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E14 Community recommendation for ModBus TCP client

colporteur

I am looking for an application to query a ModBus TCP interface on a scale head?

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The company I am working for has recently installed a RiceLake 1280 scale indicator with a Modbus TCP interface. The scale indicator is IP capable and resides in a network DMZ. The goal is to have a cloud vendor pull scale data over the network from the Modbus interface. I'm looking for an application that can query the Modbus interface to confirm communication with the interface. 

The scale vendor recommended an application in order to set the Modbus TCP interface IP address. I managed to get that working, proving the interface IP answers an IP ping. DMZ rules have been set in place to isolate the indicator. I want to test that the cloud vendor can get to the Modbus interface and pull the data. I'm thinking maybe there is a software tool like minicom is for serial communication, except the tool is for Modbus.

E14 has some great Modbus resources but nothing to match my search. A Modbus client query tool. I'm hoping there is a community member that has experience with Modbus TCP and that they could recommend application software to perform the task.

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  • An update on the goal of finding a modbus TCP client.

    My attempt with Shabaz offering wasn't successful so I moved onto hits from a google search for modbus tcp client.

    oceancontrols has such a beast for Windows. https://oceancontrols.com.au/software-modbusview-tcp-ocs-011.html The free software timeout every 15 minutes. Once restarted you have to setup communication. I installed the software in a Windows sandbox to test.

    image

    I believe it is important to provide a return on investment. Your responses are valuable here is a return.

    I don't know Modbus protocol and I am not in the market to learn it. My goal was to find software that I could use to test the ability to connect to a modbus tcp interface through the firewall to the DMZ.

    The oceancontrol software is easy to install from their download.

    The Configure tab (Ellipse A) is where you set the IP address of the device you want to connect to. There is no ability to save this in the free software therefore every 15minutes you have to start over.

    Pressing the Start Polling button generates Status window messages and the poll window changes to Active.

    Under the Communication tab you bring up a log or monitor window. The top half of the monitor window transmit screen, shows polling numbers and the bottom half polling response numbers (Ellipse B) poll 36 gives a return of poll 36. There is a polling number receive for every transmit. 

    A quick cmd window netstat -an shows a connection established (Ellipse C) to the IP address and port of the interface. When polling is stopped this connection disappears. YES! We are connecting and communicating to the modbus tcp interface.

    I was unsuccessful when I tried using the registers to write and read. It would be nice to interact, request a read of the scale head and see some data but that is not necessary to reach my goal.  I have little programming knowledge so I abandoned that exercise. 

    For this test the modbus tcp interface was outside the DMZ. Next step is to reposition the interface inside and start testing communication into the DMZ.

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  • An update on the goal of finding a modbus TCP client.

    My attempt with Shabaz offering wasn't successful so I moved onto hits from a google search for modbus tcp client.

    oceancontrols has such a beast for Windows. https://oceancontrols.com.au/software-modbusview-tcp-ocs-011.html The free software timeout every 15 minutes. Once restarted you have to setup communication. I installed the software in a Windows sandbox to test.

    image

    I believe it is important to provide a return on investment. Your responses are valuable here is a return.

    I don't know Modbus protocol and I am not in the market to learn it. My goal was to find software that I could use to test the ability to connect to a modbus tcp interface through the firewall to the DMZ.

    The oceancontrol software is easy to install from their download.

    The Configure tab (Ellipse A) is where you set the IP address of the device you want to connect to. There is no ability to save this in the free software therefore every 15minutes you have to start over.

    Pressing the Start Polling button generates Status window messages and the poll window changes to Active.

    Under the Communication tab you bring up a log or monitor window. The top half of the monitor window transmit screen, shows polling numbers and the bottom half polling response numbers (Ellipse B) poll 36 gives a return of poll 36. There is a polling number receive for every transmit. 

    A quick cmd window netstat -an shows a connection established (Ellipse C) to the IP address and port of the interface. When polling is stopped this connection disappears. YES! We are connecting and communicating to the modbus tcp interface.

    I was unsuccessful when I tried using the registers to write and read. It would be nice to interact, request a read of the scale head and see some data but that is not necessary to reach my goal.  I have little programming knowledge so I abandoned that exercise. 

    For this test the modbus tcp interface was outside the DMZ. Next step is to reposition the interface inside and start testing communication into the DMZ.

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