Advent Instruments Inc.
2. Command Reference
2. Command Reference
2.1 Overview
The AI-7280 supports two main classes of commands. They are:
•
Get & Set Data
•
Program Management
The get and set commands are used to write to or read from any of the Hardware
Abstraction Layer (HAL) properties. They are the most important commands in
controlling the AI-7280 settings and reading its measurements. In addition to accessing
the HAL properties, the commands can access the variable memory space used by the
program execution units, or registers internal to the execution units. For details on the
use of these commands see the following section: 2.2 Get & Set Commands.
The second class of commands deals with program management and control the program
execution units. Programs can be stored and executed from the non-volatile flash
memory, or downloaded into RAM and executed. Commands are provided to start, halt,
resume, and stop the program execution units. See section: 2.3 Program Control
Commands for more detailed information.
It is important to note that the same command structure is used for both the RS-232 port
and the USB port. There is no difference in syntax when using either communication
method.
2.2 Get & Set Commands
From a programming point of view, the AI-7280 can be represented as a large collection
of registers. Some of these registers control various hardware settings (like the HAL
properties), while others access variable memory used by executing programs or registers
controlling the state of program execution. In order to control the AI-7280, the set and
get commands are used to write to and read from many different registers.
The syntax of the get and set commands are:
?(reg)
Get register contents
>(reg)=(data)
Set register contents
Where "(reg)" represents the register to access, and "(data)" represents the value to set the
register to.
Registers contain data of either a numeric or character string type. In addition, registers
are grouped into three different classes. They are HAL properties, program variable
AI-7280 Programmers Guide - Direct Control
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