Omron Host Link

The Hostlink protocol is a protocol defined by Omron for communication between other devices and Omron PLC. The Hostlink communication protocol has two modes: C-mode and FINS. Cmode adopts ASCII code, and the upper computer actively sends instructions to the CPU; FINS adopts binary code and can be used in various network devices, and can be actively issued by CPU, IO module, and upper computer.

For the generic steps, see Create a Southbound Driver and Groups and Tags.

The EMQX Neuron HostLink Cmode driver is used to communicate with the Omron PLC through a serial network.

Add Driver

On Data Collection → South Devices, click Add Device.

• Name: The name of this device node.
• Driver: Select the HOSTLINK CMODE driver.

Connection Parameters

Click the driver card to open the Device Configuration page and fill in:

Parameter	Description
Recv Timeout	The time of the system waits for a device to respond to a command.
Send Interval	The waiting time between sending each read/write command. Some serial devices may discard certain commands if they receive consecutive commands in a short period of time.
Serial Port	The path to the serial device when using a serial connection, e.g., /dev/ttyS0 in Linux systems.
Stop Bits	Serial connection parameter.
Parity	Serial connection parameter.
Baud Rate	Serial connection parameter.
Data Size	Serial connection parameter.

Tag Configuration

The data types and address formats supported by this driver are listed below.

Data Types

• BOOL
• INT16
• UINT16
• INT32
• UINT32
• INT64
• UINT64
• FLOAT
• DOUBLE
• STRING

Address format

ID!AREA ADDRESS[.BIT][.LEN[H][L]]

ID

Required, unit ID. For example, unit id is 10, area is CIO, address is 0, then fill in 10!CIO0000

AREA ADDRESS

AREA	DATA TYPE	ATTRIBUTE	REMARK
CIO	uint16/int16/uint32/int32/uint64/int64/FLOAT/DOUBLE/STRING	read/write	IR/SR CIO area
LR	uint16/int16/uint32/int32/uint64/int64/FLOAT/DOUBLE/STRING	read/write	LR area
HR	uint16/int16/uint32/int32/uint64/int64/FLOAT/DOUBLE/STRING	read/write	HR area
D	uint16/int16/uint32/int32/uint64/int64/FLOAT/DOUBLE/STRING	read/write	DM area
A	uint16/int16/uint32/int32/uint64/int64/FLOAT/DOUBLE/STRING	read	AR area
TD	uint16/int16/uint32/int32/uint64/int64/FLOAT/DOUBLE/STRING	read/write	TC value
TS	BOOL	read/write	TC status

.LEN[H][L][D][E]

When the data type is STRING, .LEN is a required field, indicating the number of bytes the string occupies. Each register contains four storage methods: H, L, D, and E, as shown in the table below.

Symbol	Description
H	One register stores two bytes, with the high byte first
L	One register stores two bytes, with the low byte first
D	One register stores one byte, and it is stored in the low byte
E	One register stores one byte, and it is stored in the high byte

Example Addresses

Address	Data Type	Description
10!CIO0001	int16	CIO Area, address is 1, unit id is 10
10!CIO0002	uint16	CIO Area, address is 2, unit id is 10
10!LR0020	double	LR Area, address is 20, unit id is 10
10!LR0030	uint32	LR Area, address is 30, unit id is 10
10!HR0010	int32	HR Area, address is 10, unit id is 10
10!HR0020	float	HR Area, address is 20, unit id is 10
10!D0010	int32	DM Area, address is 10, unit id is 10
10!D0020	float	DM Area, address is 20, unit id is 10
10!A0002	int32	AR Area, address is 2, unit id is 10
10!A0004	uint32	AR Area, address is 4, unit id is 10
10!TD0002	uint16	TC value, address is 2, unit id is 10
10!TD0004	uint32	TC value, address is 4, unit id is 10
10!TS0002	BOOL	TC status, address is 2, unit id is 10
10!TS0004	BOOL	TC status, address is 4, unit id is 10
10!CIO0000.20L	string	CIO Area, address is 0, unit id is 10, the string length is 20 bytes, and the endianness is L
10!CIO0001.20H	string	CIO Area, address is 1, unit id is 10, the string length is 20 bytes, and the endianness is H