Connecting a barcode scanner to T1H-EBC100

[kudosonline]

We're new to IO and modbus and have a question about connecting a barcode scanner to the T1H-EBC100 serial port.

I've configured the port to "Master/Slave" mode but am not sure how to read the data that the serial port is receiving.  I understand it should be written to some sort of analogue register that I can read from using Modbus but am not sure of the addressing of the serial port.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

PS.  We're not having any trouble reading the discrete inputs and outputs using Modbus/TCP.

[Greg]

There are 3 modes for the T1H-EBC100 serial port, but none of them are "Master/Slave". The 3 modes are:

• K-Seq Slave
• Modbus Slave
• Master/Proxy

In K-Seq Slave mode the serial port emulates a DL260, and the only way to R/W from/to the serial port is with K-sequence protocol. Since this protocol is proprietary, it is not a solution for you.

In Modbus Slave mode the serial port is a Modbus RTU slave. The physical I/O in the T1H-EBC100 is mapped into Modbus addresses. These addresses are revealed by right-clicking on the T1H-EBC100 in NetEdit and selecting Show Base Contents. In this mode there is also 4K words of "V-memory" starting at Modbus address of 44001. So, if the barcode reader you are using is a Modbus RTU Master, it could write data to Modbus RTU addresses starting at 44001. Then on the Ethernet side, your Modbus TCP master could read this data.

If you have the T1H-EBC100 serial port set to Master/Proxy mode then the serial port is a proxy device. In this mode the only way to talk to the serial port is via Ethernet, and the only protocol that this can be done with is our own protocol. Only our Ethernet SDK (Software Developer Kit) can R/W data from/to the serial port using 2 functions (HEIWriteComm, HEIReadComm). So an app running on a PC that utilizes our Ethernet SDK could remotely control the serial port. Currently, Entivity (Think&Do) and Kepware utilize this feature so that they can utilize the T1H-EBC100's serial port for HMI devices.

Therefore, based on the characteristics of you application, possible solutions for you are serial port modes Modbus Slave or K-Seq Slave.

Does this help?

[~JC~]

Correct me if I misunderstood, but Greg probably meant:

"Therefore, based on the characteristics of your application, possible solutions for you are serial port modes Modbus Slave or Master/Proxy."   

[Greg]

Oops!   
Yep... thanks June!