Scenario: Customer wants to integrate a Maple Systems HMI+PLC (HMC) solution with a Allen Bradley PLC and a Fanuc robot. Yes, you can use the Modbus protocol to communicate to an Allen Bradley PLC and a Fanuc robot from a Maple Systems HMI+PLC (HMC). All the tags and IO would need to be mapped manually.…
Read More Can a Maple Systems HMI+PLC (HMC) communicate to an Allen Bradley PLC?
The MAPware-EBPro Modbus tag converter tool will not work if your application is in IEC Mode. This tool was designed for the Native Ladder (deprecated) programming mode that had pre-assigned Modbus addresses assigned each local address. If your MAPware application uses IEC mode, you must create tags in the tag database and assign Modbus…
Read More How to import Modbus tags from MAPware-7000 (IEC mode) into EBPro.
To address multiple devices, using the Modbus TCP/IP Gateway function: 1. Select the table for the mapped device. 2. Click the “Settings…” button at the bottom of the Address Mapping Table window. 3. Specify the mapped device address in the Table Settings window. Follow Technical Note 5099 “Using the Modbus Gateway” for step-by-step instructions.
Read More How do I address multiple devices using the Modbus TCP/IP Gateway function?
Maple Systems HMIs use the Modbus protocol to communicate with the Scadapack PLC. 32-bit floating point numbers use two consecutive 16-bit registers to contain all 32 bits. The Scadapack stores the high word/low word in the opposite order than the HMI is reading them. Therefore, use the 5x address type instead of 4x when assigning…
Read More Scadapack Floating Point values are not displaying correctly on my HMI
This feature allows the HMI programmer to enhance the update rate of data received from the PLC. When the addresses of PLC registers displayed on a screen are blocked close together, the HMI can optimize the update rate by getting the data from several PLC Registers (a block) at one time. The value in the…
Yes, the HMC can be configured as a Modbus TCP Master on COM3 and still retain the default Modbus TCP Slave configuration.
You must choose one or the other between master and slave for Modbus RTU, but Modbus TCP can be both simultaneously thanks to Ethernet. As a master (client) you can read Modbus data from, or write Modbus data to, other Modbus TCP devices.
Read More Can the HMC be configured as a Modbus TCP master and a slave at the same time?
This depends on the driver. Some drivers will allow you to configure the word order globally for the driver. This would be done from a Data Conversion button on the Device Settings window. In EBPro go to <i>Home > System Parameters > Device > Settings… > Data Conversion. The Modbus driver has options to swap…
Read More Can I reverse the word order for a registers I’m reading on a PLC?
When you want to read 32-bit register using a word addressed protocol like Modbus all you have to to is set the format to a 32-bit format (32-bit signed, 32-bit unsigned, 32-bit float) on the format tab of your object. The HMI will take care of reading the correct number of registers.
Read More How to read a 32-bit register using a 16-bit protocol like Modbus?
Setting up communication between a Maple Systems HMI and Maple Systems PLC is easy. We created a step by step tutorial showing you how to set up Modbus RTU and TCP communications.
Modbus TCP/IP (also Modbus-TCP) is simply the Modbus RTU protocol with a TCP interface that runs on Ethernet. The Modbus messaging structure is the application protocol that defines the rules for organizing and interpreting the data independent of the data transmission medium.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), is a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet.
Read More Define Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/ IP)
Modbus TCP/IP uses TCP Port 502 on HMI devices.
Read More What TCP Port on my HMI do I use with Modbus TCP/IP?