File transfer error with Ruida controller

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Ruida controllers
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I have been using LightBurn about a year now with my Boss laser (Ruida controller) and it works great. My only issue is trying to send the file to the laser over ethernet. I have to repeatedly send literally 20-30 times to get a file to transfer correctly.

I have replaced the network cable to the laser. It is only about 40 feet. I have replaced the switch. Moved ports on the switches, Set a different IP address, and still the same problem. I can ping the IP address of the laser with /T option and it replies perfectly forever with no issues. It is not a network problem.

I’m pulling my hair out here… Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Rick

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Is your computer connected to the switch with a cable, or is it wireless? If it’s wireless, that’s the problem.

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The other problem can be the kids watching YouTube. The info is sent to the laser via your on site router. I had a problem for a while when she was multi tasking watching one video on her laptop and another on her phone on the wifi. Everything was timing out until I put a data cap on her devices.

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The Ruida controller uses UDP for data transfer, not TCP. UDP and TCP are protocols, or a standard for how devices talk to each other.

TCP has a bunch of data checking and retry mechanisms built into it, so when you send data using TCP, it’s guaranteed to arrive, and be in the order in which you sent it. It might get delayed, but as long as you have a connection, the data will arrive. It’s a bit like sending something via FedEx - you get tracking information, and can tell when it got there, and it’s insured.

UDP is more like putting a letter in a mailbox. There’s a really good chance it will get there, but you’re never actually sure unless you get a letter back. If the person on the other end sent an answer, but their letter got lost, you’d never know if your message didn’t arrive, or their response was the thing that got lost.

There’s also the fun part that the mailbox only has a single opening big enough for exactly one letter. If you and someone else both try to put a message in the box at the same time, they collide, and neither one makes it through. With TCP, the protocol itself realizes that this happened, and it retries after a tiny random delay, so two people streaming Netflix will degrade performance a little, but not horribly as long as you’re below about 60% of your overall network capacity. With UDP, if two packets collide, they’re just gone forever.

The way Ruida uses the network connection is really simple - we send a block of data and the controller responds with ‘got it’. If we get that, we send the next block, and the process repeats until the file is done. If anything goes wrong, and the controller doesn’t get the message, or we don’t get the reply, the only option is to just give up and try again. For this reason, a direct cable between the PC and the controller is the most reliable option, and the next best is a single router or switch between you.

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Good to know Oz, appreciate the info. It may be all in my mind, or just wishful thinking, but for me putting a cap on her data through the switch cured most of my problems.

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There’s many things in networking that can go wrong when a ping will still return. A ping is only 56 bytes. Try a ping with a much larger payload size: ping –l < data size > –f < ip_address >

1472 is the largest packet you can send without fragmentation, so use something 16k+, and continuous to see if you’re dropping anything.

How is your computer connected to the network, what are your network settings, what are your Ruida network settings?

Ruida networking is very basic. If anything goes wrong, it’s more often than not an issue with your network configuration or a physical, cable problem. You’ve removed the physical as an issue.

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Gentlemen,

Thanks for all the answers.

I had forgotten that the PC running LightBurn was connected via. Wifi. I removed the wifi nic and connected it with a cable. Seems to be fine now after a few tries.

Thanks again,
Rick

1 Like
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Which isn’t to say that you can’t use wifi, but ‘Wifi aint wifi’ - there’s many standards and many different ways of skinning a cat.

If you use something that supports N300 and above, you should find the bandwidth enough.

They typically have multiple antenna, multiple bands, and a more powerful processor and can operate in a streaming mode, with one tx/rx pair configured to send, one to receive, so not as much back-and-forth switching as there is with a single-band switch.

I use an old Linksys E4200 which I picked up for $20 on ebay. It’s years out of date, but still performs like a champ for my needs.

We don’t have teenagers, though :slight_smile:

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Almost as bad as a spouse addicted to crafting or cooking videos. Need to put a cap on her data so I can watch my laser videos… LOL

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You need to buy a better router :slight_smile:

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Router isn’t the problem, being out in the country with limited data is the problem.

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I’m rural, too, but we have fibre at the door. A benefit of our town being only 15km from the country’s main trunk comms route.

People living further out of town from us are on wireless internet and their speed is abysmal.

Sorry for your loss (of bandwidth :slight_smile: )

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And I’m one of those so close but so far situations. A little ways down the road is the Telco’s terminal box, fiber to the box, but copper to us peons. Got a wonderful letter from the Telco last month, they’d upgraded the box so now DSL was available to me. But I’m still at the fringe edge for that. I have a wireless service that isn’t bad, and we have the second speed tier speed package. We started with the low first tier, but her YouTube videos were buffering. I could get faster packages, but can’t justify the cost just so she can multi task YouTube videos.

I have her capped at about 50% more than the YouTube videos need. She can watch one at a time no problem, but if she tries to watch one on her computer and another one on her phone at the same time, one of them will buffer every so often. She grumbles when it does, and she’s learned she can’t multi task when I have Amazon Prime up on the big screen, I’ll ask if she’s multi tasking when my Amazon Prime buffers.

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I’ve found Amazon Prime to be heavy on network, more so than Youtube and Netflix.

I thought it was just due to fewer servers, but I did a traffic analysis and it uses a lot more bandwidth - probably due to them embedding multiple languages and cast data in the stream.

Before we got our fibre upgrade, we got better throughput in the jungles of Asia than we do in NZ, but now with 200mb/s, its almost seamless, except for Prime.

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Yeah, Amazon has a LOT more return data for what ever reason. But hey, for basically running on a radio out in the sticks I can’t complain too much. Just wished that fiber terminal had been a mile or so closer. If we didn’t have so many trees around, I’d be tempted to try a directional wifi to the neighbors and see what I get.

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Laser/IR bridge.

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