About X-Series SA Compatible (SA) SCPI Commands

Option SSA adds the Power Spectrum measurement to the 89600 VSA. You can use the standard 89600 VSA SCPI commands with the Power Spectrum measurement, or the X-Series Spectrum Analyzer Compatible SCPI commands provided by option SSA.

The X-Series Spectrum Analyzer Compatible SCPI commands (SA SCPI commands) are designed to be compatible with Keysight's X-Series analyzers so you can leverage SCPI programs between those products and the 89600 VSA.

Option SSA also adds the INST:SEL command to simplify switching between the standard 89600 VSA SCPI and optional SA SCPI commands, as follows:

• INSTrument:SELect SA | 89600VSA

• INSTrument:SELect?

• INSTrument:CATalog?

• INSTrument:NSELect 1 | 307

When using SA SCPI commands, note the following:

• Not all X-Series Spectrum Analyzer Mode SCPI commands are supported.

• The following IEEE mandated common commands are not supported:

  • *ESE, *ESE?

  • ESR?

  • *SRE, *SRE?

• MIN and MAX arguments are not supported.

• The out of range values for SCPI command arguments are often silently coerced without generating an out of range error. This behavior is different from the typical X-Series Analyzer behavior. Use the query form of the SCPI command to find out what the value was coerced to.

• INST:SEL SA must be sent before you can use the SA SCPI commands.

• The 89600VSA SCPI state is not preserved separately from the SA SCPI state. Therefore, when you send INST:SEL SA, immediately follow that with *RST to begin with a known configuration or keep in mind that changing something in 89600VSA mode and then switching to SA mode may have an adverse affect on the behavior in SA mode.

• Multiple SA mode instances (using the multi-measurement feature in the 89600 product to try and run multiple SA mode measurements) is not supported.

• Status event registers are not supported.

• Sweep time is not supported but gating with a gate length can be used as a work around in some situations.

• Marker positioning is slightly different from X-Series analyzers. The marker snaps to the closest data point when originally positioned and then snaps to the closest data point relative to the last data point it was at for subsequent measurement results.

• The SA SCPI commands may not function properly if used in combination with manual GUI changes or other kinds of programmatic changes. These are designed to be compatible only when state changes are made using the SA SCPI commands.