Modbus Communication Interview Questions & Answers

What is Modbus?

Modbus is a serial communication protocol developed by Modicon published by Modicon® in 1979 for use with its programmable logic controllers (PLCs). In simple terms, it is a method used for transmitting information over serial lines between electronic devices. The device requesting the information is called the Modbus Master and the devices supplying information are Modbus Slaves. In a standard Modbus network, there is one Master and up to 247 Slaves, each with a unique Slave Address from 1 to 247. The Master can also write information to the Slaves.

Modbus is an open communications protocol commonly used in industrial manufacturing that allows for communication between devices. With Modbus, devices from different manufacturers can be integrated in to the same device management system. Modbus also enables remote read and write functionality from a device.

What is it used for?

Modbus is used to gather data from many different devices for simultaneous observation, configuration, or data archiving. If you have a large campus with many buildings, or even buildings spread across a region, Modbus can be used to monitor those buildings from one central point.

Modbus is an open protocol, meaning that it’s free for manufacturers to build into their equipment without having to pay royalties. It has become a standard communications protocol in industry, and is now the most commonly available means of connecting industrial electronic devices. It is used widely by many manufacturers throughout many industries. Modbus is typically used to transmit signals from instrumentation and control devices back to a main controller or data gathering system, for example a system that measures temperature and humidity and communicates the results to a computer. Modbus is often used to connect a supervisory computer with a remote terminal unit (RTU) in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Versions of the Modbus protocol exist for serial lines (Modbus RTU and Modbus ASCII) and for Ethernet (Modbus TCP).

How does it work?

Modbus is transmitted over serial lines between devices. The simplest setup would be a single serial cable connecting the serial ports on two devices, a Master and a Slave.

        

The data is sent as series of ones and zeroes called bits. Each bit is sent as a voltage. Zeroes are sent as positive voltages and a ones as negative. The bits are sent very quickly. A typical transmission speed is 9600 baud (bits per second).