Language Reference 5 
Series N8700 User’s Guide  83 
System Commands 
System commands control system functions that are not directly 
related to output control, measurement, or status functions. Common 
commands are also used to control system functions. 
SYSTem:COMMunicate:RLSTate LOCal|REMote|RWLock  
SYSTem:COMMunicate:RLSTate? 
This command configures the remote/local state of the instrument 
according to the following settings.  
The instrument is set to front panel control (front panel keys are active). 
The instrument is set to remote interface control (front panel keys are active). 
RWLock  The front panel keys are disabled (the instrument can only be controlled via the 
)
The remote/local state can also be set by interface commands over 
the GPIB and some other I/O interfaces. When multiple remote 
programming interfaces are active, the interface with the most 
recently changed remote/local state determines the instrument’s 
remote/local state. 
The remote/local state is unaffected by *RST or any SCPI commands 
other than SYSTem:COMMunicate:RLState. At power-on however, the 
communications setting always returns to LOCal. 
SYSTem:COMMunicate:TCPip:CONTrol? 
This query returns the control connection port number. This is used 
to open a control socket connection to the instrument. Refer to 
chapter 4 under “Using Sockets” for more information.  
SYSTem:ERRor? 
This query returns the next error number and its corresponding 
message string from the error queue. The queue is a FIFO (first-in, 
first-out) buffer that stores errors as they occur. As it is read, each 
error is removed from the queue. When all errors have been read, the 
query returns 0, NO ERROR. If more errors are accumulated than the 
queue can hold, the last error in the queue will be -350, TOO MANY 
ERRORS (see Appendix C for error codes). 
SYSTem:VERSion? 
This query returns the SCPI version number to which the instrument 
complies. The returned value is of the form YYYY.V, where YYYY 
represents the year and V is the revision number for that year.