Do I need Datalogging and Supervisory Control module to implement Modbus or Ethernet connections?

[hellolv]

Hi,

Do I need the DSC module to make Modbus or Ethernet work?  What does DSC do?



hellolv

[tst]

DSC does all kinds of things (historical logging, tag management), but you don't need it either for Modbus or for ethernet based communication. You can find more details if you go to the DSC product page.

You can find Modbus implementations (both serial and TCP) on the web (including this site) simply by searching for "Modbus".

If you have a network adapter configured in your OS and a connection to a netwrok, you can use the TCP or UDP VIs to do communication over that network. Search the example finder (Help>>Find Examples) for "TCP".

To learn more about LabVIEW, I suggest you try searching this site and google for LabVIEW tutorials. Here, here, here, here, here and here are a few you can start with and here are some tutorial videos. You can also contact your local NI office and join one of their courses.
In addition, I suggest you read the LabVIEW style guide and the LabVIEW user manual (Help>>Search the LabVIEW Bookshelf).

[unclebump]

It also depends on how much information you want to read. A single Modbus command can read only 100-125 registers of data. If you need to read several hundred or thousands of registers, the DSC module is the way to go. The DSC module and an opc server handles all of the communication in the background. Labview would then use vi's to read data out of the DSC module.