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GEI-100519

GE Industrial Systems

Direct Modbus for Mark VI

and EX2100
These instructions do not purport to cover all details or variations in equipment, nor
to provide for every possible contingency to be met during installation, operation,
and maintenance. The information is supplied for informational purposes only, and
GE makes no warranty as to the accuracy of the information included herein.
Changes, modifications, and/or improvements to equipment and specifications are
made periodically and these changes may or may not be reflected herein. It is understood that GE may make changes, modifications, or improvements to the equipment
referenced herein or to the document itself at any time. This document is intended for
trained personnel familiar with the GE products referenced herein.
GE may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this
document. The furnishing of this document does not provide any license whatsoever
to any of these patents. All license inquiries should be directed to the address below.
If further information is desired, or if particular problems arise that are not covered
sufficiently for the purchasers purpose, the matter should be referred to:
GE Industrial Systems
Post Sales Service
1501 Roanoke Blvd.
Salem, VA 24153-6492 USA
Phone:
+ 1 888 GE4 SERV (888 434 7378, United States)
+ 1 540 378 3280 (International)
Fax:
+ 1 540 387 8606 (All)
(+ indicates the international access code required when calling from outside
the USA)
This document contains proprietary information of General Electric Company, USA
and is furnished to its customer solely to assist that customer in the installation,
testing, operation, and/or maintenance of the equipment described. This document
shall not be reproduced in whole or in part nor shall its contents be disclosed to any
third party without the written approval of GE Industrial Systems.
GE PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT AND THE INFORMATION
INCLUDED THEREIN AS IS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED
STATUTORY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Issue date: 2002-04-22
2002 by General Electric Company, USA.
All rights reserved.
Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation.
EX2100 is a trademark of General Electric Company, USA.
Modbus is a registered trademark of Gould, Inc.

Contents
Section

Page

Introduction................................................................................................................. 2
Related Documents ..................................................................................................... 2
Overview..................................................................................................................... 3
Software............................................................................................................... 3
Communication Interface............................................................................................ 3

Introduction
Communication with a Mark VI controller or an EX2100 Excitation Control is
typically through a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) gateway computer. In applications where an HMI is not available, installing a Modbus directly into the controller
provides a secondary method of communication.
The current Modbus implementation allows communcation directly to a Mark VI or
an EX2100 as a slave Modbus station.
The Modbus communication link can have three different masters in either simplex
or Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) configurations. The Mark VI and the EX2100
can be a Modbus slave on either an RS-232C serial connection or over Ethernet.

Related Documents
GE provides system instruction documents for the different components of each
product. For questions or additional documents, contact the nearest GE sales office
or authorized GE sales representative.

2 Direct Modbus for Mark VI and EX2100

GEI-100519 Product Description

Overview
Software
Refer to GEI-100535, Direct
Modbus for Mark VI and
EX2100 Product User's Guide
for detailed configuration information.

The GE Control System Toolbox (toolbox) is used to configure the Modbus page.
Once a controller has been created, Modbus interfaces can be created and inserted
into the toolbox Outline View.
To create an I/O device, the toolbox user privilege level must be 2 or higher.
There are four Modbus register page types:

Input coils

Output coils

Input registers

Holding registers

Since the controller has high priority control code running at a fixed frame rate, it is
necessary to limit the amount of CPU resources that can be used by the Modbus interface. To control the run time, a limit on the number of commands per second received by the controller is enforced. The controller returns a busy status when more
than 10 commands are sent in a one-second period. The controllers control code can
also disable all Modbus commands by setting an internal logical signal.

Communication Interface
The two types of interface devices used in the RS-232C serial communications to the
controller are the Black Box LD485A-MP and the GE Multilin F485-120.
The Black Box LD485A-MP, which is an RS-232C to RS-485 interface converter,
is used to transport 19,200-baud data over a distance of up to 1.2 miles. A multipoint Mobus installation links one or more slave controllers to the single master
controller. Using LD485A-MP line drivers, the master and individual slave controllers each use their own line driver to communicate over a single RS-485 based network.
The GE Multilin F485-120 is a self-contained device for converting full-duplex RS232C signals to half-duplex RS-485 signals. It uses internal switches to select both
the conversion type (RS232C to RS-485) and the RS-485 communications baud rates
(from 1200 to 57,600 baud).
RS-232C is a technical specification standard for serial communications equipment.
It specifies the control functions and signal line paths that interconnect data terminal
equipment (DTE) and data communication equipment (DCE). DTEs include computers, printers, and CRTs while DCEs are usually modems.
The following diagram shows network connections for the RS-232C serial and
Ethernet links to the Mark VI.

GEI-100519 Product Description

Direct Modbus for Mark VI and EX2100 3

DCS

DCS

Mark VI

Mark VI

Mark VI Simplex
Direct Modbus
Links (Serial)

MarkVI TMR
Direct Modbus
Links (Serial)

DCS

DCS

Mark VI

Mark VI Simplex
Direct Modbus
Links (Ethernet)

Mark VI

MarkVI TMR
Direct Modbus
Links (Ethernet)

RS-232C and Ethernet Links to Mark VI

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+1 540 387 7000
www.GEindustrial.com
4 Direct Modbus for Mark VI and EX2100

GE Industrial Systems
General Electric Company
1501 Roanoke Blvd.
Salem, VA 24153-6492 USA

GEI-100519 Product Description