Most fieldbuses solve the problem of moving a lot of data between intelligent devices. AS-Interface solves a different one: getting a few bits to and from hundreds of dumb devices, cheaply, without a terminal strip the size of a door. A proximity switch has one bit of information. A solenoid valve needs one bit. Wiring each one back… Read More: AS-Interface (AS-i) Explained: The Yellow Cable Bus »
The 4-20 mA loop normally represents one primary process variable. It has done so since the 1950s, it is understood by every technician alive, and it will outlive most of the protocols competing to replace it. HART’s insight was not to replace it. HART puts a digital signal on top of the analog loop, so the same two… Read More: HART Protocol Explained: Digital Data on a 4-20 mA Loop »
If you have configured Modbus TCP on a CODESYS PLC, you might expect the same device-tree workflow in Beckhoff TwinCAT. It works differently. Although TwinCAT and CODESYS both implement IEC 61131-3 programming languages, TwinCAT uses Beckhoff’s own runtime and engineering environment. Because of that, Modbus TCP configuration is completely different from what CODESYS users expect — you will… Read More: Modbus TCP on Beckhoff TwinCAT: Client and Server Setup »
CODESYS is the runtime that powers a large chunk of the industrial PLC market — WAGO, Phoenix Contact, ABB, Delta, Eaton, Bosch Rexroth, Turck, and many more all use CODESYS underneath their own branded engineering software. The good news for anyone working with Modbus TCP on these platforms: CODESYS has native Modbus TCP support built in. No third-party… Read More: Modbus TCP on CODESYS PLCs: Step-by-Step Configuration »
You have a ControlLogix PLC and someone just added a Modbus TCP flow meter to your project. Studio 5000 opens, you look for the “Modbus TCP” option in the module tree… and it is not there. Not in the standard modules. Not in the add-on profiles. Not in the Ethernet configuration. That is because ControlLogix has no native… Read More: Modbus TCP on Allen-Bradley ControlLogix (Studio 5000) »
On an Allen-Bradley controller, “CIP” and “EtherNet/IP” are the same conversation. CIP is the protocol — the object model, the services, the way data is named. EtherNet/IP is CIP running on top of standard Ethernet. When you configure a Rockwell PLC to talk to a drive, a remote I/O block, a camera, or another controller, you’re configuring EtherNet/IP,… Read More: How to Configure CIP (EtherNet/IP) on Allen-Bradley Controllers »
The S7-1500 talks Modbus TCP straight out of its PROFINET port. No CP module, no license, no third-party library. You drop in two instructions — MB_CLIENT and MB_SERVER — point them at a connection structure, and you have a working Modbus link. That said, the part that trips people up isn’t dropping the block in. It’s the connection… Read More: Modbus TCP on the Siemens S7-1500 (TIA Portal): MB_CLIENT and… »
Pick the wrong industrial Ethernet protocol for a new machine and you live with it for 15 years. Wrong drives. Wrong I/O. Wrong engineering tools. Wrong training. That is why the PROFINET vs EtherCAT question matters more than the spec sheet suggests. Both protocols work. Both are mature. Both have millions of nodes in the field. But they… Read More: PROFINET vs EtherCAT: An Honest Comparison for Real Projects »
EtherCAT is the protocol you reach for when 1 ms is too slow. Motion control, multi-axis robotics, high-speed test rigs, anything synchronized down to the microsecond — that is EtherCAT territory. It looks like Ethernet, runs on the same cables, uses standard RJ45 connectors. But under the hood it does something no other industrial Ethernet protocol does: it… Read More: EtherCAT Protocol Explained: The Trick That Makes It Fast »
If you have ever opened Wireshark on a network with Siemens PLCs, you have seen S7comm. It is the language Siemens controllers use to talk to TIA Portal, to WinCC, to SCADA front-ends, and to each other. The protocol has been around since 1994 and it is still the default way to move data in and out of… Read More: S7comm Protocol Explained: How Siemens S7 PLCs Communicate »