Modbus probes gain support for parity options

May 2022 Fieldbus & Industrial Networking

Tibbo has released a new firmware version for its RS-485 Modbus sensors (bus probes). This update covers all five currently available models:

• BP#01 ambient temperature sensor.

• BP#02 ambient temperature and humidity sensor.

• BP#03 ambient light sensor.

• BP#04 three-axis accelerometer.

• BP#05 flood/leak sensor.

The marquee feature of V1.06 is the addition of the parity option for the serial interface, which facilitates the use of odd, even, mark or space parity modes when communicating with bus probes. Particularly noteworthy is the mark parity option, which is equivalent to 8-N-2 (8 bits of data, no parity and 2 stop bits). Two stop bits are often used for better syncing between slow and fast devices on the same RS-485 bus, especially at high baud rates. In some systems, 2 stop bits are used to ensure that Modbus RTU frames are always 11 bits long.

The updated firmware binary is available in Tibbo’s downloads section (https://tibbo.com/support/downloads/bus-probe-firmware.html) as well as through its BP Firmware Updater web app (https://apps.tibbo.com/BPFirmwareUpdater/). Supporting documentation includes step-by-step instructions for updating bus probe firmware via the web app, IO Ninja and Device Explorer.

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