Rigol DS1204B Operating instructions

RIGOL
Programming Guide
DS1000B Series Digital Oscilloscope
DS1204B/DS1104B/DS1074B
Feb. 2014
RIGOL Technologies, Inc.

RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
I
Guaranty and Declaration
Copyright
© 2008 RIGOL Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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RIGOL is registered trademark of RIGOL Technologies, Inc.
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PGA04109-1110
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Other international standard conformance certification is in progress.
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If you have any problem or requirement when using our products or this manual,
please contact RIGOL.
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Website: www.rigol.com

RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
II
Content
Chapter 1 Programming Introduction..................................................1-1
Communication Interface......................................................................... 1-2
Command Introduction............................................................................ 1-3
Command Syntax ............................................................................. 1-3
Symbol Description........................................................................... 1-4
Command Input ............................................................................... 1-5
Parameter Type................................................................................ 1-6
Chapter 2 Command Systems ..............................................................2-1
General Commands................................................................................. 2-2
SYSTem Commands................................................................................. 2-5
ACQuire Commands ...............................................................................2-12
DISPlay Commands................................................................................2-15
TIMebase Commands.............................................................................2-21
TRIGger Commands...............................................................................2-26
Trigger Control................................................................................2-28
EDGE Trigger ..................................................................................2-34
PULSe Trigger .................................................................................2-35
VIDEO Trigger.................................................................................2-36
PATTern Trigger ...............................................................................2-38
ALTernation Trigger..........................................................................2-39
MATH Commands...................................................................................2-48
CHANnel Commands ..............................................................................2-50
MEASure Commands ..............................................................................2-57
WAVeform Commands............................................................................2-69
KEY Commands .....................................................................................2-79
SAVe/RECall Commands..........................................................................2-97
MASK Commands.................................................................................2-103
CURSor Commands..............................................................................2-109
Other Commands.................................................................................2-116
Chapter 3 Programming Examples.......................................................3-1
Prepare for Programming......................................................................... 3-2
Program in Visual C++ 6.0....................................................................... 3-3

RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
III
Program in Visual Basic 6.0 ......................................................................3-8
Program in LabVIEW 8.6........................................................................ 3-10
Appendix: Command Quick Reference A-Z.................................................1

Programming Introduction RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
1-1
Chapter 1 Programming Introduction
This chapter provides guidance to the remote control programming of the DS1000B
series digital oscilloscopes and introduction of the commands.
This chapter includes:
Communication Interface
Command Introduction
Command Syntax
Symbol Description
Command Input
Command Input
Parameter Type

RIGOL Programming Introduction
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
1-2
Communication Interface
Computers can communicate with the oscilloscope by sending and receiving
messages over USB or LAN interface. Commands in the form of ASCII character
strings are embedded in your computer to make control easier.
Operations that you can do with a computer and the oscilloscope include:
Set up the oscilloscope;
Relational measurements;
Acquire data (waveforms or measurement data) from the oscilloscope.
Equipment Connection:
USB: Use an USB data cable and connect the USB Device port on the rear panel
of the oscilloscope to PC.
LAN: Use a network cable and connet the oscilloscope to LAN.

Programming Introduction RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
1-3
Command Introduction
Command Syntax
The commands system of DS1000B series oscilloscope is a multistage tree structure,
and each of sub-system is consists of a “Root” keyword and multilayered keywords.
The commands are always begin with a “:”(except for IEEE commands) and the
keywords are also separated by “:”; optional parameters are permitted to follow the
keywords; “?” appeared following a command line denotes to query this function;
besides, “space” is used to divide command and parameter.
For example:
:TRIGger:EDGE:SLOPe {POSitive|NEGative|ALTernation}
:TRIGger:EDGE:SLOPe?
TRIGger is the root keyword of the command, EDGE and SLOPe is separately its
second and third keyword, all of them are separated by “:”. Connects enclosed in the
“{}” denote the parameters permitted to be set by user; “?” denotes to query; the
command :TRIGger:EDGE:SLOPe is set apart from parameter using “space”. “,” is
used to compart the parameters existed in some commands, for example:
:TRIGger:PATTern:PATTern <value>,<mask>,<ext source>[,<edge
source>,<edge>]

RIGOL Programming Introduction
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
1-4
Symbol Description
The following symbols are not “real” parts of the commands, but they are usually used
to assist to explain the parameters containd in a command line.
1. Braces { }
The parameters or contents enclosed in “{}” must be selected, and only one
parameter or content could be selected once. All the options are separated by
“|”.
For example:
{{1|ON}|{0|OFF}} indicateds that 1, ON, 0 or OFF can be selected at a time.
2. Square brackets [ ]
Some keywords or contents are enclosed by square bracket “[ ]”, which
indicates that those parameters are optional and will be execute no matter
whether been omitted or not.
For example:
:TIMebase[:MAIN]:OFFSet <offset>
[:MAIN] can be omitted.
3. Triangle Brackets < >
Parameter enclosed in “< >” should be replaced by a effective value.
For example:
:DISPlay:BRIGhtness <ncount>
replaced by an effective value:
:DISPlay:BRIGhtness 80

Programming Introduction RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
1-5
Command Input
All the comands are not sensitive to both capital letter and lowercase, so you can use
any kind of them. But if use abbreviation, the capital letters specified in commands
must be written completely.
For example:
:TRIGger:ALTernation:SOURce
also can be:
:TRIG:ALT:SOUR or :trig:alt:sour

RIGOL Programming Introduction
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
1-6
Parameter Type
The commands contains 5 kinds of parameters, different parameters has different
setting methods.
1. Boolean
The parameter should be “OFF”, “ON”, “0” or “1”. For example:
:DISPlay:PERSist {{1|ON}|{0|OFF}}
“ON” and “1” denotes trun on (enable) the function, “OFF” and “0” denotes turn
off (disable) the fucntion.
2. Consecutive Integer
The parameter should be a consecutive integer. For example:
:DISPlay:BRIGhtness <ncount>
<ncount> could be the integer between 0 and 100 (including 0 and 100).
3. Consecutive Real Number
The parameters can be any value only in effective range precision permitting.
For example:
:TRIGger:SENSitivity <count>
<count> could be any value between 0.1 and 1 (including 0.1 and 1).
4. Discrete
The parameters can only be the cited value. For example:
:ACQuire:AVERages <count>
<count> could only be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256.
5. ASCII Character String
The parameter should be composed of ASCII character string. For example:
:TRIGger:MODE <mod>
<mod> could be EDGE, PULSe, VIDEO, PATTern or ALTernation.

Command Systems RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-1
Chapter 2 Command Systems
In this chapter, we will introduce every comand in the DS1000B command systems.
The introduction inludes command format, function description, query/Returned
Format and some other notices that should pay attention to during using the
commands.
DS1000B series support the following command subsystems:
General Command
SYSTem Command
ACQuire Command
DISPlayDISPlay Command
TIMebase Command
TRIGger Command
Trigger Control
EDGE Trigger
PULSe Trigger
VIDEO Trigger
PATTern Trigger
ALTernation Trigger
MATH Command
CHANnel Command
MEASure Command
WAVeform Command
KEY Command
SAVe/RECall Command
MASK Command
CURSor Command
Other Command

RIGOL Command Systems
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-2
General Commands
IEEE Standards have defined some general commands which are applied to query
basic information of the instrument or perform elementary operations. These
commands always have 3 characters and with a “*” marker.
DS1000B series support the following General Commands:
*IDN?
*RST
*LRN?
*OPC?
We will give detailed introductions for each command in the following parts.

Command Systems RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-3
1. *IDN?
Command Format:
*IDN?
Function:
The command queries the manufacturer, the oscilloscope model, the product
serial and the software version.
Returned Format:
manufacturer, <model>, <serial>, <version>.
Example:
Rigol Technologies, DS1204B, DS10000000, 00.02.04.
2. *RST
Command Format:
*RST
Function:
The command resets the system.
3. *LRN?
Command Format:
*LRN?
Function:
The command queries the system settings.
Returned Format:
The query returns the data of system settings in the form of a self-defined
character string which could be downloaded to do the same settings in the
future.

RIGOL Command Systems
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-4
4. *OPC?
Command Format:
*OPC?
Function:
The command queries whether the command operation has been completed.
Returned Format:
The query returns 0 or 1. 1 means operation has been completed, 0 means not.

Command Systems RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-5
SYSTem Commands
SYSTem Commands are used for the basic operations of an oscilloscope: RUN/STOP
control, operation of the error queue and system setup data.
SYSTem Commands include:
:RUN
:STOP
:AUTO
:SYSTem:ERRor
:SYSTem:SETup
We will give detailed introductions for each command in the following parts.

RIGOL Command Systems
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-6
1. :RUN
Command Format:
:RUN
Function:
Execute this command, the oscilloscope will start waveform sampling working.
To stop working, execute :STOP command again.
2. :STOP
Command Format:
:STOP
Function:
Execute this command, the oscilloscope will stop waveform sampling working.
To restart working, execute :RUN command again.
3. :AUTO
Command Format:
:AUTO
Function:
The command makes the oscilloscope tests all input waveforms and set the
waveforms automatically to get the optimum conditions to display.
4. :SYSTem:ERRor
Command Format:
:SYSTem:ERRor
:SYSTem:ERRor?
Function:
The command clears the queue of error information.
Returned Format:

Command Systems RIGOL
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-7
The query returns the last error, such as “Undefined header”. If there is no error,
return “0, No error”.
For details about system error codes, please refer to page 2-8:

RIGOL Command Systems
Programming Guide for DS1000B Series
2-8
System Error Code
5. :SYSTem:SETup
Command Format:
:SYSTem:SETup <setup_data>
:SYSTem:SETup?
Function:
The command downloads the system setup data. <setup data> is a binary data
that meets IEEE 488.2 # format.
Returned Format:
The query returns the value of system setup data.