ASI Communications

Protocol

Modbus

USER GUIDANCE DOCUMENT NO. 1.21

ACCELERATED SYSTEMS INC.

Communications between the ASI display and motor controller is based on the MODBUS
application layer messaging protocol. Not all of the MODBUS functionality is supported.
MODBUS is a request/response protocol and offers services specified by function codes.
MODBUS function codes are elements of MODBUS request/response packets. The objective
of this document is to describe the function codes used within the ASI implementation of
MODBUS.

VERSION 1.22
FEBRUARY 2022

[Type here]
CONTENTS
Overview ................................................................................................................................3

1.0 Modbus Functions Supported .............................................................................................4

2.0 Definitions ........................................................................................................................6

3.0 Frame Descriptions ............................................................................................................7

3.1 Expected Responses ..........................................................................................................7

3.2 Read Holding Registers (Function 0x03) .............................................................................7

3.3 Request (Master to Slave) ..................................................................................................8

3.4 Valid Response (Slave to Master) .......................................................................................8

3.5 Error Responses (Slave to Master) ......................................................................................8

3.6 Write Multiple Registers (Function 0x10) .............................................................................9

3.7 Request (Master to Slave) ..................................................................................................9

3.8 Valid Response (Slave to Master) .......................................................................................9

3.9 Error Responses (Slave to Master) .................................................................................... 10

4.0 CRC Generation .............................................................................................................. 11

X.0 Document History ........................................................................................................... 13

Modbus 2
OVERVIEW
Communications between the ASI display and motor controller is based on the
MODBUS application layer messaging protocol. Not all of the MODBUS functionality
is supported. MODBUS is a request/response protocol and offers services specified by
function codes. MODBUS function codes are elements of MODBUS request/response
packets. The objective of this document is to describe the function codes used within
the ASI implementation of MODBUS

Modbus 3
1.0 MODBUS FUNCTIONS SUPPORTED
2.0 Function Function Code

Read Holding Registers 0x03

Write Multiple Registers 0x10

Table 1 - Function codes

Byte Definition

Feature Description

8-bit binary
1 Start bit
Byte Format
1 Stop bit
No parity

Bit Order Least Significant Bit First

Table 2 - Byte definitions

Timing

Feature Value

Baud Rate 115200 bits per second

Byte time 10bits/115200bps = 86.8 usec

Minimum time between frames 3.5 byte times (304 usec)

Maximum time between bytes

<= 1.5 byte times (130 usec)
within a frame
Table 3 - Communication Timing

Modbus 4
 Logic Levels

State Level

Low 0V

High 5V
Table 4 - Logic level definitions

Modbus 5
2.0 DEFINITIONS
3.0
4.0 Item Description

Unique identifier assigned to each slave

Slave ID device on the Modbus.
By default, the Slave ID = 1

Code used to identify the type of action

Function Code
to be performed by the slave device.

Code contained in the slave device

Error Code response packet to indicate that the last
request from the master was invalid.

Code used to indicate why an Error code

Exception Code
was returned by the slave.

Register Address of first register to be

Start Address
read or written.

Number of registers to read or write from

Number of Registers
a single Request packet.

Data byte containing high or low order

Register #
byte from a register.

Cyclic Redundancy Check. See

CRC
calculation below.

The device on the bus which initiates all

Master communication events. Example: the
display device.

Devices on the bus which reply to

Slave communication requests from a Master
device. Example: the motor controller.
Table 5 - Modbus definitions

Modbus 6
3.0 FRAME DESCRIPTIONS

3.1 EXPECTED RESPONSES

When a master device sends a request to a slave device it expects a

normal response. One of four possible events can occur from the master’s
query:

▪ If the slave device receives the request without a communication error,

and can handle the query normally, it returns a normal response.
▪ If the slave does not receive the request due to a communication error, no
response is returned. The master will eventually process a timeout
condition for the request.
▪ If the slave receives the request, but detects a communication error (parity,
LRC, CRC, etc), no response is returned. The client program will eventually
process a timeout condition for the request.
▪ If the slave receives the request without a communication error, but cannot
handle it (for example, if the request contains an invalid register
address), the slave will return an exception response informing the master of
the nature of the error.

3.2 READ HOLDING REGISTERS (FUNCTION 0X03)

This function is used to read the values stored in selected registers within
the controller.

The valid Number of Registers that can be read using a single read request
packet is from 1 to 125. If the number of registers requested is outside of this
range, an error response will be returned by the controller.

The valid address range is from 0 to 511. When reading multiple registers with a
single request, the Start Address + Number of Registers must not result in the
reading of an address above 511. Attempts to do so will result in an error
response from the controller.

Below is a byte wise description of the packet frames used to perform a Function
0x03 read operation.

Modbus 7
 3.3 REQUEST (MASTER TO SLAVE)

Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4 Byte 5 Byte 6 Byte 7

Number of
Function Start Start Number of CRC CRC
Slave Registers
Code Address Address Registers (N*) * (Low (High
ID (N ) (Low
(0x03) (High Byte) (Low Byte) (High Byte) Byte) Byte)
Byte)
Table 6 - Request (master to slave)

3.4 VALID RESPONSE (SLAVE TO MASTER)

Byte Byte Byte Byte Byte

Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4
... 2xN+1 2xN+2 2xN+3 2xN+4
Number
Function Register 1 Register 1 Register Register CRC CRC
Slave of data
Code (High (Low … N* (High N* (Low (Low (High
ID bytes
(0x03) * byte) Byte) byte) Byte) Byte) Byte)
(2 x N )
Table 7 - Valid response (slave to master)

* N = number of registers (1 to 125)

3.5 ERROR RESPONSES (SLAVE TO MASTER)

Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4
Exception Code:
Error
Slave 0x02 = Invalid Address CRC CRC
Code
ID 0x03 = Invalid Number of (Low Byte) (High Byte)
(0x83)
Registers
Table 8 - Error responses (slave to master)

Modbus 8
 3.6 WRITE MULTIPLE REGISTERS (FUNCTION 0X10)

This function is used to write values into select registers within the controller.

The valid Number of Registers that can be written using a single write request is
from 1 to 123. If the number of registers written to is outside of this range, an error
response will be returned by the controller.

The valid address range is from 0 to 511. When writing multiple registers with a
single write request packet, the Start Address + Number of Registers must not
result in the writing of an address above 511. Attempts to do so will result in an
error response from the controller.

Below is a byte wise description of the packet frames used to perform a Function
0x10 write operation.

3.7 REQUEST (MASTER TO SLAVE)

Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4 Byte 5 Byte 6 Byte 7

Number of Number of
Function Start Start Number of Register
Slave Registers Registers
Code Address Address * * data bytes 1 (High
ID (N ) (High (N ) (Low
(0x10) (High Byte) (Low Byte) (2 x N*) byte)
Byte) Byte)

Byte 8 Byte … Byte 2xN+7 Byte 2xN+8 Byte 2xN+9 Byte 2xN+10
* *
Register 1 Register N Register N CRC CRC
…
(Low Byte) (High byte) (Low Byte) (Low Byte) (High Byte)
Table 9 - Request (master to slave)

3.8 VALID RESPONSE (SLAVE TO MASTER)

Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4 Byte 5 Byte 6 Byte 7

Number of Number of
Function Start Start
Slave Registers Registers CRC CRC
Code Address Address * *
ID (N ) (High (N ) (Low (Low Byte) (High Byte)
(0x10) (High Byte) (Low Byte)
Byte) Byte)
Table 10 - Valid response (slave to master)

* N = number of registers (1 to 123)

Modbus 9
 3.9 ERROR RESPONSES (SLAVE TO MASTER)
Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4
Exception Code:
Error
Slave 0x02 = Invalid Address CRC CRC
Code
ID 0x03 = Invalid Number of (Low Byte) (High Byte)
(0x90)
Registers
Table 11 - Error responses (slave to master)

Modbus 10
4.0 CRC GENERATION

The Cyclical Redundancy Checking (CRC) field is two bytes, containing a 16–bit
binary value. The CRC value is calculated by the transmitting device, which appends
the CRC to the message. The receiving device recalculates a CRC during receipt of
the message and compares the calculated value to the actual value it received in the
CRC field. If the two values are not equal, an error will result.

The CRC is started by first preloading a 16–bit register to all 1’s. Then a process
begins of applying successive 8–bit bytes of the message to the current contents of
the register. Only the eight bits of data in each character are used for generating the
CRC. Start and stop bits and the parity bit, do not apply to the CRC.

During generation of the CRC, each 8–bit character is exclusive ORed with the
register contents. Then the result is shifted in the direction of the least significant bit
(LSB), with a zero filled into the most significant bit (MSB) position. The LSB that
was shifted off is extracted and examined. If the LSB was a 1, the register is then
exclusive ORed with a preset, fixed value. If the LSB was a 0, no XOR takes place.
This process of shifting, extracting and XORing on an LSB value of 1 is repeated
seven more times, so a total of 8 shift/extraction/exclusive OR on ‘1’ steps have
been performed.

After the last (eighth) repetition, the next 8–bit character is exclusive ORed with the
CRC register’s current value, and the process repeats for eight more shifts as
described above. The final content of the register, after all the characters of the
message have been applied, is the CRC value.

A procedure for generating a CRC is:

1. Load a 16–bit register with FFFF hex (all 1’s). Call this the CRC register.
2. Exclusive OR the first 8–bit byte of the message with the low–order byte of the
16–bit CRC register, putting the result in the CRC register.
3. Extract the LSB of the CRC register, then shift the register one bit to the right.
4. (If the LSB was 0): Do nothing.
(If the LSB was 1): Exclusive OR the CRC register with the polynomial value
0xA001 (1010 0000 0000 0001).
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until 8 shifts, LSBs examined and XORs on 1 have been
performed. When this is done, a complete 8–bit byte will have been processed.
6. Repeat Steps 2 through 5 for the next 8–bit byte of the message. Continue doing
this until all bytes have been processed.
7. The final content of the CRC register is the CRC value.
8. When the CRC is placed into the message, its upper and lower bytes must be
swapped.

Modbus 11
 Parameter Address List

For a complete list of parameters, please refer to the object dictionary file
“ASIObjectDictionary.xml”, which resides in the c:\Accelerated Systems\BacDoor\
directory, which is created when installing ASI’s BacDoor configuration software.

This file specifies the name, address, and scale factor for all available configuration
parameters in the BAC controller.

Modbus 12
X.0 DOCUMENT HISTORY

Version Updated Author Revision Notes

1.0 08/26/2011 Terry Stone Document Created

Table 12 definitions
change to correspond
1.1 08/31/2011 Craig MacKinnon
to BAC software release
4.xx and earlier
Remove Table 12 and
1.2 07/21/2014 Terry Stone refer to object
dictionary file

1.21 11/09/2017 Martin Kunze New template

Update to CRC
1.22 2/28/2022 Nick Oudyk generation section for
clarity.

Modbus 13