Phase 3 PR 41 — Document AutomationDirect DL205 / DL260 Modbus quirks. Adds docs/v2/dl205.md (~300 lines, 8 H2 sections, primary-source citations) covering every place the DL205/DL260 family diverges from textbook Modbus or has non-obvious behavior a generic client gets wrong. Replaces the placeholder _pending_ list in modbus-test-plan.md with a confirmed-behaviors table that doubles as the integration-test roadmap.

The user explicitly flagged that DL205/DL260 strings don't follow Modbus convention; research turned up that and a lot more. Headline findings:
String packing — TWO chars per V-memory register but the FIRST char is in the LOW byte (opposite of the big-endian Modbus convention generic drivers default to). 'Hello' in V2000 reads back as 'eHll o\0' on a textbook decoder. Kepware's DirectLogic driver exposes a per-tag 'String Byte Order = Low/High' toggle specifically for this; we'll need the same. Null-terminated, no length prefix, no dedicated KSTR address space — strings live wherever ladder allocates them in V-memory.
V-memory addressing — DirectLOGIC's native V-memory is OCTAL (V2000, V40400) but Modbus is decimal. The CPU translates: V2000 octal = decimal 1024 = Modbus PDU 0x0400. The widespread 'V40400 = register 0' shorthand is wrong on modern firmware (that was DL05/DL06 relative mode); on H2-ECOM100 absolute mode (factory default) V40400 = PDU 0x2100. We'd surface this with an address-format helper in the device profile so operators write V2000 instead of computing 1024 by hand.
Word order CDAB for all 32-bit values — DL205 and DL260 agree, ECOM modules don't re-swap. Already supported via ModbusByteOrder.WordSwap; just needs to be the default in the DL205 profile.
BCD-as-default numeric storage — bit one I didn't expect. DirectLOGIC stores 'V2000 = 1234' as 0x1234 on the wire (BCD nibbles), not as 0x04D2 (decimal 1234). IEEE 754 Float32 only works when ladder used the explicit R type (LDR/OUTR instructions). We need a new decoder mode for BCD-encoded registers — current code assumes binary integers.
FC quantity caps — FC03/04 cap at 128 (above spec's 125 — Bonus territory, current code already respects 125), FC16 caps at 100 (BELOW spec's 123 — important bulk-write batching gotcha). Quantity overrun returns exception 03 IllegalDataValue.
Coil/discrete mappings — DL260: X0->discrete input 0, Y0->coil 2048, C0->coil 3072. SP specials at discrete input 1024-1535 RO. These are CPU-wired constants and cannot be remapped; need to be hardcoded in the DL205/DL260 device profile.
Register 0 — accepted on DL205/DL260 with ECOM in absolute mode, contrary to the widespread internet claim that 'DirectLOGIC rejects register 0'. That rumour was an older DL05/DL06 relative-mode artefact. Our ModbusProbeOptions.ProbeAddress default of 0 is therefore safe for DL205/DL260.
Exception codes — only the standard 01-04. Write-to-protected-bit returns 02 on newer firmware, 04 on older (firmware-transition revision unconfirmed); driver should map both to BadNotWritable. No proprietary exception codes.
Behavioral oddities — H2-ECOM100 accepts MAX 4 simultaneous TCP connections (5th refused at TCP accept). No TCP keepalive (intermediate NAT/firewall drops idle sockets after 2-5 min — periodic probe required). No mid-stream resync on malformed MBAP — driver must reconnect + replay. TxId-drop-under-load forum rumour is unconfirmed; our single-flight + TxId-match guard handles it either way.
Each H2 section ends with the integration-test names we'd ship per the modbus-test-plan.md DL205_<behavior> convention — twelve named test slots ready for PR 42+ to fill in one at a time. References (8) cited inline, primarily D2-USER-M, HA-ECOM-M, and the Kepware DirectLogic Ethernet driver manual which documents these vendor quirks explicitly because they have to cope with them.
modbus-test-plan.md DL205 section rewritten as a priority-ordered table with three columns (quirk / driver impact / test name), pointing the reader at dl205.md for the full reference. Operator-reported items separated into a tail subsection so future-me knows which behaviors are documented vs reproduced-on-hardware.
Pure documentation PR — no code changes. The actual driver work (string-byte-order option, BCD decoder mode, V-memory address helper, FC16 cap-per-device-family, multi-client TCP handling) lands one PR per quirk in PR 42+ as ModbusPal validation completes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/v2/modbus-test-plan.md

@@ -32,36 +32,34 @@ test project):
 
 ## Per-device quirk catalog
 
-### AutomationDirect DL205
+### AutomationDirect DL205 / DL260
 
-First known target device. Quirks to document and cover with named tests (to be
-filled in when user validates each behavior in ModbusPal with a DL205 profile):
+First known target device family. **Full quirk catalog with primary-source citations
+and per-quirk integration-test names lives at [`dl205.md`](dl205.md)** — that doc is
+the reference; this section is the testing roadmap.
 
-- **Word order for 32-bit values**: _pending_ — confirm whether DL205 uses ABCD
-  (Modbus TCP standard) or CDAB (Siemens-style word-swap) for Int32/UInt32/Float32.
-  Test name: `DL205_Float32_word_order_is_CDAB` (or `ABCD`, whichever proves out).
-- **Register-zero access**: _pending_ — some DL205 configurations reject FC03 at
-  register 0 with exception code 02 (illegal data address). If confirmed, the
-  integration test suite verifies `ModbusProbeOptions.ProbeAddress` default of 0
-  triggers the rejection and operators must override; test name:
-  `DL205_FC03_at_register_0_returns_IllegalDataAddress`.
-- **Coil addressing base**: _pending_ — DL205 documentation sometimes uses 1-based
-  coil addresses; verify the driver's zero-based addressing matches the physical
-  PLC without an off-by-one adjustment.
-- **Maximum registers per FC03**: _pending_ — Modbus spec caps at 125; some DL205
-  models enforce a lower limit (e.g., 64). Test name:
-  `DL205_FC03_beyond_max_registers_returns_IllegalDataValue`.
-- **Response framing under sustained load**: _pending_ — the driver's
-  single-flight semaphore assumes the server pairs requests/responses by
-  transaction id; at least one DL205 firmware revision is reported to drop the
-  TxId under load. If reproduced in ModbusPal we add a retry + log-and-continue
-  path to `ModbusTcpTransport`.
-- **Exception code on coil write to a protected bit**: _pending_ — some DL205
-  setups protect internal coils; the driver should surface the PLC's exception
-  PDU as `BadNotWritable` rather than `BadInternalError`.
+Confirmed quirks (priority order — top items are highest-impact for our driver
+and ship first as PR 41+):
 
-_User action item_: as each quirk is validated in ModbusPal, replace the _pending_
-marker with the confirmed behavior and file a named test in the integration suite.
+| Quirk | Driver impact | Integration-test name |
+|---|---|---|
+| **String packing**: 2 chars/register, **first char in low byte** (opposite of generic Modbus) | `ModbusDataType.String` decoder must be configurable per-device family — current code assumes high-byte-first | `DL205_String_low_byte_first_within_register` |
+| **Word order CDAB** for Int32/UInt32/Float32 | Already configurable via `ModbusByteOrder.WordSwap`; default per device profile | `DL205_Int32_word_order_is_CDAB` |
+| **BCD-as-default** numeric storage (only IEEE 754 when ladder uses `R` type) | New decoder mode — register reads as `0x1234` for ladder value `1234`, not as decimal `4660` | `DL205_BCD_register_decodes_as_hex_nibbles` |
+| **FC16 capped at 100 registers** (below the spec's 123) | Bulk-write batching must cap per-device-family | `DL205_FC16_101_registers_returns_IllegalDataValue` |
+| **FC03/04 capped at 128** (above the spec's 125) | Less impactful — clients that respect the spec's 125 stay safe | `DL205_FC03_129_registers_returns_IllegalDataValue` |
+| **V-memory octal-to-decimal addressing** (V2000 octal → 0x0400 decimal) | New address-format helper in profile config so operators can write `V2000` instead of computing `1024` themselves | `DL205_Vmem_V2000_maps_to_PDU_0x0400` |
+| **C-relay → coil 3072 / Y-output → coil 2048** offsets | Hard-coded constants in DL205 device profile | `DL205_C0_maps_to_coil_3072`, `DL205_Y0_maps_to_coil_2048` |
+| **Register 0 is valid** (rejects-register-0 rumour was DL05/DL06 relative-mode artefact) | None — current default is safe | `DL205_FC03_register_0_returns_V0_contents` |
+| **Max 4 simultaneous TCP clients** on H2-ECOM100 | Connect-time: handle TCP-accept failure with a clearer error message | `DL205_5th_TCP_connection_refused` |
+| **No TCP keepalive** | Driver-side periodic-probe (already wired via `IHostConnectivityProbe`) | _Covered by existing `ModbusProbeTests`_ |
+| **No mid-stream resync on malformed MBAP** | Already covered — single-flight + reconnect-on-error | _Covered by existing `ModbusDriverTests`_ |
+| **Write-protect exception code: `02` newer / `04` older** | Translate either to `BadNotWritable` | `DL205_FC06_in_ProgramMode_returns_ServerFailure` |
+
+_Operator-reported / unconfirmed_ — covered defensively in the driver but no
+integration tests until reproduced on hardware:
+- TxId drop under load (forum rumour; not reproduced).
+- Pre-2004 firmware ABCD word order (every shipped DL205/DL260 since 2004 is CDAB).
 
 ### Future devices