Modbus TCP: Configuring Runtime Subscription List Access

Daniel Price1 min read
ModbusOther ManufacturerTutorial / How-to
Licensed PE Working through this on a live machine? A Maine-licensed engineer can take it from here — included with IMD hardware, by the hour for everything else. Book an engineer

Runtime access to the Modbus TCP subscription list requires changing two access modifiers in ModbusBase.vb. Making only SubscriptionList public fails because its element type, SubscriptionInfo, remains private.

Root Cause of the Accessibility Error

SubscriptionList is declared as List(Of SubscriptionInfo). A public member cannot expose a private nested type, which causes the compiler message: SubscriptionList cannot expose type ModbusBase.SubscriptionInfo in namespace AdvancedHMIDrivers through class ModbusBase.

Declaration Original access Required access
SubscriptionList Private Public
SubscriptionInfo Private Public

Expose the Subscription List

  1. Open ModbusBase.vb and locate the subscription-list declaration, reported at approximately line 290.
  2. Change Private SubscriptionList As New List(Of SubscriptionInfo) to a public declaration.
  3. Locate Private Structure SubscriptionInfo a few lines below it and change that declaration to public as well.
Public SubscriptionList As New List(Of SubscriptionInfo)

Public Structure SubscriptionInfo
    ' Existing structure members remain unchanged.
End Structure

Read Subscribed Addresses at Runtime

Access the list through the Modbus TCP communication instance. The following loop reads each subscription and writes its address to the console:

For i = 0 To ModbusTCPCom1.SubscriptionList.Count - 1
    Console.WriteLine(ModbusTCPCom1.SubscriptionList(i).Address.Address)
Next

The same iteration can supply a runtime ListBox click handler; replace the console output with the existing ListBox insertion method. The evidence does not define a specific ListBox control name or insertion call.

Verification and Scope

Verify that the accessibility error is cleared and that the loop returns the addresses currently held by ModbusTCPCom1.SubscriptionList. This change exposes the existing collection directly; the evidence does not establish whether modifying that collection externally is supported, so use it for inspection unless the driver implementation confirms otherwise.

FAQ

Why can’t a public SubscriptionList use the private SubscriptionInfo type?

The public list exposes SubscriptionInfo through its signature. Change both SubscriptionList and SubscriptionInfo from Private to Public.

How do I read Modbus TCP subscribed addresses at runtime?

Iterate from 0 through ModbusTCPCom1.SubscriptionList.Count - 1 and read SubscriptionList(i).Address.Address.

Where is the Modbus subscription list declared?

It is declared in ModbusBase.vb as Private SubscriptionList As New List(Of SubscriptionInfo), reported at approximately line 290 in the referenced code.

Back to blog