MEFS TECH SHEET

EXP057
Modbus Interface Unit

UNIT SPECIFICATIONS

Dimensions (Enclosure) : 250mm  175mm  75mm

Dimensions (Card) : 160  100  32mm
Power consumption : 120mA @ 24V
Power Supply : 18V - 28V DC
Weight : 1.1kg
Sales Part Number : Modbus Card: EXP-061-MB
RS232 Card : EXP-062-232
DESCRIPTION

The Modbus interface unit connects to the RS-485 peripheral bus of a fire control panel and
allows panel interrogation by a Modbus control system. Information on the states of panel
outputs, peripherals, detectors and the general operating condition of the panel can be
requested.

INDICATOR LED’s

RS-232
EARTH POWER RS-485
(to Modbus)
TERMINATIO CONNECTIONS (to panel)
N POINT
INSTALLATION

The unit consists of a circuit card mounted on a steel plate within a polycarbonate IP67 rated
enclosure, as shown above. Pre-pressed knock-outs on the box sides allow cable entry glands
to be fitted for power and communication line wiring.

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A small plug in RS-232 card provides a communication link to the Modbus controller,
jumper J1 on the card should be fitted in position A.

A DC supply in the range of 18-28V, typically 24V, rated at 150mA, is required to power the
interface, An on board switch mode power supply isolates this input from all communication
circuitry. An adequate DC supply can be obtained from the fire control panels auxiliary 24V
output (see fire control panel manual). An earth reference should be connected to the Modbus
Interface Platforms Earth termination point from the supply earth (i.e. fire control panel entry
gland).

A block diagram of the typical wiring arrangement is shown below.

MODBUS MODBUS MASTER

INTERFACE CONTROLLER (Connect
B A B A PLATFORM RS-232 Laptop with Serial Port for
CARD
485 Data Verification first,
CARD 0v 0v E 24v 24v A B E A B
GND RX TX RTS once data is visible on
Laptop’s Modscan
PORT ‘D’
Software then verify on 3rd
party system
FIRE
CONTROL PANEL
(Data Direction)

The RS-485 signal cable should be a twisted pair safety cable type which conforms to BS6387.
The earth lead of this cable should be suitably Earth referenced at the fire control panel entry
gland and at the Modbus interface platforms Earth termination point or at the RS-485 Earth
termination connector. The signal pair should be connected ‘A’ to ‘A’ and ‘B’ to ‘B’.

COMMISSIONING

The eight way DIP Switch defines both the interfaces Morley peripheral address and
its Modbus slave address. Valid addresses are in the range 1 to 126.

The auto-learn option in the panel configure - peripherals menu should be used to detect
the presence of the interface unit, it will register under ‘other’ when found.

By selecting the device option in the configure - peripherals menu the interface will be
displayed as type Modbus as shown below,

P:005 Z001-”Reception ”
Modbus S= nn
The number nn represents status information of interface communications, it can take the
following values:

Signal (nn) Description

0 No communication with interface unit
1 Communicating with interface / Received Modbus
query
16 Communicating with interface unit

MODBUS MASTER TO MODBUS INTERFACE LINK TESTING

The Modbus communication link between the master and the interface can be verified by
sending a query with an unrecognised function code, (see Modbus section later) from the
master. The query will be trapped by the interface and an exception directly returned, A
suggested test query and its response are:

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Test query: 01-05-07-D1-00-64-9D-6C Reply: 01-85-01-83-50
(Values in italics are CRC checksums)

INDICATOR LEDS’

The Modbus interface has three indicators:

LED1 - Blinks at 1Hz when unit is powered and operational.

LED2 - Indicates Modbus data is currently being received on the RS-232 port which is
addressed to the unit.
LED3 - Indicates Panel data is currently being received on the RS-485 port which is addressed
to the unit.

PANEL SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

The fire control panel must be running software version 560 or higher to support a
Modbus interface unit.

IMPLEMENTED MODBUS PROTOCOL

This section details the Modbus protocol implemented within the interface and the mapping of
addresses from Modbus to fire panel.

MODBUS COMMUNICATION SETTINGS

Parameter Setting
Mode : RTU
Baud rate : 9600
Data bits : 8
Framing : 1 start bit, 1 stop bit
Parity : None
Physical RS-232
Interface :

TRANSLATION OF MODBUS DEVICE ADDRESS

At the Modbus interface unit the Modbus starting address is translated to a physical device
address. The rules defining the translation process are:

Sensor Loops:

The panel supports a maximum of 128 sensors per loop. The translation process is identical
for all sensor loops according to the rule :-

Modbus Starting Address = 2000 + ((Loop number - 1)  200) + Device Address.

e.g. Modbus address 2001 = Input on Loop 1 Address 1 (L1D01)

2100 = Input on Loop 1 Address 100 (L1D100, for Morley only
upto 99)
2928 = Input on Loop 5 Address 128 (L5D128, for Morley only
upto 99)

Peripherals:

The panel supports peripherals addressed up to and including 126. The allocation of
peripherals to Modbus addresses is :-

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Modbus address = 3000 + Peripheral Address

e.g. Modbus address 3001 = Input at Peripheral Address 1 (RS 485 Address 1)
3126 = Input at Peripheral Address 126 (RS 485 Address 126)

Outputs Devices:

Each fire panel supports as standard 100 individually programmable output devices. These
are allocated 100 consecutive Modbus addresses (the fire programming software defines the
type of output device).

Modbus address = 4000 + Output Device

e.g. Modbus address 4001 = Output Device 1 (Output no. 1 on board)

4100 = Output Device 100 (Output no. 100, may be in the field)

Summary of Modbus Address Translations:

Modbus Address Mapping

Range
2001-2128 Sensor Loop 1
2201-2328 Sensor Loop 2
2401-2528 Sensor Loop 3
2601-2728 Sensor Loop 4
2801-2928 Sensor Loop 5
3001-3126 Peripherals
4001-4100 Output
Devices

Requesting status from addresses not specified in the above table will result in an ‘Illegal data
address’ exception being returned from the Modbus interface.

MODBUS FUNCTION COMMANDS

The Modbus commands in the following section will be understood and acted upon by the fire
panel interface. There will typically be a delay of one second between the interface receiving
a request from a Modbus master and it starting to transmit the reply.

Read Coil Status: (Read fire panel device output status)

Slave Address nn
Function Code 01
Starting Address Hi AA
Starting Address Lo aa
No. of points Hi 00
No. of points Lo (I) pp
CRC Hi
CRC Lo

Notes:

I. An exception will result if more than the fire panels current maximum number of supported
points are requested.

II. The output device status in the reply field is packed as one output per bit of the
data field. The device at the starting address is transmitted as the LSB of the
first reply byte. The meaning of each bit is:

1 = Output Turned On. 0 = Output Turned Off.

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Read Input Status: (Read fire panel device input/peripheral status)

Slave Address nn
Function Code 02
Starting Address Hi AA
Starting Address Lo aa
No. of points Hi 00
No. of points Lo (I) pp
CRC Hi
CRC Lo
Notes:

I. The maximum number of inputs requested in one message is 128 sensors (99 for Morley
and 128 for Apollo system) and 126 for peripherals.

II. If more than the fire panels current maximum number of supported points are requested, or
the points are not on one loop, an exception will be returned.

III. The device input status in the reply field is packed as one input per bit of the
data field. The device at the starting address is transmitted as the LSB of the
first reply byte. The meaning of each bit is:

1 = Input activated 0 = Input in quiescent state.

IV. The input state is latched by the fire panel once it has been activated and will not return to
zero until the fire panel is reset (This allows for detectors malfunctioning due to heat
damage in a fire situation).

Read Input Registers: (Read fire panel detector analogue input)

Slave Address Nn
Function Code 04
Starting Address Hi AA
Starting Address Lo Aa
No. of registers Hi 00
No. of registers Lo (I) Pp
CRC Hi
CRC Lo

Notes:

I. The maximum number of input registers requested in one message is 64. If this is
exceeded then an exception will be returned.

II. If the points are not on the same loop then an exception will be returned.

III. The register data contains the analogue signal returned by the device.

IV. According to the Modicon specification, two bytes are returned for each register. With
Apollo detectors the high-order byte will always be zero, with the low-order byte
returning the detector analogue signal.

Read Exception Status: (Read Panel Status)

Slave Address nn
Function Code 07
CRC Hi
CRC Lo

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The reply consists of a single panel status byte, formatted as follows :-

Bit N0. Significance

0 (LSB) internal buzzer
muted
1 alarms silenced
2 disablement
3 panel in Fire
4 panel in Fault
5 panel in Pre-Alarm
6 panel in test Mode
7 (MSB) unused
Summary of Recognised Modbus Commands:

The table below shows which type of address can be requested using the four recognised
Modbus commands.

Sensors
Modbus Peripherals (RS Outputs (CM, RM &
Description (Detectors
Function 485 Devices) Onboard outputs)
)
01 Read Coil Status   
02 Read Input Status   
Read Input
04   
Registers
Read Exception
07   
Status

Note: Broadcast not supported on any of the commands.

An ‘Illegal function’ exception will be returned from the Modbus interface if a

function other than those listed above is received.

Summary of Possible Exception Codes:

The following exception codes can be returned from the Modbus Interface:

Exception Code Description

01 Illegal function
02 Illegal data
address REFERENCES

Refer to Modbus protocol specification in PI-MBUS-300 Rev. E for more details.

How to view Data coming out of Modbus Gateway Card on “Modscan

Utility” to verify what’s going in the DVC for address safety.

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Once Testing is over then remove 9 Pin Connector from Laptop and
give it to “3rd Party” System for integration. Our job ends here.

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