Serial Bridge profile: master and slave connected to Digi ports

Use this profile to connect a protocol master to the serial port of one device server and the protocol slave (or slaves) to the serial port of another device server. This profile, which is often called a serial bridge, is applicable to environments that use most IA serial port protocols and to multi-master environments as well. The network is completely transparent to the serial devices, which means they do not have to be reconfigured.

Configuration Options

The serial port connections must be configured to meet the requirements of the attached device, which can be Modbus ASCII, Modbus RTU, DF1 Full-Duplex, Omron Hostlink, Omron FINS, and Omron CompoWay/F. It can also be a serial port protocol that meets Digi’s definition of a “user defined” protocol, that is, one that has fixed header and trailer strings that bound all message packets and where each protocol request is followed by a single response.

For the network connection, Digi recommends TCP sockets, which works regardless of the serial port protocol specified and provides an efficient and reliable network service. Another option is UDP sockets, which also works with all the serial port protocols, although it lacks TCP socket reliability. For Modbus devices, Modbus/TCP is an option, and for DF1 Full-Duplex devices, Allen Bradley Ethernet and Ethernet/IP are options.

Setup Information: Slave Side

See Configure a serial-connected slave: generic procedure.

Setup Information: Master Side

To configure TCP socket or UDP socket communication, see Configure a serial-connected master: TCP/UDP sockets.

To configure any of the other network communication protocols, see Configure a serial-connected master: generic procedure.