2
Status System
Structure
The instrument status structure monitors important events for an instrument
such as when an error occurs or when a reading is available. All instruments
have the following status groups and registers within those groups:
• Status Byte Status Group
– status byte register
– service request enable register
• Standard Event Status Group
– standard event status register
– standard event status enable register
• Operation Status Group
– condition register
– event register
– enable register
• Questionable Data Status Group
– condition register
– event register
– enable register
You read and configure the registers in the Status Byte and Standard Event
groups using Common Commands. These are the most commonly used
instrument registers. The registers in the Standard Operation Status group and
Questionable Data status group are configured using the commands in the
STATus subsystem.
NOTE The Status Byte, Standard Event, and Operation Status groups are the only
groups covered in this chapter. The Questionable Data status group is
supported by the system instrument (Command Module) but is not used by the
system instrument. Commands affecting this status group (Chapter 5) are
accepted but have no effect.
Refer to the STATus subsystem in the Command Reference of the individual
plug-in module manuals to determine how a module uses the Operation Status
group and Questionable Data status groups. If the STAT:OPER or
STAT:QUES commands are not documented in the plug-in module manual,
that module does not use the registers.
6-2 Controlling Instruments Using GPIB
