Hi all, I'm TomNewChao, founder of the openIndu community (https://www.openindu.com/, code at https://github.com/openIndu).
1) We'd like to build S7/Modbus support into plc4net, not just consume PLC4X. Our IIoT platform (https://www.openindu.com/iiot-platform) has a Java/Spring Boot backend, but the layer that actually talks to shop-floor PLCs -- our edge gateway -- is a separate C# service, and today it hand-rolls its own S7, Modbus, Omron FINS, and Mitsubishi/Keyence MC-protocol parsing. We'd like to stop maintaining that in isolation and build on PLC4X instead. I noticed plc4net currently only ships a KNXnet/IP driver, and its shared driver SPI only landed about six weeks ago, so S7/Modbus for .NET looks like a genuinely open gap rather than something we'd be duplicating. We already have working, production-tested C# implementations of these protocols, and would like to contribute real plc4net drivers built against the new SPI. 2) We can offer real PLC hardware for validation, independent of #1. We run production lines across Siemens, Mitsubishi, Omron, Keyence, and Inovance (汇川) equipment. I also noticed the SLMP/MELSEC driver on the plc4j side just landed (#2585 -> #2640 -> #2651) -- happy to validate that against our real Mitsubishi/Keyence hardware too, even though our own gateway is C#. As we roll out to more factories we keep encountering more brands and firmware variants, so this can be an ongoing hardware-validation channel for PLC4X generally, not limited to plc4net or to what we're building ourselves. 3) Introducing openIndu. We're an open, community-run project focused on smart manufacturing -- motion control, machine vision, this IIoT platform, and some AI-infrastructure work, developed in the open at https://github.com/openIndu. We're still a young community, but we'd rather build industrial protocol connectivity on an established open project than reinvent it, which is a big part of why PLC4X specifically is interesting to us beyond the technical fit. Happy to open a GitHub issue for the driver proposal specifically (in the spirit of #2585) once this gets some traction here, if that's the preferred way to track it -- just let me know. My GitHub handle is TomNewChao (https://github.com/TomNewChao). Best, TomNewChao Founder, openIndu Community https://www.openindu.com/ · https://github.com/openIndu
