Hi Ben, if you have followed the latest discussions here ... currently the modbus protocol supports 16bit integer values for registers and Boolean values for coils. The protocol doesn't directly support anything else. However I have seen that vendors use arrays of registers to support higher level types. In my special case the PLC vendor used two 16bit integers to provide 32bit float values.
We will probably start adding support for the basic IEC 61131 datatypes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_61131-3) but I think this will only apply for the Bool, Bit-String, Signed and Unsigned Integers as well as Real values. Durations, Times, Dates and especially Strings will be problematic as it seems every vendor uses a different encoding of these. Chris Am 08.09.20, 13:52 schrieb "Ben Hutcheson" <ben.hut...@gmail.com>: Hi, Looking at the example I had with the hello-world-write example trying to write a String to the Modbus protocol. ava -jar plc4j-hello-world-plc4x-write-0.8.0-SNAPSHOT-uber-jar.jar --connection-string modbus://127.0.0.1:5467 --field-addresses 40010 -field-values 32000 The value 32000 then gets cast as a String and is passed to the encodeString function in ModbusFieldHandler. (It doesn't have one it gets passed to the DefaultFieldHandler). To get this to work properly we would need to define a datatype to cast the String to, S7 does this already and with the consensus that IEC 61131 data types be used where possible then I see no reason we shouldn't add the datatype field to the ModbusField. If we are doing this for these protocols, then why don't we add the datatype field to the PLCField interface, this would allow us to use the same default encodeString (We may have to map the protocol specific datatypes to IEC 61131 here, the same internalEncodeString might be better) functions for S7 and Modbus by casting the input to a PLCField instead of a S7Field or ModbusField. When encodeString is then called we can use the datatype that is passed to it to encode it to a PLCInteger/PLCFloat/etc.., the same way the S7 protocol does it. S7 however only allows Strings to be passed as string related variables (CHAR, WCHAR, STRING and WSTRING), I don't see any reason we can't expand this to be able to pass any PLC datatype from a string. The next problem I had was to then be able to parse the PLCInteger class to a byte array within the fromPLCValue function. For the UINT datatype for the Modbus protocol, this is a 2 byte array however the PLCInteger class contains it as a 4 byte array. in the fromPLCValue function there doesn't seem to be a way to test to see if it is an UINT or a 4 byte integer such as a DINT. If we were to change the classes in plc4j/api/src/main/java/org/apache/plc4x/java/api/value to match the IEC 61131 datatypes then we should be able to parse them correctly in Modbus fromPLCValue function. I have probably missed a few things out, like how the TransportSize class for the S7 protocol works, and we may have to settle for mapping protocol specific types to IEC61131 types in the encode functions in each protocol, what are your thoughts? Kind Regards Ben On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 11:25 AM Christofer Dutz <christofer.d...@c-ware.de> wrote: > Hi all, > > well I doubt that we could really centrally handle this. > If you have an idea how to unify this, I'd be happy for a suggestion. > I guess most will have to be handled in the individual drivers themselves. > > But I really would like all drivers to support the same base-set of > datatypes. > > Chris > > > > Am 06.09.20, 17:02 schrieb "Cesar Garcia" <cesar.gar...@ceos.com.ve>: > > Hello, > > I think it can be applied from several points of view, the one > typified as > you indicate (HREGISTER: REAL) or (HREGISTER [2]), each one has its > advantage. > > To be able to handle the types indifferently (specifically between > Modbus > and S7), I modify the field of the Modbus driver so that it strictly > adapts > to the PLC4X API. This prevents the user's App from having to implement > code to interpret the content of the records. > > This is implemented in version 0.6.1 of PLC4X, but the new version is > something else. > > Best regards, > > El dom., 6 sept. 2020 a las 10:03, Ben Hutcheson (< > ben.hut...@gmail.com>) > escribió: > > > Hi, > > > > I ran into this issue this morning when using the hello-world-write > example > > and trying to write to a Modbus connection. It looks like it assumed > the > > input value is a string whereas the Modbus protocol doesn't have > support > > for it yet. > > > > I was thinking about expanding > > > > > github/plc4x/plc4j/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/plc4x/java/spi/connection/DefaultPlcFieldHandler.java > > to include default handlers for the various IEEE 61131 data types, > the > > specific protocols can then override them as necessary? > > > > Kind Regards > > > > Ben > > > > On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 9:36 AM Christofer Dutz < > christofer.d...@c-ware.de> > > wrote: > > > > > Hi Julian, > > > > > > I agree ... if one driver would define an "INT" as 32bit integer > and the > > > others would treat it as 16bit ... that could be a problem. > > > Perhaps having a statement of the project that we use the IEC > 61131 types > > > as a basis and if you want to use a given protocols different > types, that > > > you can prefix them .. > > > > > > Assuming a driver for the famous "HURZ" protocol would use 32bit > INTs, > > > then an "INT" could reference the 16bit version and a "HURZ_INT" > could be > > > the 32bit version? > > > > > > Chris > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Am 02.09.20, 15:26 schrieb "Julian Feinauer" < > > > j.feina...@pragmaticminds.de>: > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > agree with your suggestion! > > > Although we have to be careful to not mix it up with specific > > > implementations of datatypes in some drivers. > > > > > > Julian > > > > > > Am 02.09.20, 15:21 schrieb "Christofer Dutz" < > > > christofer.d...@c-ware.de>: > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > today I was at a customer’s site and used the Modbus > driver to > > get > > > data. This generally worked fine. > > > The thing however I found a little complicated, was that > the PLC > > > seemed to offer all values as 32Bit Floating point values. > > > So in order to correctly read them, I had to read an array > of two > > > consecutive shorts and then manually convert them into a float. > > > > > > I bet we can do this better. > > > > > > So I thought … how about we use the same > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_61131-3 datatypes we are > already using > > > in other drivers and for example if you write: > > > > > > holding-register:1:REAL > > > > > > it would automatically use modbus to read an array of two > shorts > > > and to internally convert these to one REAL/float. > > > > > > What do you think? I think we could probably do this in > most > > > drivers. > > > > > > Chris > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > *CEOS Automatización, C.A.* > *GALPON SERVICIO INDUSTRIALES Y NAVALES FA, C.A.,* > *PISO 1, OFICINA 2, AV. RAUL LEONI, SECTOR GUAMACHITO,* > > *FRENTE A LA ASOCIACION DE GANADEROS,BARCELONA,EDO. ANZOATEGUI* > *Ing. César García* > > *Cel: +58 414-760.98.95* > > *Hotline Técnica SIEMENS: 0800 1005080* > > *Email: support.aan.automat...@siemens.com > <support.aan.automat...@siemens.com>* > >