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Programming Examples - 4
137
Making Measurements
The ac source has the capability to return a number of current, voltage, and power measurements. When
the ac source is turned on, it is continuously sampling the instantaneous output voltage and current for
several output cycles and writing the results into a buffer. The buffer holds 4096 voltage and current data
points.
The ac source uses the data from the voltage and current buffer to calculate the requested measurement
information. Data in the voltage and current buffers is always re-acquired for subsequent measurement
requests. There are two ways to make measurements:
u Use the MEASure commands to immediately start acquiring new voltage and current data, and
return measurement calculations from this data as soon as the buffer is full. This is the easiest
way to make measurements, since it requires no explicit trigger programming.
u Use an acquisition trigger to acquire the voltage and current data from the buffer. Then use the
FETCh commands to return calculations from the data that was retrieved by the acquisition
trigger. This method gives you the flexibility to synchronize the data acquisition with an external
signal. FETCh commands do not trigger the acquisition of new measurement data, but they can
be used to return many different calculations from the data that was retrieved by the acquisition
trigger.
Making triggered measurements with the acquisition trigger system is discussed under "Triggering
Measurements".
NOTE: For each MEASure form of the query, there is a corresponding query that begins with the
header FETCh. FETCh queries perform the same calculation as their MEASure
counterparts, but do not cause new data to be acquired. Data acquired by an explicit
trigger or a previously programmed MEASure command are used.
Voltage and Current Measurements
The SCPI interface provides a number of MEASure and FETCh queries that return various components of
rms voltage and current. For example, to read the ac component of the rms voltage or current, use:
MEASure:VOLTage:AC? or
MEASure:CURRent:AC?
To read the sum of ac and dc components of the rms voltage or current, use:
MEASure:VOLTage:ACDC? or
MEASure:CURRent:ACDC?
To measure the dc voltage or current components, use:
MEASure:VOLTage:DC? or
MEASure:CURRent:DC?
To measure the maximum current amplitude and the current crest factor, use:
MEASure:CURRent:AMPLitude:MAXimum?
MEASure:CURRent:CREStfactor?