Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:01, 21 August 2008

Revision as of 00:46, 2 September 2008

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The '''Standard Commands for Programmable Instrumentation (SCPI)''' (often pronounced "skippy") defines a standard set of commands to control programmable test and measurement devices in [[instrumentation]] systems.

The SCPI Standard specifies a [[command structure]] and [[syntax]] for programmable instruments control. The physical communications link, such as [[IEEE-488 | GPIB (IEEE-488) ]], [[RS232]], [[USB]], [[VXIbus]] etc, is NOT defined by SCPI. SCPI also includes standard command sets for several classes of instruments, e.g. power supplies, loads, and measurement devices such as voltmeters and [[oscilloscopes]]. A predecessor of SCPI, but with more limited scope, was [[IEEE-488 |IEEE 488.2]] in 1987.

SCPI commands are [[ASCII]] textual strings, which are sent to the instrument over the physical layer, such as GPIB.

Two examples: With the command ''SYSTem:COMMunicate:SERial:BAUD 2400'' the [[Baud | baudrate]] of an [[RS232]] interface can be set to 2400 bit/s. With the command ''SYSTem:COMMunicate:SERial:BAUD?'' the current baudrate of an RS232 interface can be queried. Commands can be abbreviated to their upper case parts, for instance ''SYST:COMM:SER:BAUD?''.

Some instrument manufacturers, notably [[Agilent]] and [[Tektronix]], have implemented SCPI on many new general purpose instruments.

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