Raylux 1.0.8: Device communication, Screens and Designer and configuration

This release fixes how the gateway reports a PLC it cannot read, speeds up Allen-Bradley communication, and adds new screen components: vector drawings, images, a moving analog indicator and a project stylesheet. We recommend it for every gateway, and especially for any gateway that talks to a PLC.

Device communication

• A value the gateway could not read is now shown as bad, not as a live zero. Before this release, when a read failed — a timeout, an error reply from the PLC, a dropped connection — the gateway could publish the tag as a good reading of 0 or off, with a fresh timestamp. This affected every polled driver: Allen-Bradley, Modbus (including AutomationDirect CLICK), Siemens S7, Omron, BACnet and DNP3. A failed read now marks the tag bad and keeps its last good value, so operator screens show the tag as bad instead of a believable zero, and the stale-data check fires if the device stops answering.
• Tags recover cleanly. When the device answers again, the tag returns to good straight away, even if the value has barely changed.
• Allen-Bradley reads are much faster and put less load on the controller. The gateway now combines reads into fewer requests and reads related members of a structure together. On a busy ControlLogix, reading 31 tags went from 31 requests and about 430 ms per poll to 17 requests and about 14 ms, with identical values.
• Two tags that point at the same Allen-Bradley address both update. Previously the second one could stop updating permanently.
• A read that times out no longer blocks the next poll on Allen-Bradley.

Screens

• Values that use a transform now display correctly. A lookup table or calculation on a tag binding was being applied twice, so lookups could show a fallback and calculated values could be wrong. It is now applied once. If a transform cannot be applied, the value is marked instead of being shown as if it were correct.
• Open screens no longer resubscribe to every tag repeatedly, which cuts the traffic between the browser and the gateway.
• Reusable views can build tag paths from their parameters, including inside expressions.
• New: vector drawings. Draw vessels, piping and equipment as scalable graphics, with any color or visibility bound to a tag.
• New: images. Show a logo or picture from your project's files.
• New: moving analog indicator. A level or range bar with the process value, setpoint, normal band and alarm limits. Out-of-range values and bad data are shown distinctly, never as a normal reading.
• New: project stylesheet. Add your own CSS to a project — animations, hover effects, project-wide colors. Changes appear on open screens without restarting anything.
• Borders on buttons and containers now follow the border color, width and style you set.

Designer and configuration

• Images and vector drawings are in the designer's component palette.
• Tag providers can be created and removed from the configuration interface, without a restart.
• Projects saved by older versions open and save normally, and restoring an older backup keeps each project's screen navigation.
• Importing many tags at once is faster.

Does this affect me?

• You read data from any PLC or device — yes, install this release. Screens can no longer show a failed read as a live value.
• You use value transforms (lookups, calculations) on screen bindings — yes. Check any screen where a looked-up or calculated value looked wrong; it should now be right.
• You use Allen-Bradley controllers — yes. You will see faster updates and less controller load, with nothing to change.
• Your projects, tags, history, alarms and users are kept when you install over an earlier 1.0 release. Nothing needs to be reconfigured.

Installing

• Windows: Windows Server 2019 or later, or Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The gateway installs as a Windows service and starts on boot. Installing over an earlier 1.0 release keeps your projects, tags, history and users. These downloads are not code-signed yet, so Windows will warn you the first time you run one.
• Linux: x86-64. Ubuntu 24.04 or later, Debian 13 or later, Fedora 39 or later, or RHEL, Rocky or Alma 10 or later. Install over an earlier package to upgrade; your data in /var/lib/raylux is kept. Studio and Lens are Windows-only; the gateway serves operator screens to any browser. The packages are not signed yet.

Downloads

• RayluxSetup-1.0.8-x64.exe — the whole system for Windows: gateway, designer and plant-floor client. Start here if you are not sure.
• Raylux-1.0.8-x64.msi — the gateway on its own for Windows, for scripted or unattended installs.
• Raylux-Studio-Setup-1.0.8-x64.exe — the designer, for an engineer's workstation.
• Raylux-Lens-Setup-1.0.8-x64.exe — the plant-floor client, for operator stations.
• raylux-nexus_1.0.8_amd64.deb — the gateway for Debian and Ubuntu: sudo apt install ./raylux-nexus_1.0.8_amd64.deb
• raylux-nexus-1.0.8-1.x86_64.rpm — the gateway for Fedora and RHEL: sudo dnf install ./raylux-nexus-1.0.8-1.x86_64.rpm