The following factors are those which have the greatest effect upon
measurement speed (in no particular order):
• The selected measurement rate, i.e. NORMal, DOUBle, FAST.
• The sensor being used.
• The trigger mode (for example, free run, trigger with delay etc.).
• The output format: ASCii or REAL.
• The units used for the measurement.
• The command used to take a measurement.
In addition, in FAST mode there are other influences which are described
in
The following paragraphs give a brief description of the above factors and
how they are controlled from SCPI.

Measurement Rate

There are three possible speed settings NORMal, DOUBle and FAST. These
are set using the SENSe:MRATe command and can be applied to each
channel independently (N1912A only).
In NORMal and DOUBle modes, full instrument functionality is available
and these settings can be used with all sensors. FAST mode is only
available for the P- Series and E- Series sensors. Also, in FAST mode
averaging, limits and ratio/difference math functions are disabled.
Refer to "Specifications" in the P- Series Power Meters User's Guide to see
the influence of these speed settings on the accuracy and noise
performance of the power meter.
44
"Fast Mode" on page 48.
N1911A/1912A P-Series Power Meters Programming Guide