November 2016 – Communication specialist HMS Industrial Networks has released the second product in their EtherNet/IP Linking Devices family. The new EtherNet/IP to Modbus-TCP Linking Device allows users to connect devices on Modbus-TCP to a Rockwell ControlLogix or CompactLogix PLC. Users will benefit from the unique integration to Rockwell’s Studio5000 Logix Designer, as all configuration is made from inside Studio 5000.

The new EtherNet/IP to Modbus-TCP Linking Device makes it possible to include any automation device with Modbus TCP-communication into an EtherNet/IP-based network architecture supporting over 8000 bytes of IO data in total. Besides being a more cost-effective alternative to in-chassis communication modules, the distributed EtherNet/IP to Modbus-TCP Linking Device also brings other advantages:

Contrary to an in-chassis module which is physically connected to the PLC, the EtherNet/IP to Modbus-TCP Linking Device can be mounted close to the connected devices. This means that it is possible to establish a connection via a single Ethernet cable instead of multiple network specific cables. All EtherNet/IP Linking Devices from HMS support ODVA’s Device Level Ring (DLR) for ring topology.

Users access serial protocol configuration through their existing Studio 5000 software. All configuration is made inside Studio 5000 where there is support for Process Variable Data Tags, as well as manual and automatic generation of named and structured Studio 5000 Controller Tags without any required user logic.

Since the Linking Device operates stand-alone (distributed), it doesn’t affect PLC backplane performance (PLC execution time), even when large amounts of data are transferred. The PLC simply scans the Linking Device as if it were any other I/O device on the network.

“We released our first EtherNet/IP Linking Device for serial communication in early 2016 and it was very well received by the market”, says Markus Bladh, Product Manager at HMS. “With the new EtherNet/IP to Modbus-TCP Linking Device, we are able to offer a cost-efficient connectivity solution between these networks supporting big data transfer. And, thanks to the very tight integration to Studio 5000, Rockwell users can easily access data from Modbus-TCP devices such as I/O systems, drives, sensors and instruments.”