Modbus/TCP
Last updated
Last updated
Modbus/TCP is a communication protocol which is a variant of the Modbus family. It is based on a master/slave architecture and intended for use in industrial automation especially with PLCs or IO modules. Modbus/TCP is defined in IEC 61158.
Modbus uses big-endian representation for addresses and data items.
Protocol structure:
| transaction identifier | protocol identifier | length field | unit identifier | function code | data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
For reading or writing data over Modbus/TCP the protocol provides a set of functions. Which action should be performed on the other end of the connection is defined by the function code (fc).
Supported function codes are:
| Function code | Action | Operation |
|---|---|---|
In Modbus/TCP there are no predefined data-types. The Connectware supports sending the raw payload over MQTT as binary. If the data-type is known and supported by the respective fc, the payload is converted to JSON format.
The desired data type on read or on write is specified with the property dataType. The possible values are as follows:
If the payload is smaller than the required bits for the conversion (payload.length < dataType.length), an error is displayed in the logs and no message is sent over MQTT. If the payload has more bits (payload.length > dataType.length) than needed for the conversion, the “extra” bits are ignored and a message is sent over MQTT.
As a comparison to other documentation, this is a list of other common names for the supported types:
This Modbus implementation supports writing using the standard function calls 5, 6, 15 and 16. In most cases you can directly send a number in the message payload when you are trying to write to a coil or a single register (function call 5 or 6, respectively).
When trying to write several coils at once (function call 15) your data message’s value must consist of an array of boolean values, for example: [true, true, false, true].
Alternatively, if your goal is to write several registers at once, the data type of the endpoint needs to be considered. The property dataType (see Endpoint properties) specifies how to properly serialize the data into an array of bytes suitable to write into the Modbus registers.
For the available integer and float data types (see Supported Data-types above) you can directly send the value in the message payload. A BigInt must be sent as a string value. You can also send ascii, base64, and utf8 encoded strings that will be parsed using Node.js Buffer class.
Raw data in the form of an array of bytes is also supported.
For writing data to modbus a message needs to be published to the /set topic of the Endpoint with the following properties:
Results are published to the /res topic of the Endpoint. The format depends on the modbus function being called and it is returned as a JSON object.
If data is read from Modbus and dataType is set to any of the potential values
When data is read from the endpoint, results are published to the /res topic of the Endpoint. The output message is an object with two properties:
The value of the value property will be the JSON representation of the configured dataType, i.e. a number, or a string, or for ‘raw’ the JSON representation of a Javascript buffer object.
Alternatively, the property dataType can be left undefined, in which case the output is a Javascript buffer object directly. This is probably useful for further processing using suitable mappings.
The following example demonstrates how to configure a simple Modbus connection and endpoint that reads holding registers (fc 3) from the device.
Download:
| DataType/FC | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common type name | Size | Minimum value | Maximum value |
|---|---|---|---|
2 byte
2 byte (always 0x0000)
2 byte (n+2)
1 byte
1 byte
n byte
1
Read coils
subscribe
2
Read discrete inputs
3
Read holding registers
4
Read input registers
5
Write single coil
write
6
Write single holding register
15
Write multiple coils
16
Write multiple holding registers
raw
✓
✓
✓
✓
variable
bool
✓
✓
x
x
1 bit
ascii
x
x
✓
✓
variable
base64
x
x
✓
✓
variable
int16BE
x
x
✓
✓
16 bit
int16LE
x
x
✓
✓
16 bit
int32BE
x
x
✓
✓
32 bit
int32LE
x
x
✓
✓
32 bit
uint16BE
x
x
✓
✓
16 bit
uint16LE
x
x
✓
✓
16 bit
uint32BE
x
x
✓
✓
32 bit
uint32LE
x
x
✓
✓
32 bit
floatBE
x
x
✓
✓
32 bit
floatLE
x
x
✓
✓
32 bit
doubleBE
x
x
✓
✓
64 bit
doubleLE
x
x
✓
✓
64 bit
bigUInt64BE
x
x
✓
✓
64 bit
bigUInt64LE
x
x
✓
✓
64 bit
char
8 bit
0
255
byte
8 bit
-128
127
short (int16)
16 bit
-2^15
2^15-1
int (int32)
32 bit
-2^31
2^31-1
uint (uint32)
32 bit
0
2^32-1
long64
64 bit
-2^63
2^63-1
float
32 bit
IEEE 754
IEEE 754
double
64 bit
IEEE 754
IEEE 754
