ciplink

Read and write Allen-Bradley PLC tags over EtherNet/IP from Python, C, C++, C# or Rust.

CI PyPI crates.io NuGet Python License: MIT

Install · Quick start · Simulator · Build from source

ciplink is a fork of pycomm3 rebuilt on a shared Rust core. Every language calls the same driver, so tag reads, packet packing and error handling behave the same everywhere. In Python it keeps the familiar pycomm3-style API and uses several times less CPU per call.

flowchart LR
    PY[Python] -->|PyO3| CORE
    CPP[C / C++] -->|C ABI| CORE
    CS[C# / .NET] -->|P/Invoke| CORE
    RS[Rust] --> CORE
    CORE[[ciplink core<br/>Rust]] -->|EtherNet/IP| PLC[(Logix · Micro800<br/>SLC · MicroLogix)]

Features
Controllers ControlLogix, CompactLogix, GuardLogix and Micro800 with LogixDriver; SLC 500 and MicroLogix with SLCDriver; generic CIP messaging to any EtherNet/IP device with CIPDriver
Tag types atomic types, arrays, strings, UDTs (whole or by member), AOIs, bits of integers and BOOL arrays
Throughput many tags packed into each packet, with large values fragmented and chunked automatically
Tag discovery the tag list and UDT definitions are uploaded on connect, or loaded on first use with lazy_tags; a binary tag cache makes restarts near-instant
Online-edit safe tags are addressed by instance ID and checked against the controller's tag-table version on every read and write, so an online edit never silently returns the wrong tag
Extras tag descriptions, PLC clock, device discovery, module identity, and a simulated controller for testing

Install

Language Command
🐍 Python 3.9+ pip install ciplink
🦀 Rust cargo add ciplink
🟣 C# / .NET 8+ dotnet add package Ciplink
⚙️ C / C++ ciplink.h, ciplink.hpp and prebuilt libraries on the releases page

The Python wheels and the NuGet package already contain the compiled core, so you don't need a Rust toolchain.

Quick start

The path is the controller's IP address, IP/slot for a ControlLogix outside slot 0, or a full route such as 192.0.2.10/bp/2/enet/192.0.2.20/bp/0. Every read and write returns one result per tag. A failure is reported on that result, with a message and an error kind (not found, bad value, access denied and so on), rather than raised as an exception.

Python 
from ciplink import LogixDriver

with LogixDriver("192.0.2.10") as plc:
    print(plc.read("Counter"))           # Tag(tag='Counter', value=42, type='DINT', error=None)
    level, recipe = plc.read("Tank.Level", "Recipe{10}")
    plc.write(("Counter", 0), ("Tank.Setpoint", 75.5))
Rust 
use ciplink::Value;
use ciplink::logix::driver::{LogixDriver, LogixOptions};

let plc = LogixDriver::new("192.0.2.10", LogixOptions::default())?;
plc.open()?;
for tag in plc.read(&["Counter", "Tank.Level"]) {
    println!("{} = {:?} {:?}", tag.tag, tag.value, tag.error);
}
plc.write(&[("Counter", Value::DInt(0))]);
C# 
using Ciplink;

using var plc = new LogixDriver("192.0.2.10");
plc.Open();
Tag counter = plc.Read("Counter");
Console.WriteLine(counter.IsOk ? $"{counter.Name} = {counter.Value}" : counter.Error);
plc.Write("Counter", 0);
C++ 
#include "ciplink.hpp"

ciplink::Logix plc("192.0.2.10");
plc.open();
for (const ciplink::Tag& t : plc.read({"Counter", "Tank.Level"}))
    std::cout << t.tag << " = " << ciplink::to_json(t.value) << "\n";
plc.write_tag("Counter", 0);

Test without a PLC

ciplink-sim is a simulated Logix or SLC controller that speaks real EtherNet/IP. Load it with tags and UDTs from a JSON file or an L5X export, then point any driver at 127.0.0.1.

cargo run -p ciplink-sim -- --config tools/sim/example_controller.json --port 44818

Build from source

You need Rust (stable). The Python package also needs Python 3.9+ with uv, and the C# binding needs the .NET 8+ SDK.

cargo test --workspace                # core, simulator, C ABI and the Python ↔ Rust parity harness
uvx maturin build --release           # Python wheel, written to target/wheels/
bash bindings/cpp/build_and_test.sh   # C++ binding
dotnet test bindings/dotnet           # C# binding

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how the parity fixtures are generated and how releases are published.

Project layout
Path Contents
crates/ciplink the Rust driver core
crates/ciplink-py, ciplink/ the Python extension module and package
crates/ciplink-ffi the C ABI and ciplink.h
bindings/cpp, bindings/dotnet the C++ and C# bindings
crates/ciplink-sim the simulated controller

License

MIT. Built on pycomm3 by Ian Ottoway and pycomm by Agostino Ruscito.

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Author: Rowan Ramamurthy

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ciplink-0.3.0-cp39-abi3-win_amd64.whl 979.9 kB With provenance CPython 3.9 abi3 Windows x86-64 Details
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ciplink-0.3.0-cp39-abi3-macosx_10_12_x86_64.macosx_11_0_arm64.macosx_10_12_universal2.whl 1.9 MB With provenance CPython 3.9 abi3 macOS 11.0+ ARM64, macOS 10.12+ x86-64, macOS 10.12+ universal2 (ARM64, x86-64) Details

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