The mbpoll utility is included in SolarNodeOS and is very useful when testing out or troubleshooting Modbus connectivity on a node. Sometimes a Modbus network is unreliable, however, and a "simple" mbpoll command to read one or two registers will succeed while a SolarNode device plugin fails, because SolarNode makes larger register range requests when reading from Modbus devices, or there could be bugs in the Modbus framework SolarNode uses. Thus it would be very helpful if a technician could simulate the same Modbus requests SolarNode is attempting, using the mbpoll command.

In order to help simulate the same Modbus requests a SolarNode plugin makes, SolarNode could show ready-to-execute mbpoll commands for the Modbus requets it is trying to make when reading from a device. A technician could then copy/paste those commands in a SolarNode login shell to see how mbpoll handles the same requests SolarNode is attempting.