PyModbus - A Python Modbus Stack

We are constantly working the modernize pymodbus and add new features, and we look for people who want to help a bit. There are challenges small and large not only programming but also documentation and testing.

Supported versions

Version 2.5.3 is the last 2.x release (python >= 2.7, no longer supported).

Version 3.4.1 is the current release (Tested with Python >= 3.8).

Summary

Pymodbus is a full Modbus protocol implementation using a synchronous or asynchronous (using asyncio) core.

The modbus protocol documentation can be found here

Supported modbus communication modes: tcp, rtu-over-tcp, udp, serial, tls

Pymodbus can be used without any third party dependencies (aside from pyserial) and is a very lightweight project.

Pymodbus also provides a lot of ready to use examples as well as a server/client simulator which can be controlled via a REST API and can be easily integrated into test suites.

Requires Python >= 3.8

The tests are run against Python 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 on Windows, Linux and MacOS.

Features

Client Features

• Full read/write protocol on discrete and register
• Most of the extended protocol (diagnostic/file/pipe/setting/information)
• TCP, RTU-OVER-TCP, UDP, TLS, Serial ASCII, Serial RTU, and Serial Binary
• asynchronous(powered by asyncio) and synchronous versions
• Payload builder/decoder utilities
• Pymodbus REPL for quick tests
• Customizable framer to allow for custom implementations

Server Features

• Can function as a fully implemented modbus server
• TCP, RTU-OVER-TCP, UDP, TLS, Serial ASCII, Serial RTU, and Serial Binary
• asynchronous and synchronous versions
• Full server control context (device information, counters, etc)
• A number of backend contexts as datastore

Use Cases

Although most system administrators will find little need for a Modbus server on any modern hardware, they may find the need to query devices on their network for status (PDU, PDR, UPS, etc). Since the library is written in python, it allows for easy scripting and/or integration into their existing solutions.

Continuing, most monitoring software needs to be stress tested against hundreds or even thousands of devices (why this was originally written), but getting access to that many is unwieldy at best.

The pymodbus server will allow a user to test as many devices as their base operating system will allow (allow in this case means how many Virtual IP addresses are allowed).

For more information please browse the project documentation:

https://readthedocs.org/docs/pymodbus/en/latest/index.html

Example Code

For those of you that just want to get started fast, here you go:

from pymodbus.client import ModbusTcpClient

client = ModbusTcpClient('127.0.0.1')
client.connect()
client.write_coil(1, True)
result = client.read_coils(1,1)
print(result.bits[0])
client.close()

For more advanced examples, check out the Examples included in the repository. If you have created any utilities that meet a specific need, feel free to submit them so others can benefit.

Examples Directory structure

examples      -> Essential examples guaranteed to work (tested with our CI)
├── v2.5.3    -> Examples not updated to version 3.0.0.
├── contrib   -> Examples contributed by contributors.

Also, if you have a question, please create a post in discussions q&a topic, so that others can benefit from the results.

If you think, that something in the code is broken/not running well, please open an issue, read the Template-text first and then post your issue with your setup information.

Pymodbus REPL (Read Evaluate Print Loop)

Warning The Pymodbus REPL documentation is not updated.

Pymodbus REPL Client

Pymodbus REPL comes with many handy features such as payload decoder to directly retrieve the values in desired format and supports all the diagnostic function codes directly .

For more info on REPL Client refer Pymodbus REPL Client

Pymodbus REPL Server

Pymodbus also comes with a REPL server to quickly run an asynchronous server with additional capabilities out of the box like simulating errors, delay, mangled messages etc.

For more info on REPL Server refer Pymodbus REPL Server

Installing

You can install using pip or easy install by issuing the following commands in a terminal window (make sure you have correct permissions or a virtualenv currently running):

pip install -U pymodbus

This will install a base version of pymodbus.

To install pymodbus with options run:

pip install -U pymodbus[<option>,...]

Available options are:

• repl, installs pymodbus REPL.
• serial, installs serial drivers.
• documentation, installs tools to generate documentation.
• development, installs development tools needed to enable test/check of pymodbus changes.

Or to install a specific release:

pip install -U pymodbus==X.Y.Z

Otherwise you can pull the trunk source and install from there:

git clone git://github.com/pymodbus-dev/pymodbus.git
cd pymodbus
pip install -r requirements.txt

Before cloning the repo, you need to install python3 (preferable 3.10) and make a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv /path/to/new/virtual/environment

To activeate the virtual environment please do:

source .venv/bin/activate

To get latest release (for now v3.0.0 with Python 3.8 support):

git checkout master

To get bleeding edge:

git checkout dev

To get a specific version:

git checkout tags/vX.Y.Z -b vX.Y.Z

Then:

pip install -r requirements.txt

pip install -e .

pre-commit --install

This installs pymodbus in your virtual environment with pointers directly to the pymodbus directory, so any change you make is immediately available as if installed. It will also install pre-commit git hooks.

Either method will install all the required dependencies (at their appropriate versions) for your current python distribution.

The repository contains a number of important branches and tags.

• dev is where all development happens, this branch is not always stable.
• master is where are releases are kept.
• All releases are tagged with vX.Y.Z (e.g. v2.5.3)
• All prereleases are tagged with vX.Y.ZrcQ (e.g. v3.0.0.0rc1)

If a maintenance release of an old version is needed (e.g. v2.5.4), the release tag is used to create a branch with the same name, and maintenance development is merged here.

Current Work In Progress

The maintenance team is very small with limited capacity and few modbus devices.

However, if you would like your device tested, we accept devices via mail or by IP address.

That said, the current work mainly involves polishing the library and solving issues:

• Fixing bugs/feature requests
• Architecture documentation
• Functional testing against any reference we can find
• The remaining edges of the protocol (that we think no one uses)

Development Instructions

The current code base is compatible python >= 3.8. Here are some of the common commands to perform a range of activities

pip install -r requirements.txt install all requirements

pip install -e . source directory is "release", useful for testing

./check_ci run the same checks as CI runs on a pull request.

OBS: tox is no longer supported.

Generate documentation

cd doc make clean make html

Contributing

Just fork the repo and raise your PR against dev branch.

We always have more work than time, so feel free to open a discussion / issue on a theme you want to solve.

License Information

Released under the BSD License