Teledyne API T703/T703U Calibrator Operation Manual Communications
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Data Types 5.1.7.3.
Data types consist of integers, hexadecimal integers, floating-point numbers,
Boolean expressions and text strings.
Integer data are used to indicate integral quantities such as a number of
records, a filter length, etc. They consist of an optional plus or minus sign,
followed by one or more digits. For example, +1, -12, 123 are all valid
integers.
Hexadecimal integer data are used for the same purposes as integers. They
consist of the two characters “0x,” followed by one or more hexadecimal
digits (0-9, A-F, a-f), which is the „C‟ programming language convention. No
plus or minus sign is permitted. For example, 0x1, 0x12, 0x1234abcd are all
valid hexadecimal integers.
Floating-point numbers are used to specify continuously variable values such
as temperature set points, time intervals, warning limits, voltages, etc. They
consist of an optional plus or minus sign, followed by zero or more digits, an
optional decimal point and zero or more digits. (At least one digit must
appear before or after the decimal point.) Scientific notation is not permitted.
For example, +1.0, 1234.5678, -0.1, 1 are all valid floating-point numbers.
Boolean expressions are used to specify the value of variables or I/O signals
that may assume only two values. They are denoted by the keywords ON
and OFF.
Text strings are used to represent data that cannot be easily represented by
other data types, such as data channel names, which may contain letters and
numbers. They consist of a quotation mark, followed by one or more
printable characters, including spaces, letters, numbers, and symbols, and a
final quotation mark. For example, “a”, “1”, “123abc”, and “()[]<>” are all valid
text strings. It is not possible to include a quotation mark character within a
text string.
Some commands allow you to access variables, messages, and other items.
When using these commands, you must type the entire name of the item;
you cannot abbreviate any names.
Status Reporting 5.1.7.4.
Reporting of status messages as an audit trail is one of the three principal uses for
the RS-232 interface (the other two being the command line interface for
controlling the instrument and the download of data in electronic format). You
can effectively disable the reporting feature by setting the interface to quiet mode
(Section 5.1.4, Table 5-1).
Status reports include warning messages, calibration and diagnostic status
messages. Refer to Appendix A for a list of the possible messages, and this for
information on controlling the instrument through the RS-232 interface.
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