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Instrument Settings

The Instrument Settings screen, accessed from either the keypad or the System Menu, provides various instrument settings described in this topic.

Keypad Access

Multi-Touch Display Access from the System Menu

Instrument Information Setup

Internal Versions

I/O Configuration Setup

GPIB Address

Sockets SCPI

VXI-11 SCPI

HiSLIP SCPI

SCPI Telnet Port

Device List

Alignment

Triggers and Sync

Power On / Preset Setup

Power On State

Restore System Settings to Default

Perform Factory Preset

Reference Setup

Reference Source

Current Reference Source

Reference Source Auto

External Reference Frequency

External Reference Locking Range

Reference State

Reference Out

LF Out (100 MHz Out)

HF Out (19.2 GHz Out)

I/Q Waveform Setup

Waveform Extension Method

Default Binary File Format

Service Setup

Instrument Self Test

Channel Self Test

Status

Instrument Temperature

Thermal Safe Operating Margin

Exhaust Temperature

Channel Temperature

Utilities

Fan Control

Preferences Setup

Instrument Identification

Attenuator Compatibility Mode

Enable SCPI Development Mode

SCPI Backwards Compatibility Mode

Appearance - Color Theme

System Remote Commands Setup

SCPI Error Queue

Retrieve All Entries In The Queue

Number of Entries In The Queue

Retrieve Next Entry

Retrieve Next Entry Code

Message in the Message Queue

List installed Software Options

Lock Workstation

List SCPI Commands

Instrument start time

SCPI Version Query

Attenuator History Query

Attenuator Bypass History Query

Power On History Query

On Time History Query

Controller BIOS Query

Instrument Information

This tab brings up a display of instrument information.

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Some of this information is available via SCPI commands, as described in Internal Versions.

Internal Versions

The instrument software contains a number of internal components. The Internal Versions displays versions of the primary internal components as determined by Keysight Technologies. The number of versions reported and the formatting may change on any given software release.

Some of this information is available via SCPI commands as follows:

*IDN? - Identification Query provides Model number, Serial number, and Firmware version.

*OPT? - Query Instrument Options provides the comma separated options string.

I/O Configuration

Opens the I/O Configuration menu, which lets you display the VISA addresses, and configure GPIB, SCPI Services, and SCPI Options.

GPIB Address

Specifies the GPIB address of your instrument.

Sockets SCPI

Turns the sockets server in your instrument on and off.

VXI-11 SCPI

Turns the VXI-11 server in your instrument on and off.

HiSLIP SCPI

Turns HiSLIP in your instrument on and off.

SCPI Telnet Port

The instrument provides basic SCPI I/O via a telnet port.  The default port is 5024. The ability to change the port to 5023 is provided.

NOTE: changing the SCPI Telnet Port requires restarting the instrument application for the change to take effect.

Power On / Preset

Sets how the instrument should power on and activate certain presets.

Power On State

Selects whether the instrument powers up in a default state or some other state.

Restore System Settings to Default

Sets the states that are not affected by signal generator power–on, Preset, or *RST to their factory default settings.

Most settings are affected by Preset, but there are some settings that are unaffected. These are called persistent variables.  The system and each application will list its persistent variables. To reset these, select Restore System Settings to Default.

When this control is selected, the following message appears:

"This will reset all persistent variables to their default state. This action cannot be undone. Do you want to proceed?"

The message provides an OK and Cancel button to let you affirm or cancel the operation.

Perform Factory Preset

Sets all states of the signal generator back to their factory default settings, including states that are not normally affected by signal generator power–on, Preset, or *RST.

When selected, the following message appears:

"This will reset all variables (including System variables) to their default state. This action cannot be undone. Do you want to proceed?"

The message provides an OK and Cancel button to let you affirm or cancel the operation.

Reference

The Reference tab lets you configure the frequency reference for the instrument. For Option 1ER, the user interface appears and behaves differently.

Standard User Interface for Reference

Option 1ER User Interface for Reference

External Reference Frequency

For M9383B/M9384B/M9484C, the frequency of the external reference can be 10 MHz or 100 MHz. Additionally, with Option 1ER, the frequency can be 1 MHz to 110 MHz with 0.1 Hz resolution.

External Reference Locking Range

The instrument provides two locking ranges for an externally supplied reference signal. Locking range set to Wide allows your reference signal to be further away in frequency from the selected value in External Reference Frequency, with a slight compromise in the phase noise performance of the instrument. Locking range set to Narrow provides the best phase noise on the instrument, however, the reference signal must closer in value to the external reference frequency setting. See table below.

Reference State

Displays the current state of the frequency reference. The displayed state can help you understand whether the frequency reference is locked or if a failure occurred.

See Notifications Area for more information on various Reference states.

I/Q Waveform

Waveform Extension Method

The instrument requires waveforms to be a multiple of 8 samples, and a minimum of 512 samples. You can choose how the instrument processes waveforms that do not match the instrument’s requirements as follows:

• None: No extension is done. A warning message is shown only if the length is not a multiple of 8 samples.

• Warn: No extension is done. A warning message is shown if the length is not a multiple of 8 samples or is shorter than 512 samples.

• Repeat: The original waveform is repeated until the length satisfies the requirements. This yields the highest fidelity playback at the expense of larger waveform files. This is the most applicable under Trigger Mode of Continuous where playback continues when the end of the waveform has been reached.

• Zero Padding: Samples with I=0 and Q=0 are appended until the length satisfies the requirements. This yields the smallest waveform at the expense of discontinuous playback. This is the most applicable under Trigger Mode of Single; and if using Single Mode of Restart on Trigger, the restart will occur even if trigger received during the zero padding period.

Default Binary File Format

Sets the default binary file format used when reading waveform binary files. This affects simple binary data only and does not affect other formats such as secure waveform (wfm) file and Matlab file.

Selections are:

• Int16 Big Endian

• Int16 Little Endian

This setting does not affect the data currently selected. For example, if a binary file is selected by the File setting under Signal’s Waveform File mode, changing this setting doesn’t invoke reloading or reuploading of the file. The selected new file format is used when the file is set next time.

Service

Accesses capabilities performed in the factory or under instructions from repair procedures.

Diagnostics

This area accesses self test and other diagnostic functions.

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Instrument Self Test

Selecting Self Test followed by Run Self Test displays diagnostic information for the installed modules. View example image.

For information on running the self test from SCPI see *TST? - Self Test Query

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Channel Self Test

Remote Command only.

This query performs the internal self-test routines for a specified RF Channel and returns a number indicating the success of the testing. A zero is returned if the test is successful, 1 if it fails.

Status

The Status tab displays temperatures and other information for the installed modules when you click Update.

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Instrument Temperature

The instrument’s temperature is provided in the Service > Status screen when you click Update. It is also available via a SCPI query.

Thermal Safe Operating Margin

The instrument maintains proper instrument operation with the Fan Control set to Auto for the specified environmental conditions. If the instrument’s temperature becomes excessive, it may shutdown. Thermal safe operating margin allows you to observe how close the current temperature is to the safety limit.

Exhaust Temperature

The instrument's airflow temperature is reported in the Service > Status tab. It is also available via a SCPI query.

Channel Temperature

When monitoring the instrument’s temperature it is recommended to use the Instrument Temperature. For instruments with more than 1 channel, the ability to query an individual channel’s temperature is provided should you desire to monitor an individual channel.

Utilities

Selecting Utilities displays the available utilities for the installed modules.

Fan Control

By default, the instrument dynamically adjusts the fan speed to provide the appropriate cooling for specified environmental conditions. You can override this automatic control by setting the fan to the maximum speed, in the event your environmental conditions are extreme.

Preferences

Instrument Identification

The instrument is delivered from the factory with the Model Number, Instrument Description, and the Serial Number. The M9383B, however, does not have a serial number. For the M9383B and M9384B, there may be situations where the identification needs to be changed, such as if you are using a removable SSD and sharing a spare SSD between different VXG signal generators. You can change the Model Number and Serial Number in the Preferences tab in the System menu. The Description will be automatically selected based on Model Number.

Attenuator Compatibility Mode

Remote command only.

Configures the Attenuator Compatibility Mode. When in PSG mode, the coupling among Power, Attenuation, and ALC Level works in a similar way as the PSG. With this coupling, the Power is changed when the ALC Level is changed. In the VXG, Power is not clipped when the ALC Level goes to either max or min.

The following example shows how Power, Attenuation, and ALC Level change when Attenuator Compatibility Mode is PSG.

# Set Attenuator Compatibility Mode to PSG

-> :SYSTem:COMPatibility:POWer:ATTenuator PSG

# Set up the initial condition. ALC Level is set based on

-> :POWer -10dBm

-> :POWer:ATTenuation:AUTO OFF

-> :POWer:ATTenuation?

<- 0

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel?

<- -10

# Increasing ATTen by 10 dB decreases Power by the same amount

# -20 dBm (= ALC Level - Atten)

-> :POWer:ATTenuation 10.0 dB

-> :POWer?

<- -20

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel?

<- -10

# Change ALC Level changes Power

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel -9 dBm

-> :POWer?

<- -19

# When Auto Atten is on (Atten Hold off), the equation

#  Power = ALC Level - Atten

# doesn't hold.

# Note that Atten 70 dB in this example isn’t the actual Atten value.

# In VXG, the actual one is set only when Auto Atten is off. 

-> :POWer:ATTenuation:AUTO ON

-> :POWer?

<- -19

-> :POWer:ATTenuation?

<- 70

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel?

<- -9

# Changing Power doesn't change Atten nor ALC Level

-> :POWer -17.0 dBm

-> :POWer:ATTenuation?

<- 70

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel?

<- -9

# When AUTO is off again, Atten and ALC Level are set to satisfy the equation.

#  Power = ALC Level - Atten

-> :POWer:ATTenuation:AUTO OFF

-> :POWer?

<- -19

-> :POWer:ATTenuation?

<- 0

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel?

<- -19

# When Power changes by a large amount, ALC Level exceeds the limit.

# In PSG, the both the power and ALC Level are clipped.

# On the other hand, in VXG, only ALC Level is clipped.

-> :POWer -37.0 dBm

-> :POWer:ATTenuation?

<- 0

-> :POWer:ALC:LEVel?

<- -20

-> :POWer?

<- -37

-> :SYST:ERR?

<- -222,"Data out of range;ALC Level value clipped to lower limit -20 dBm."

Enable SCPI Development Mode

When the instrument is in remote operation, a message box appears on the screen to notify the operator that an external program is controlling the instrument.  In some situations, such as during development of SCPI programs, you may want to see the full instrument screen.  This SCPI command is available to suppress the on-screen remote operation notification.

SCPI Backwards Compatibility Mode

Remote command only.

Optimizes SCPI backwards compatibility with legacy products by coercing queries to return deprecated values.

• E82x7D: Compatibility for E8257D, E8267D, and E8257N.

• E8663D: Compatibility for E8663D.

• N51xxB: Compatibility for N5166B, N5171B, N5172B, N5173B, N5181B, N5182B, and N5183B.

Appearance - Color Theme

Bright Color (LIGHt) – Selects a full color palette for the display with dark text on a bright background.

Dark Color (DARK) – Selects a full color palette for the display with bright text on a dark background

System Remote Commands

Remote commands only.

The commands in this section have no front-panel key equivalent.

SCPI Error Queue

The signal generator instrument provides the remote operation error queue as defined in IEEE SCPI standard version 1999.

There is a separate SCPI Error queue for each I/O session. Boot-up instrument messages are handled differently. These messages are placed into the error queue of the first I/O session.

Retrieve All Entries In The Queue

Remote command only.

Queries the SCPI Error queue for all unread items and removes them from the queue. The response is a comma separated list of number, string pairs in FIFO order. If the queue is empty, the response is 0,"".

Number of Entries In The Queue

Remote command only.

Queries the SCPI Error queue for the number of unread items. As errors and events may occur at any time, more items may be present in the queue at the time it is actually read.

Retrieve Next Entry

Remote command only.

Queries the SCPI Error queue for the next item and removes it from the queue. The response returns the full queue item consisting of an integer and a string. When the queue is empty, 0,"No error" is returned.

Retrieve Next Entry Code

Remote command only.

Queries the SCPI Error queue for the next item and removes this item from the queue. The response returns only the error code number omitting the string. When the queue is empty, 0 is returned.

Message in the Message Queue

Remote command only.

Queries the Message queue and returns the first message which has not been queried/read from this queue. Subsequent query returns the next unread message from the queue, and so on.

List installed Software Options

Remote command only.

This query returns a comma-separated list of installed software application options. This differs from the output for *OPT? in that the *OPT? lists the installed hardware options.

Lock Workstation

Remote command only.

Performs the same functionality as the Win+L function or the "Lock" function on the CTL-ALT-DEL screen in Windows. 

When this command is executed, the computer is immediately locked. The initial login screen appears; no one can access the computer at this point unless they have an account and know the account’s password.

If it fails to initiate, it puts an error in the Windows event log for M9383B/M9384B;

"LockWorkStation - Failed to initiate function"

List SCPI Commands

Remote command only.

Outputs a list of the valid SCPI commands for the currently selected Mode.

Instrument start time

Remote command only.

Determines the instrument application start time.

SCPI Version Query

Remote command only.

Returns the SCPI version number with which the instrument complies. The SCPI industry standard changes regularly. This command indicates the version used when the instrument SCPI commands were defined.

Attenuator Bypass History Query

Remote command only.

Returns the cumulative number of times that the attenuator bypass has been switched. The subopcode indicates the channel being queried.

Power On History Query

Remote command only.

Returns the cumulative number of times the signal generator has been powered–on.

On Time History Query

Remote command only.

Returns the cumulative number of hours the signal generator has been on.

Controller BIOS Query

Remote command only.

Returns the CPU’s BIOS version in the format provided by the CPU manufacturer.