Serial Studio Files

⚠️ Important Notices

• Windows Smart App Control: On newer Windows machines, Smart App Control may prevent Serial Studio from running because the binaries are not code-signed yet. Either install from the Microsoft Store, or turn off Smart App Control (Windows Security → App & browser control → Smart App Control settings).
• macOS: The minimum supported version is macOS 14.0 (Sonoma).
• Linux: AppImage/.deb/.rpm builds contain bundled glibc dependencies, which makes them available for older distributions too (RHEL 8 / Debian 10 era).
• No more first-run trial wall: The app always starts in the free tier. The 14-day Pro trial starts the first time you use a Pro feature, and when it ends the app falls back to the free tier instead of blocking you.
• API consent: API clients (TCP, gRPC, MCP) now need your consent before they install script code, load a project with scripts, write to a device or start a program. Consent lasts for the current session only and the prompt names the command asking for it. For headless or CI runs, start the app with SERIAL_STUDIO_API_AUTO_CONSENT=1 to grant every prompt. Special thanks to @kta1kri for identifying this issue.
• Sounds are off by default: Aural alerts and UI sounds are new in this release and start disabled. Turn them on in Preferences → Sounds.

🚀 New Features

• Deployment packages: Turn a project into a sealed .ssdeploy package that the installed app opens directly in runtime mode. The package carries the files the project references (alarm sounds, Canvas images, certificates, widget extensions). While it runs, scripts, the project's source and its live frames cannot be read or exported through the API.
• Aural alerts: An ISA-18.1 alarm annunciator with Acknowledge, Silence, Reset and Test, and IEC 60601-1-8 alarm sounds for each priority. Sounds are a replaceable WAV theme: set them per priority and per app event in Preferences, or per alarm band in the Project Editor. Includes a dashboard annunciator, the alarms.* API and a new Graphical Ping example.
• Alarm bands: Bands now draw and alarm only on widgets that show them (Bar, Gauge, Meter, LED and Bar Panel members). New per-dataset options add an alarm deadband (hysteresis before an active band clears) and a suppressAlarms switch. Acknowledgements survive a dropped link.
• HDR dashboards: On EDR/HDR displays, alarm flashes, LEDs, plot curves, gauge needles and band arcs render brighter than SDR white, with intensity tuned to the theme. HDR is free, and the waterfall colormap now runs on the GPU.
• Console command library: Send history, pinned commands in a send-bar popover, and cyclic re-send of the current command. Project Actions can carry a named TX checksum, and a pinned or recent command can be promoted into an Action in one step.
• Output widgets: The transmit function gets a full code editor that checks syntax and the entry point before you accept it, plus a live preview. Toggles, sliders, buttons, knobs and text fields can show the device's actual state from a dataset instead of the last click. There's also a new Knob control.
• Transforms and workspaces: A per-project transform library for JS and Lua with per-dataset parameters, workspace tiles that keep pointing at the same widget when you reorder datasets, and workspace profiles.
• Importers: Importers can now merge into the open project instead of replacing it, and the Modbus importer produces the same layout the driver uses.
• Modbus: Each register group can poll its own slave address, so one RS-485 connection can read several devices. Writes are no longer capped at two registers and go up to the 123 a Write Multiple Registers request allows.
• Script checksums: checksum(), checksumHex() and checksumAlgorithms() are available in every JS and Lua engine: parsers, transforms, control scripts and macros.
• Getting started: The console fits a standard terminal on first run and prints a hint when a connection stays silent. Connect explains why it is disabled, the operation modes have tooltips, and the Problem Center is on the main toolbar. Save as Project turns a Quick Plot session into a project in one step, and a new Project Tutorial example walks through building one.
• Parser and project checks: The parser test labels each value with its frame index and dataset. The Problem Center now flags groups whose widget can't use its datasets (for example an accelerometer missing an axis) and frames too short to fill every dataset, with a jump to the affected item.
• Waterfall: Seven new color maps: Cividis, Cubehelix, SDR Classic, inverted grayscale, Spectral, Red/Blue and Coolwarm.
• Motion: Popups, menus and dialogs share one set of animations, and a new Reduce Motion preference turns off scaling, sliding and bouncing. It's on by default under the software renderer.
• Performance: DSP kernels choose SSE4, AVX2 or NEON at runtime, the Built-In parser's publish path no longer allocates, and JS/Lua parsers return typed results. Plot memory now scales with the data a source actually sends rather than a worst-case reservation, so dashboards with many plots use far less memory.
• Freeze titles: A new "both" freeze mode shows the title bar and the face title together.
• Operators: The About dialog can be opened from the start menu in runtime mode.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Variables: Dashboards driven by data tables no longer go silent after a save, because cached table handles stay valid across a live re-sync.
• Ports: Two project sources pointing at the same serial port are now refused at connect with a message naming both, instead of half the project coming up. slcan and Seeed CAN adapters list ports with their device description, and macOS no longer offers tty.* nodes that can't be opened.
• Silent failures: Transforms that return NaN or nothing, control scripts stopped by a runtime error, and projects with alarms but sounds disabled now show up in the Problem Center. WAV recordings and console logs close cleanly at the end of a session, including on pause.
• Actions: Changing an action's payload, target or auto-run arming through the API now asks for device-write consent.
• Output widgets: The transmit preview now uses the widget's dashboard color.
• Deployment: Fixed unbounded recursion in the package reader, and disabled buttons are hidden in runtime mode's About dialog.
• Licensing: Fixed a regression in how license seats are tied to a machine.
• Linux GPL build: Fixed a build break in the assistant memory guard (#389), thanks @taotieren!
• Stability: A full app-level review closed 44 of 47 findings across the frame pipeline, the device and protocol drivers, recording and export, the API server and the Project Editor.

📚 Documentation

• New manual pages: Concepts, a Project File tutorial, Derived Values, and Aural Alerts.
• One name per concept across the UI, the manual and the assistant, with a glossary that maps old names to new ones.
• A suggested learning path through the examples, starting with the new Project Tutorial.

💡 Serial Studio Pro

Unlock advanced features with a license key via About → License Management. The 14-day trial unlocks everything below and starts the first time you use a Pro feature.

Pro features include:

• 3D Plot, Waterfall, Image View, and Canvas widgets
• Output widgets, operator shortcuts, runtime mode, and sealed deployment packages
• Variables (data tables), dataset transforms, and custom workspaces
• Full MQTT support with Sparkplug B
• Modbus, CAN Bus, OPC UA, Siemens S7, EtherNet/IP, and IEC 104
• Audio input, raw USB & HID, and Process I/O drivers
• Multiple devices in one project
• MDF4 import/export, the Historian, and the notification log
• File-transfer protocols (X/Y/ZMODEM)
• Modbus register-map and CAN DBC importers

👉 Get Serial Studio Pro: https://store.serial-studio.com/buy/ba46c099-0d51-4d98-9154-6be5c35bc1ec

No Budget?

You can still unlock Serial Studio Pro by contributing:

• Share tutorials, videos, or forum posts.
• Promote on social media or dev communities.
• Translate the UI or improve documentation.
• Send logs, protocol data, or donate development hardware.

👉 VALUE-FOR-LICENSE.md (serial-studio.com)

Full changelog: v4.1.0 → v4.2.0