Tektronix BERTScope Lightwave Test Set Programmer

™

BERTScope

LTS

Lightwave Test Set

Remote Control Guide

Document Part Number 0138-701-00.01

3475-D Edison Way

Menlo Park, California U.S.A. 94025

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Email [e-mail]

http://www.bertscope.com/

BERTScope™ technology is registered with the

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,

U.S. Patent Nos. 5,414,713; 6,636,994; 6,728,311

This manual is copyrighted and all rights are reserved. No portion of this document may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the express written permission of SyntheSys
Research, Inc.
Products of SyntheSys Research, Inc. are covered by U.S. and foreign patents and/or pending
patents.

BERTScope™ is a trademark of SyntheSys Research, Inc.

© SYNTHESYS RESEARCH, INC.

This Remote Control Guide is applicable to the following SyntheSys Research, Inc., products:

BERTScope™ LTS Lightwave Test Set

BERTScope LTS Remote Control Guide

Document Part Number 0138-701-00.01

5 May 2008

i

Table of Contents

BERTScope™ LTS Remote Control Overview......................................................................................... 1

Setting Up Remote Control .................................................................................................................... 2

Command Syntax .................................................................................................................................... 3

FEATURES............................................................................................................................................ 3

OPERATIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 3

PARAMETERS ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Command Status ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Command Error Messages and Codes ................................................................................................. 5

Tips ........................................................................................................................................................... 5

LTS Remote Control Commands (Confidential) ...................................................................................... 6

Command Summary................................................................................................................................6

Command Reference .................................................................................................................................. 7

Index ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

BERTScope LTS Remote Control Guide ii

BERTScope™ LTS Remote Control Overview

The BERTScope LTS can be controlled remotely via either an IEEE-488 or a TCP/IP communications
connection. The BERTScope LTS remote control software runs on either a BERTScope, or a host PC
running Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP operating systems.

The remote control software accepts text-oriented commands from a remote computer via either an IEEE­488 or TCP/IP connection. It then routes the commands to one or more BERTScope LTSs, connected to
the BERTScope or host PC via USB.

If the local host is a BERTScope, then the BERTScope software gets a chance to handle the command
first. BERTScope-specific commands are documented in a separate manual, the BERTScope Remote
Control Guide, part number 0150-703-06.28.

Any commands the BERTScope software doesn’t understand are sent to the LTS software, which then
controls the BERTScope LTS. The BERTScope LTS-specific commands are documented in this manual.

When a BERTScope LTS is connected to a BERTScope, you can inter-mix BERTScope and BERTScope
LTS commands in the same script, program, or interactive session. If the host is just an ordinary PC,
then the commands are routed to the Clock Recovery software directly. In this case, using the
BERTScope-specific commands will result in an error.

For most applications, a single BERTScope LTS is connected to a BERTScope or host PC. In this case,
the BERTScope LTS is automatically detected and connected when the remote control software is
started, and automatically disconnected when the remote control software is stopped. There is no need
in this case to use the

If more than one BERTScope LTS is connected to the BERTScope or host computer, the remote control
software will not connect automatically. In this case, the Remote computer must issue a
discover the IDs of the connected BERTScope LTSs, and
commands. If the Remote computer needs to control multiple BERTScope LTSs, it would

CLOSE one, then OPEN, control, and CLOSE another. The device that is OPEN is referred to as the

then
‘current’ device throughout this document.

Remote control is implemented using a text-oriented command protocol described in the following pages
of this document. These commands enable you to set and query the system parameters of the
BERTScope LTS, and to retrieve measurements made by the instrument.

OPEN or CLOSE commands described below.

NAMES? query to

OPEN the one desired before issuing control

OPEN, control,

BERTScope LTS Remote Control Guide 1

Setting Up Remote Control

Before beginning a remote control session, it is necessary to start the Remote Client application,
BitAlyzerRemoteClient.exe, on the host computer.

If the host is a BERTScope, select the Remote button from the System View’s Tools page. If the host
computer is a normal PC, then just execute the BitAlyzerRemoteClient.exe file.

The Remote Client application allows you to select either a TCP/IP or GPIB communication channel.

Internally, the program handles routing of commands between the remote computer and the BERTScope
LTS. Select the Trace Messages box to monitor the commands sent to the BERTScope LTS.

To test the Remote Client connection, use a TCP/IP terminal program like telnet.exe to interact with the
BERTScope LTS directly. An example session is shown in the figure above.

BERTScope LTS Remote Control Guide 2

Command Syntax

Remote Control Command Lines are defined as ASCII text strings ending with ‘\r’ or ‘\n’.
The commands follow a basic three-part structure, consisting of one word identifying the feature of the

BERTScope LTS being addressed, another word identifying a specific operation within that feature, and
optional parameters. The feature and operation are separated by a colon, and the operation and
parameter (if any), are separated by a space.

FEATURE:OPERATION PARAMETER

Commands and parameters are generally case-insensitive.

Most commands have a long form and a short form. For example,

LTS:CONNECTED?

can be typed out exactly as shown, or as

LTS:CONN? Or lts:conn?

The short form is convenient during interactive control (using a telnet session, for example). You might
want to use the long form in scripts or programs, to increase code clarity.

FEATURES

The BERTScope LTS commands are divided into feature groups:

In the first group are commands that handle device discovery and connection. You can use these
commands anytime, even if a ‘current’ device has not been selected yet (with the

NAMES, OPEN, and CLOSE commands are all part of this group.

A second group consists of commands for controlling and monitoring a particular BERTScope LTS. The
‘current’ device must have been specified (using the
in this group.

In addition to these feature groups, several miscellaneous features exist to manipulate the host computer
display (
configuration (
primarily implement the functionality provided by the GUI Console buttons.

VIEW, PTFILE, GUILOCKOUT), the run state (RSTATE, RDURATION), and the overall program

SCONFIGURATION, RCONFIGURATION, ISSTATUS, RSSTATUS). These commands

LTS:OPEN command) prior to using any commands

OPEN command). The

OPERATIONS

Operations fall into three sub-categories:

Read-Only properties

Query a read-able property by appending a question mark after it.

For example,

LTS:DN?

returns the device name of the currently selected BERTScope LTS.

Read-Write Properties

Query a read-write property by appending a question mark after it.
Set a read-write property by adding an appropriate parameter.

BERTScope LTS Remote Control Guide 3