GE Industrial Solutions POWER LEADER ModBus Monitor - Manual (Page 28)

POWER LEADER Modbus Monitor
Chapter 3 – Configuration
22
Figure 26. Modify Groups screen.
Communication Timeout Setting
The Communication Timeout Setting option refers to the
amount of time in milliseconds the Modbus Monitor
(when serving as Master on a Modbus segment) will wait
for a response from a device before declaring that the
device has timed out. When a device times out, the
request for data will be sent again.
After three consecutive time-outs, a device is declared to
be dead and will be periodically scanned to see if it has
come back online.
It is recommended that this setting be left at the default
value of 1000 ms. Increasing this setting may slow down
network performance, while decreasing it may cause
excessive and unnecessary timeout errors.
Figure 27. Configuration Tool Operational Parameters screen.
Port Configuration Settings
As discussed previously, for the Monitor to receive and
transmit data with the Modbus network correctly, the
Monitor’s communication settings (baud rate, data bits,
parity, and stop bits) for each RS-485 port must match
the communications settings for the Modbus segment
associated with that RS-485 port. To change any of these
parameters, click the radio button for Port Configuration
and press OK. The Monitor Port Configuration screen is
displayed as shown in Figure 17. Make any necessary
changes and press OK to return to the Modify
Configuration screen.
Advanced Configuration
The Modbus Monitor is highly flexible and offers ability
to support user-defined “generic” device types. The only
requirement is that devices have register-based Modbus
RTU communications via RS-485, and that the data
formats used for these registers are supported by the
Monitor (see Appendix C for a list of supported data
formats).
If you wish to use devices other than those listed in
Table 1, you’ll need to define new device types so that
the Modbus Monitor will recognize these devices. This
configuration, while not difficult, is an advanced feature
and it is recommended that generic device configuration
be attempted only if you have a thorough understanding
of Modbus RTU register-based communications.
Due its advanced nature, this option has been removed
from the main body of instructions to Chapter 7:
Advanced Configuration.
Read Files from a Monitor
The Monitor Configuration Tool allows you to read the
configuration data from a particular Monitor into the
Configuration Tool, where you may then save it to disk
for a backup or modify it. This procedure also reads the
Monitor’s local event log, if there are any events
recorded.
Select Read Configuration from a Monitor and click OK.
The Read Configuration screen appears:
Figure 28. Monitor Configuration Tool: Read Configuration dialog.