Contents of the status registers

The individual status registers are used to report different classes of instrument states or errors. The following status registers belong to the general model described in IEEE 488.2:

  • The status byte (STB) gives a rough overview of the instrument status.

  • The IST flag combines the entire status information into a single bit that can be queried in a parallel poll.

  • The event status register (ESR) indicates general instrument states.

The contents of the following status registers are instrument-specific and not described in this document:

  • The STATus:OPERation register contains conditions which are part of the instrument's normal operation.

  • The STATus:QUEStionable register indicates whether the data currently being acquired is of questionable quality.