Most important differences between Modbus and BACnet

Modbus & BACnet are two of the most common standard in the building automation and industrial sectors. Both dominate these fields, so many people don’t know other than these protocols.

Modicon Inc. and BACnet developed Modbus by ASHRAE, and both were created as open standards and not proprietary protocols.

One of the essential advantages of the Modbus is that it’s Openly published and royalty-free. In addition, it’s easy to deploy and maintain as it is a straightforward protocol. And it moves raw bits or words without placing restrictions on vendors.

On the other hand, BACnet is very scalable between cost, performance, and system size; Robust interworking includes LAN types and dial-up.

Modbus is not secured, which is a significant disadvantage, it also has a limited number of data types, and large binary objects are not supported.

The new BACnet standard has a security standard; however, it’s not implemented in all devices.

From the network perspective, BACnet work with Ethernet, IP, MS/TP, and Zigbee, but Modbus works with ASCII, RTU, and TCP/IP, which are simpler protocols.

Of Corse, both protocols can’t work together as one system due to these differences.

However, systems like #MindoLife provide a unified IoT platform that enables the vendors and integrators to overcome these differences in the communication protocols and provide an easy way to set up a hybrid system.
You can review our Super-Modbus product, which can manage different air conditions, energy meters, and more Modbus-enabled devices.
The following image shows how it’s connected to an AC controller produced by our partner, Meitav-tec.

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