Modbus
Choose the easy way to integrate new equipment into your installed base
Features
Introduced in 1979 by Schneider Electric (Modicon), the Modbus® fieldbus is an essential, open communication standard, supported by a large number of products and vendors on the market today.
With over 7 million nodes in North America and Europe alone, Modbus is the de facto standard in multi-vendor integration.
In a typical Modbus network, messages are sent over an RS232/RS485 serial communication link (EIA standard). The Modbus protocol is based on a master/slave principle, eg. the master sends a request and the addressed slave sends back a response.
As Modbus is a protocol that is independent of the physical network layer, the Modbus serial line can be integrated seamlessly into Modbus TCP networks, using simple gateways. This is transparent for the Client application.
Technical characteristics:
- Up to 247 devices in one network
- Up to 1km network range
- Broadcast messaging supported
- Standard cabling
Benefits
A "de facto" standard and the most widely used network protocol in the industrial manufacturing environment
- Open communication standard
- Easy device integration at a low cost
- Easy integration of new equipment to the installed base
- Widely supported by SCADA and HMI software
- Wide distributed knowledge base
Applications
- The Modbus serial line can be used in virtually all applications. Examples range from small low-cost simple I/O devices to the configuration port and control of variable frequency drives. Actually, Modbus serial line is used to collect data from distributed power meters.
- PLCs (Series 7, Series 1000, Modicon TSX Micro, Premium, Quantum, Momentum, Compact, Twido)
- Most Telemecanique devices