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What You should know about Modbus
Documentation
Some Background
Modbus Master .NET API
Technical Information
Modbus Master C++ API The Protocol Functions
Modbus Slave C++ API
How Slave Devices are identified
The Register Model and Data Tables
Modbus Master Java API
Data Encoding
Modbus Master Delphi API Register and Discrete Numbering Scheme
The ASCII Protocol
Free Demos & Evaluation The RTU Protocol
Free Modbus Tools The MODBUS/TCP Protocol

Support Some Background

Information The Modbus® protocol family was originally developed by Schneider

Automation Inc. as an industrial network for their Modicon ® programmable
controllers.
Want to know more?
Your Email: Since then the Modbus protocol family has been established as
vendor-neutral and open communication protocols, suitable for supervision
Your Enquiry: and control of automation equipment.

Technical Information
Modbus is a master/slave protocol with half-duplex transmission.

One master and up to 247 slave devices can exist per network.

The protocol defines framing and message transfer as well as data and
control functions.

The protocol does not define a physical network layer. Modbus works on
different physical network layers. The ASCII and RTU protocol operate on RS
232, RS 422 and RS 485 physical networks. The Modbus/TCP protocol
operates on all physical network layers supporting TCP/IP. This compromises
10BASE-T and 100BASE-T LANs as well as serial PPP and SLIP network
layers.

Note:
To utilise the multi-drop feature of Modbus, you need a multi-point
network like RS 485. In order to access a RS 485 network, you will
need a protocol converter which automatically switches between
sending and transmitting operation. However some industrial
hardware platforms have an embedded RS485 line driver and support
enabling and disabling of the RS485 transmitter via the RTS signal.
Some FieldTalk C++ editions support this RTS driven RS485 mode.

The Protocol Functions

Modbus defines a set of data and control functions to perform data transfer,
slave diagnostic and PLC program download.

FieldTalk implements the most commonly used functions for data transfer as
well as some diagnostic functions. The functions to perform PLC program
download and other device specific functions are outside the scope of
FieldTalk.

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All functions of conformance Class 0 and Class 1 have been implemented. In

addition the most frequently used functions of conformance Class 2 have
been implemented. This rich function set enables a user to solve nearly
every Modbus data transfer problem.

The following table lists the available Modbus functions:

Function Code Current Terminology Classic Terminology

Conformance Class 0

3 (03 hex) Read Multiple Registers Read Holding Registers

Preset Multiple
16 (10 hex) Write Multiple Registers
Registers

Conformance Class 1

1 (01 hex) Read Coils Read Coil Status

2 (02 hex) Read Inputs Discretes Read Input Status

4 (04 hex) Read Input Registers Read Input Registers

5 (05 hex) Write Coil Force Single Coil

6 (06 hex) Write Single Register Preset Single Register

7 (07 hex) Read Exception Status Read Exception Status

Conformance Class 2

15 (0F hex) Force Multiple Coils Force Multiple Coils

22 (16 hex) Mask Write Register Mask Write Register

23 (17 hex) Read/Write Registers Read/Write Registers

How Slave Devices are identified

A slave device is identified with its unique address identifier. Valid address
identifiers supported are 1 to 247. Some library functions also extend the
slave ID to 255, please check the individual function's documentation.

Some Modbus functions support broadcasting. With functions supporting

broadcasting, a master can send broadcasts to all slave devices of a network
by using address identifier 0. Broadcasts are unconfirmed, there is no
guarantee of message delivery. Therefore broadcasts should only be used for
uncritical data like time synchronisation.

The Register Model and Data Tables

The Modbus data functions are based on a register model. A register is the
smallest addressable entity with Modbus.

The register model is based on a series of tables which have distinguishing

characteristics. The four tables are:

Classic Modicon®
Table Register Characteristics
Terminology
Table

16-bit quantity, alterable

Discrete
Coils 0:00000 by an application program,
outputs
read-write

Discrete Single bit, provided by an

Inputs 1:00000
inputs I/O system, read-only

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16-bit quantity, provided

Input
Input registers 3:00000 by an I/O system,
registers
read-only

Single bit, alterable by an

Output Holding
4:00000 application program,
registers registers
read-write

The Modbus protocol defines these areas very loose. The distinction between
inputs and outputs and bit-addressable and register-addressable data items
does not imply any slave specific behaviour. It is very common that slave
devices implement all table as overlapping memory area.

For each of those tables, the protocol allows a maximum of 65536 data items
to be accessed. It is slave dependant, which data items are accessible by a
master. Typically a slave implements only a small memory area, for example
of 1024 bytes, to be accessed.

Data Encoding

Classic Modbus defines only two elementary data types. The discrete type
and the register type. A discrete type represents a bit value and is typically
used to address output coils and digital inputs of a PLC. A register type
represents a 16-bit integer value. Some manufacturers offer a special
protocol flavour with the option of a single register representing one 32-bit
value.

All Modbus data function are based on the two elementary data types. These
elementary data types are transferred in big-endian byte order.

Based on the elementary 16-bit register, any bulk information of any type
can be exchanged as long as that information can be represented as a
contiguous block of 16-bit registers. The protocol itself does not specify how
32-bit data and bulk data like strings is structured. Data representation
depends on the slave's implementation and varies from device to device.

It is very common to transfer 32-bit float values and 32-bit integer values as
pairs of two consecutive 16-bit registers in little-endian word order. However
some manufacturers like Daniel and Enron implement an enhanced flavour of
Modbus which supports 32-bit wide register transfers.

The FieldTalk Modbus Master Library defines functions for the most common
tasks like:

Reading and Writing bit values

Reading and Writing 16-bit integers
Reading and Writing 32-bit integers
Reading and Writing 32-bit floats
Configuring the word order and representation for 32-bit values

The FieldTalk Modbus Slave Library defines services to

Read and Write bit values

Read and Write 16-bit integers

Register and Discrete Numbering Scheme

Modicon® PLC registers and discretes are addressed by a memory type and a
register number or a discrete number, e.g. 4:00001 would be the first
reference of the output registers.

The type offset which selects the Modicon register table must not be passed
to the FieldTalk functions. The register table is selected by choosing the
corresponding function call as the following table illustrates.

Master Function Call Modicon® Register

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Table

readCoils(), writeCoil(), forceMultipleCoils() 0:00000

readInputDiscretes 1:00000

readInputRegisters() 3:00000

writeMultipleRegisters(),
readMultipleRegisters(),
4:00000
writeSingleRegister(), maskWriteRegister(),
readWriteRegisters()

Modbus registers are numbered starting from 1. This is different to the

conventional programming logic where the first reference is addressed by 0.

Modbus discretes are numbered starting from 1 which addresses the most
significant bit in a 16-bit word. This is very different to the conventional
programming logic where the first reference is addressed by 0 and the least
significant bit is bit 0.

The following table shows the correlation between Discrete Numbers and Bit
Numbers:

Modbus
Discrete Bit Number
Number

1 15 (hex 0x8000)

2 14 (hex 0x4000)

3 13 (hex 0x2000)

4 12 (hex 0x1000)

5 11 (hex 0x0800)

6 10 (hex 0x0400)

7 9 (hex 0x0200)

8 8 (hex 0x0100)

9 7 (hex 0x0080)

10 6 (hex 0x0040)

11 5 (hex 0x0020)

12 4 (hex 0x0010)

13 3 (hex 0x0008)

14 2 (hex 0x0004)

15 1 (hex 0x0002)

16 0 (hex 0x0001)

When exchanging register number and discrete number parameters with

FieldTalk functions and methdos you have to use the Modbus register and
discrete numbering scheme. (Internally the functions will deduct 1 from the
start register value before transmitting the value to the slave device.)

The ASCII Protocol

The ASCII protocol uses an hexadecimal ASCII encoding of data and a 8 bit
checksum. The message frames are delimited with a ':' character at the

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beginning and a carriage return/linefeed sequence at the end.

The ASCII messaging is less efficient and less secure than the RTU
messaging and therefore it should only be used to talk to devices which don't
support RTU. Another application of the ASCII protocol are communication
networks where the RTU messaging is not applicable because characters
cannot be transmitted as a continuos stream to the slave device.

The ASCII messaging is state-less. There is no need to open or close

connections to a particular slave device or special error recovery procedures.

A transmission failure is indicated by not receiving a reply from the slave. In

case of a transmission failure, a master simply repeats the message. A slave
which detects a transmission failure will discard the message without
sending a reply to the master.

The RTU Protocol

The RTU protocol uses binary encoding of data and a 16 bit CRC check for
detection of transmission errors. The message frames are delimited by a
silent interval of at least 3.5 character transmission times before and after
the transmission of the message.

When using RTU protocol it is very important that messages are sent as
continuous character stream without gaps. If there is a gap of more than 3.5
character times while receiving the message, a slave device will interpret
this as end of frame and discard the bytes received.

The RTU messaging is state-less. There is no need to open or close

connections to a particular slave device or special error recovery procedures.

A transmission failure is indicated by not receiving a reply from the slave. In

case of a transmission failure, a master simply repeats the message. A slave
which detects a transmission failure will discard the message without
sending a reply to the master.

The MODBUS/TCP Protocol

MODBUS/TCP is a TCP/IP based variant of the Modbus RTU protocol. It

covers the use of Modbus messaging in an 'Intranet' or 'Internet'
environment.

The MODBUS/TCP protocol uses binary encoding of data and TCP/IP's error
detection mechanism for detection of transmission errors.

In contrast to the ASCII and RTU protocols MODBUS/TCP is a connection

oriented protocol. It allows concurrent connections to the same slave as well
as concurrent connections to multiple slave devices.

In case of a TCP/IP time-out or a protocol failure, a master shall close and

re-open the connection and then repeat the message.

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