This discussion assumes you want the Babel Buster 7010 to be the Modbus RTU Master (most common use). Let's review the setup procedure for a single Modbus read map. We suggest starting with one register. Once you get that working, proceed to fill up the table. (If you are configuring 7010 as a Modbus TCP master, much of this discussion still applies.)

First, go to the Local Device page and make sure you have the baud rate set, and parity (if any) selected. If you do not know what baud rate your Modbus device is set to, consult that manufacturers documentation before proceeding.

Make sure the Master button is clicked. Start with a liberally slow timeout, like 0.5 second just to be rather certain you do not have timeout problems. (We have yet to see a piece of working equipment take longer than half a second to respond to a Modbus master.) Do not, however, leave this timeout at zero. The 7010 will not wait at all for a response, and the result will be a lot of "no response" errors.

Next, go to the RTU Read Map page (illustrated below). You can make all of the most commonly used entries right here. Select a remote register type from the drop list provided, select a register format, then register number and remote unit (aka slave address). Scale is optional, and is disregarded if zero. Finally select a local object where the data should be placed. The default name will be filled in automatically if you do not provide a specific (optional) name. Each time you add a rule to the list, the list will grow by one entry automatically.

Make sure the Remote Unit # is the slave address your Modbus device is set to. If you are uncertain what address it is set to, you need to consult the manufacturer's documentation for that equipment before proceeding.

You may view and update the expanded view of any given map by clicking the map number in the first column. In the above example, click the "1" in the left column. This takes you to the expanded view of map #1 illustrated below. If any of the red check marks shown below are "none" or zero, you will get no action, not even an attempt.

The following example shows the only non-zero entries required to successfully read holding register #201 from unit #1 and store the data in Analog Input #3. Once these (or comparable) entries have been made, click the Update button.

At this point, you can go to the data page (below) and see if you have data showing up. If you get no data, there is a problem. The confirmation that you are probably getting no data is the "time since last update". In the example below, we see 1.76 seconds have elapsed, which may mean we are communicating. However, if this number was large, much larger than your poll rate, you are not communicating.

If you are getting no data, check the Error Codes page (below). Here we see that the "No Responses" is about equal to the "Total Messages". This means we are not getting anything back from the Modbus slave. If you are certain all of the above setup is correct, the only conclusion you (or we) can come to at this point is that there is a wiring problem, or the slave is not responding or not configured correctly. Review wiring information, and check the slave configuration.

Here is what the LED indicators will tell you:

Yellow LED on Ethernet Connector: Should remain on any time you have a link. If the 7010 is powered up, and has been for at least a minute, but you see no yellow LED, check your Ethernet cable, switch/hub, etc.

Green LED on Ethernet Connector: Will flash each time the Ethernet interface sees traffic on the network (regardless of whether addressed to the 7010).

The yellow Device Data LED, and red/green Device Status LED, are the Modbus RTU communications LEDs, interpreted as follows:

Modbus RTU is a Master: The yellow Device Data LED will flash every time 7010 sends a request (or command) to a slave. Each yellow flash will be followed by either a green or red flash of the Device Status LED. The green LED means a good response was received from the slave. The red LED means any of several things: (a) No response was received, (b) An exception error was received, (c) A checksum error was found in the response. Check the Error Codes page to see which it is.

Modbus RTU is a Slave: The yellow Device Data LED will flash every time 7010 receives a request (or command) from the master. If 7010 responds with a good packet, the green Device Status LED will flash. If the master requested something that is an error, or a checksum error was found in the packet, the red LED will flash.

If you are unsuccessful in getting RTU traffic, try switching the TX+ and TX-, especially if the Modbus device is labeled A and B. The chip manufacturers and Modbus spec writers document A and B opposite of each other.