Start vs Send on Wifi

I was reading another support post over the weekend which raised a question. Unfortunately, I can’t find that specific post at the moment to ask there.

In this post Oz was saying that the Ruida controller uses UDP protocol instead of TCP for it’s wireless connection, and this potentially could cause problems with dropping of packets.

If that is so, I wanted to ask if there is a difference between “Sending” a file, vs “Start/Running” a file. Gut feeling tells me that it might be safer to Send the file, and then run it from the console, however I don’t actually know if that isn’t what “Start” does under the covers, or if it’s actually streaming the engraving/cutting commands on the fly?

Currently I don’t have Wifi setup, so I’ve been carrying a laptop out to my garage, but it would be much easier to Send the file to the laser, and then walk out and run it from the controller.

Thanks.

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@PapaDavis,

I have a large and mildly complex job that I will use as an example. Processing the job / computing the shapes etc is the same for both Start or Send. This is the Lightburn work being done to prepare the info to send to the DSP. This is about 27 seconds of work on my machine. (like I said: large / complex job)

Sending this 5.3MB job to the DSP, I logged 12 seconds of UDP traffic from my workstation to the Ruida DSP. I must then go to the Ruida HMI, press the file button, highlight the file I sent over, press enter, and wait 1 minute and 5 seconds for the job to load and be ready for me to start it.

Starting the job, once LightBurn processed, there was 19 seconds of UDP traffic from my machine to the laser (sending over the entirety of the 5.3MB job into the DSP’s cache) simultaneous to the starting of the job on the laser.

So there is technically no streaming going on. The job is sent to the Ruida’s memory. Is it safer to send vs start? The difference I would suggest is that if there was a problem in the traffic, it may be evident while loading the file on the HMI if you had sent the file.

image

Thank you @Stroonzo. So, my take on your reply that there is probably very little difference in Send vs Start, other than it seems there may be some time savings in overlap, where in the Start mode, the laser is already loading the file while it’s being sent to the controller. Where, with Sending the file, there is a sizable load time after trying to start the job at the controller?

I would guess (but have no clear indication) that Sending the file, might be safer that I would hope if there were an error in transfer, it would be obvious, and that either the file wouldn’t make it, or some kind of warning might be displayed?

Thank you again for your response.
Ray

Ray

FYI, as a reference, here is the post that I had read earlier:

No, not quite. I would say the difference using Start vs Send is that if you have concern on the quality of the network, reliability in the transmission, etc that Sending the job would potentially reveal there was an error in sending the packets to the controller (before the job starts). When you load the file on the HMI, the controller simulates the entire job before you can start it. If there were dropped packets / an error in the communication the file would either not show up at the controller OR the preview would potentially show the problem.

The Ruida controller communicates over UDP. In other words: controller Ruida over the communica

Got it. Thanks for your time! Much appreciated.

“Send” just sends the file to the laser. “Start” sends it as a temporary (unnamed) file, and the laser begins running the job when “enough” data has arrived. (I’m not sure what counts as “enough” in this case - it’s up to the hardware).

If you are sending a job that has photo engraving, or high-speed engraving, those can take a decent amount of CPU horsepower to execute the job, and receiving the file also requires CPU time. If the job is complex enough, it’s possible for the controller to simply not have enough compute power to do both tasks, which can result in dropped packets, or the image engraving slipping. Using “Send” means the controller is only doing one thing at a time, and is less likely to mess either of them up.

If you hold the Shift key when you click Send, LightBurn will auto-start the job after a successful transfer, saving you having to find the file on the machine and start it through the menu.

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Wonderful. Thank you for the clarification.

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