Measurement Specialties 9116 User Manual

Pressure Systems, Inc.                                                                                        Model 9116 User’s Manual 
 
 

 

Page 21 

 

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  Datum Fields 

 
Any datum fields in a command generally contain data to be sent to the module, usually 
specified by a position field bit map. In some commands (when data are received from a module 
instead) no datum fields are required in the command itself but the position field bit map is still 
used to specify the order that data are returned in the command’s response. In either case, the 
order bits are set (to 1) in the position field bit map (highest channel # to lowest channel#, left to 
right) is the order these datum fields are received or sent. 
 
Each datum field may be variable in length, whether part of the command itself or the 
command’s response. In its most common format, a datum begins with a space character (‘ ’), 
and is followed by an optional sign, decimal digits, and a decimal point, as needed (e.g., ‘ -
vv.vvvvvv’). For other formats it may be a hex digit string or pure binary number. 
 
3.1.2.5 Format 

 
Some commands, that either send data to a module  (as command parameters), or cause the 
host to receive data (via command’s response), have an extra format parameter (f digit) 
appended to (or specified in) the position field.  This parameter, when specified (or implied by 
default), governs how internal data are converted to/from external (user-visible) form. 
 

•  The most common format (f=0) causes each datum (in command or response) to be 

represented as printable ASCII numbers externally (with optional sign and decimal point 
as needed).  Internally, the module sets/obtains each converted datum to/from a single 
precision binary (32-bit) IEEE float 

 

•  Some formats (f=1, 2, 5) encode/decode the internal binary format to/from ASCII 

hexadecimal external form.  Some of these “hex dump” formats provide an external hex 
bit map of the internal binary value (float or integer as appropriate).  Format 5 may 
encode/decode the internal float value to/from an intermediate scaled binary integer 
(e.g., float value * 1000 into integer, then to/from a hex bit map). 

 

•  Two special “binary dump” formats (f=7 and f=8) may be used by some commands to 

accept/return binary data directly from/to the user’s command/response.  Such values 
are not user-readable in their external form, but are directly machine readable and 
provide highly compact storage without any accuracy loss due to formatting.  Use of 
these formats allows both the module and host program to operate in their most efficient, 
low overhead mode.  Format 7 returns the most significant byte first (i.e., big endian).  
Format 8 returns the least significant byte first  (i.e., little endian). 

 
See the individual command descriptions for the formats a particular command recognizes.