IEEE 488.2 Common Commands

Last Updated: August 29, 2007

*CLS

The *CLS, clear status command, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.3. This command also clears and closes the error message screen on the test set's display.

*ESE

The *ESE, standard event status enable command, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.10.

*ESE?

The *ESE?, standard event status enable query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.11.

*ESR?

The *ESR?, standard event status register query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992 ",10.12.

*IDN?

The *IDN?, identification query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.14. *IDN? is used to retrieve information about the test set in ASCII format.

*IDN? returns information about the test set in the following order:

*OPC

The *OPC, operation complete command, is defined in "IEEE 488.2-1992", 10.18. *OPC causes the test set to continuously sense the No Operation Pending flag. When the No Operation Pending flag becomes TRUE, the OPC event bit in the standard event status register (ESR) is set to indicate that the state of all pending operations is completed. The *OPC common command is not recommended for use as an overlapped command.

*OPC?

The *OPC?, operation complete query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.19. The *OPC? query allows synchronization between the controller and the test set using either the message available (MAV) bit in the status byte, or a read of the output OPC?. The *OPC? query does not effect the OPC event bit in the Standard Event Status Register (ESR). The *OPC? common command is not recommended for use as an overlapped command.

*OPT?

The *OPT?, option identification query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.20. Each option has a unique name, that name is returned with the query.

*RCL

The *RCL command recalls the specified register. If the specified register does not exist an error occurs. This command accepts an <nr1> of 0 and upwards.

*RST

The *RST, full preset command, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.32. *RST is the recommended command when performing a full preset on the test set. A *RST restores the majority of settings to their default values.

The various preset commands affect the trigger state as follows:

*SAV

The *SAV command saves the specified register. If the specified register already exists it is overwritten. This command accepts an <nr1> of 0 and upwards. The only limits to the number of registers you can save is the available disk space.

*SRE

The *SRE, service request enable command, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.34. The parameter range for this command is 0 through 255.

*SRE?

The *SRE?, service request enable query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.35. Values returned by this query range from 0 through 255.

*STB?

The *STB?, read status byte query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.36. Values returned by this query range from 0 through 255.

*TST?

The *TST?, self-test query, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.38. The query returns the status of the Power-on Self Test (POST) that is run when the test set is turned On. Values returned by this query range from 0 (Pass) to Non-zero (Fail). The outcome of the Windows POST procedure is not included in the result of this query.

*WAI

The *WAI, wait-to-continue command, is defined in "IEEE Std 488.2-1992", 10.39. The *WAI command prevents the test set from executing any further commands or queries until all pending operation flags are false. The *WAI common command is not recommended for use as an overlapped command.