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Protocol drivers

Modbus, Siemens S7, OMRON, DNP3, IEC 104, IEC 61850, MQTT, OPC UA client, simulator — what each supports.

All drivers ship in every installation; there is nothing to buy or enable. Each driver has an Address hints panel in the tag editor and a help page inside the application.

DriverTransportHighlightsDetail page
ModbusTCP, UDP, RTU/ASCII serial, Ethernet encapsulationFC01–04 reads, FC05/06/15/16/22 writes, zero/one-based addressing, Modicon 5/6-digit, word/bit order, per-area max block size, one socket per channelModbus
Siemens S7ISO-on-TCP (102)S7-300/400/1200/1500, DB/M/I/Q/T/C areas, optimised PDU packing, 64-bit typesSiemens S7
OMRONFINS/TCP, EtherNet/IP CIPCS/CJ/CP FINS memory areas, NJ/NX symbolic tags (CIP), bit and word accessOMRON
DNP3TCPIntegrity/event polls, unsolicited, SBO/Direct Operate, Secure Authentication, time sync, file control, redundancyDNP3
IEC 60870-5-104TCPGeneral interrogation, single/double commands, setpoints, time sync, redundancy, RTU compatibility modesIEC 104
IEC 61850MMSSCL/ICD import, LN-level reads, control model (SBO/direct), reports, VMD addressesIEC 61850
MQTTTCP/TLSBroker per channel, topic devices, JSON/XML/CSV/key-value payload parsing, discovery, arrival watchdog livenessMQTT
OPC UA clientopc.tcpConnect to other UA servers (PLC, gateway, another MergenHub); channel = session, device = subscription, browse for tags
SimulatorRamp, sine, random, static functions for testing screens, alarms and logging without hardware

Choosing timeouts and scan rates

  • Start with the driver defaults and the device's documented response time. A scan rate lower than the device round-trip only creates back-pressure.
  • Serial and GSM/radio links: longer request timeout (2–5 s), fewer retries, and demand-driven scanning so idle devices do not keep the link busy.
  • Large Modbus devices: keep max block size below what the device supports (many RTUs reset above 64 registers).

Writes

Writes are executed immediately, ahead of the scan queue, and are verified: the driver checks the device acknowledged the write (Modbus exception codes, S7 return codes, DNP3/104 command responses). Failed writes are reported to the caller (OPC UA StatusCode / REST error) and logged in the audit log with user and value.

Redundancy and recovery

Every channel runs under a supervisor. Broken sockets are reopened, dead workers are recreated, and quarantine/back-off prevents a flapping device from flooding the log. DNP3 and IEC 104 support dual-address redundancy.

Diagnostics

Select a device › Diagnostics to see the raw frames (TX/RX hex), byte counters and last error. For cache-based protocols (DNP3, 104, 61850) the packet tap shows the real link traffic, not the cached values. See Troubleshooting.