Email from labjack support follows
The T4 supports up to two TCP connections. If you had the device open in Python and Kipling, we would expect subsequent TCP connections to fail. The following documentation is written in regard to our LJM library, but much of the information about device sharing applies for direct Modbus TCP as well:
https://labjack.com/pages/support?doc=/software-driver/ljm-users-guide/sharing-a-particular-device-among-multiple-processes-or-computers/