BNC 630 - Manual (Page 51)

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6.4 Remote Control Operation
Each key on the front keypad of the 630 has an associated ASCII character which, when sent to the 630 over the serial port, has
the same effect as pressing that key on the keypad.
At power-up, the 630’s RS232 baud rate is recalled from stored configuration 0. The factory default for this is 9600 baud. The
remaining serial port parameters are always 1 start bit, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity. The serial port on the controlling
computer must be set to match these values.
6.5 Remote Control Programming Rules
The following guidelines should be observed when writing control software for the 630:
1. All ASCII commands are case insensitive, i.e. upper and lower case letters are treated equally by the 630.
2. When the 630 has finished executing a command, it will return a command prompt, which is the ">" character. The control
software should clear its receive buffer, issue a command, and then look for the ">" character to determine when the
command has been executed. If a long string of commands is sent to the 630, a separate ">" character will be returned for
each command as it is executed.
All commands require less than 300 mS to execute except for the store or recall commands, which require several seconds to
complete.
3. All whitespace (carriage returns, linefeeds, tabs, spaces and commas) between commands is ignored. Invalid commands
(ASCII characters that are not listed in the command menu) are likewise ignored.
4. A command does not have to finish execution before another can be sent. All characters received by the 630 are buffered up
and executed in the order they were received. The programmer should allow sufficient time for the 630 to execute each
command and for the signal output to settle into the desired state.
5. If the 630 is reporting data to the control program, it will place a colon (:) character before the data. This makes it easy for the
control program to parse a returned string and extract the character(s) needed. Some examples of returned values are:
Example 1 DTMF Detection Mode detected digits:
DTMF: #
Example 2 Hardware/Software version, serial number (the "V" command):
BNC model: 630
Software Version: 1.0
Hardware Version: 1.0
S/N: F45E3412AC56
PM Checksum: 0017829BB903
6. When the operating mode of the 630 is changed, all parameter values for the previous mode are retained in memory as long as
power is applied to the unit. For example, if Sinewave mode with an output frequency of 5 MHz is changed to Sweep mode,
the Sinewave mode 5 MHz value will be saved before the mode is changed. Switching back to Sinewave mode will restore
the 5 MHz value in the frequency field. If power is turned off, however, all parameters are reset to default values. To save all
parameters for a mode, use the "Store/Recall" command.