Improving Work Efficiency by Reducing Interface Noise Generation Experienced in Connecting Modbus Protocol to Arduino

Abstract

Modbus is a standard open communication protocol which is extensively used in industry and is the most commonly available means of connecting industrial electronic devices in many industries today. The Modbus was developed by ?Modicon? in 1979. It is typically used to transmit signals from instrumentation and control devices back to a main controller or a data gathering system. There are many versions of the Modbus protocol for serial lines (Modbus RTU and Modbus ASCII) and for Ethernet (Modbus TCP). In industrial automation, engineers use expensive devices to implement SCADA systems. Only mega industries can afford these systems due to the high cost. Mid-level industries use low cost Arduino Mega microcontrollers instead of very expensive devices as Modbus slave devices. One major technical barrier during usage is the Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) and noise generation during the connection of the Modbus master device with the Arduino micro-controller (slave device), and sensors with the slave device. This research attempts to reduce the noise level to an acceptable level through specially designed hardware circuitry and software tools to improve performance. This allows to customize the Modbus slave device according to the industrial requirements where it can work efficiently with SCADA systems.