Modbus TCP

Modbus TCP is a version of the Modbus protocol based on Ethernet, which uses TCP/IP for communication. Unlike the traditional Modbus RTU protocol, Modbus TCP allows devices to be interconnected directly through Ethernet without any special hardware or communication interface. Therefore, Modbus TCP has higher communication speed and wider application range.

In addition to supporting data acquisition and processing via TCP client mode, the Neuron Modbus TCP plugin also supports TCP server mode, which allows devices to connect to Neuron actively. This feature is mainly used for 4G DTU because the IP address of 4G network is a private IP. In this case, the DTU device can only connect to Neuron actively.

Add Device

Go to Configuration -> South Devices, then click Add Device to add the driver. Configure the following settings in the popup dialog box.

• Name: The name of this device node.
• Plugin: Select the Modbus TCP or Modbus TCP QH plugin.

Device Configuration

After clicking Create, you will be redirected to the Device Configuration page, where we will set up the parameters required for Neuron to establish a connection with the device. You can also click the device configuration icon on the southbound device card to enter the Device Configuration interface.

TIP

When operating with the Modbus TCP QH plugin, you’re only required to adjust a selection of the aforementioned fields, namely:

• IP Address
• Port
• Connection Timeout
• Connection Mode

Configure Data Groups and Tags

After the plug-in is added and configured, the next step is to establish communication between your device and Neuron by adding groups and tags to the Southbound driver.

Once device configuration is completed, navigate to the South Devices page. Click on the device card or device row to access the Group List page. Here, you can create a new group by clicking on Create, then specifying the group name and data collection interval.

Upon successfully creating a group, click on its name to proceed to the Tag List page. This page allows you to add device tags for data collection. You’ll need to provide information such as the tag address, attributes, and data type.

For information on general configuration items, see Connect to Southbound Devices. The subsequent section will concentrate on configurations specific to the driver.

Data types

• INT16
• UINT16
• INT32
• UINT32
• INT64
• UINT64
• FLOAT
• DOUBLE
• BIT
• STRING

Address format

SLAVE!ADDRESS[.BIT][#ENDIAN][.LEN[H][L][D][E]][.BYTES]

SLAVE

Required, Slave is the slave address or site number.

ADDRESS

Required, Address is the register address. The Modbus protocol has four areas, each area has a maximum of 65536 registers, and the address range of each area is shown in the table below. It should be noted that a storage area as large as 65536 is generally not required in practical applications. Generally, PLC manufacturers generally use an address range within 10000. Please pay attention to filling in the correct point address according to the area and function code of the device.

TIP

Some device specification documents may use function codes and register addresses to describe commands. Since register address numbers start at 0, the register address range for each area is 0 to 65535. Neuron uses a PLC configuration address specification, so the addresses configured in Neuron start from 1.

The conversion rule for the configuration address specification is as follows: determine the highest digit of the address based on the function code, and add 1 to the register address to obtain the address used in Neuron.

For example, if the function code is 0x03 and the register address is 0, the address used in Neuron is 400001. If the function code is 0x02 and the register address is 5, the address used in Neuron is 100006.

.BIT

Optional, specify a specific bit in a register

#ENDIAN

Optional, byte order, applicable to data types int16/uint16/int32/uint32/float, see the table below for details.

TIP

The byte order can be illustrated using the notation ABCD, which corresponds directly to the sequence 1234. As an example, the ABCD designation represents the standard or default Endianness 1234. (#LL).

.LEN[H][L][D][E]

When the data type is STRING, .LEN is a required field, indicating the number of bytes the string occupies. Each register contains four storage methods: H, L, D, and E, as shown in the table below.

.BYTES

Optional, read and write the length of bytes type data, applicable to bytes data type.

TIP

A register of the Modbus driver contains 2 bytes. When reading and writing Modbus register data in the bytes data type, please ensure that the bytes parameter is set to an even number.

Example Addresses

Use Case

This chapter also provides practical examples to facilitate a quick start.

• Modbus Slave Simulator

Data Monitoring

After completing the point configuration, you can click Monitoring -> Data Monitoring to view device information and control devices. For details, refer to Data Monitoring.