Newport ORIEL Instruments Cornerstone 260 - Appendix I: Low Level Commands and Queries

MCS260
CORNERSTONE 260 MONOCHROMATORS
49
16 APPENDIX I: LOW LEVEL COMMANDS AND QUERIES
16.1 OPENING LOW LEVEL COMMUNICATION INTERFACE
Commands and Queries may be sent using Oriel’s MonoTerm software, HyperTerminal or other
similar terminal emulation programs. Settings are as follows:
Baud Rate:
9600
Data Bits:
8
Parity:
None
Stop Bits:
1
Flow Control:
None
Once the terminal program is open and running, select a COM port and configure it according to
the parameters previously listed. Additionally, set the terminal to “Send line ends with line feeds”.
There is no reason to turn on the local echo since Cornerstone will automatically echo each
character as it is typed. All Cornerstone responses end with a carriage return and linefeed.
Likewise, all messages sent to Cornerstone must end with the linefeed character.
16.2 COMMAND AND QUERY SYNTAX
For the purposes of this discussion, communications with the instrument is divided into two parts.
The messages sent to the monochromator are called “Statements”. The messages received from
the monochromator are called “Responses”. When communicating with the instrument, two types
of Statements are used: “Commands” and “Queries”. A Command causes some physical action or
sets an internal parameter. A Query asks a question of the instrument and automatically returns a
Response. Fundamentally, the syntax is the same for all messages.
Termination
Both Statements and Responses end with a carriage return (ASCII character code 13 decimal)
and linefeed (ASCII character code 10 decimal). This manual will show the termination as [cr][lf]. It
may be more convenient to end Statements with only the linefeed [lf]; this is also acceptable.
Capitalization
Statements may be sent in upper case, lower case, or in any combination of the two. Responses
are returned in upper case. For clarity throughout this manual, Statements are shown in upper
case (i.e. STATEMENT) and Responses are shown in upper case italics (i.e. RESPONSE ).
Parameters
Some Statements require a parameter. In this manual numeric parameters are shown as “XX”;
each X will fill a numeric position and decimals are used to indicate where floating point number
should be expected. Numeric notation is not strict and integers can be substituted for floating point
numbers as desired. There are some specific cases where alphanumeric values or exponential
notation may be required; these special Statements are detailed in this manual.