When the FieldPrinter has an internet connection, print data reaches the Dusty Portal about 15 minutes after the work is done. Floor Elevation measurement data can take up to an hour longer. When the robot has no connection, nothing moves at all. The data waits safely on the robot until it gets back online.
That last case is the one that surprises people. If your Production Report looks empty or half-finished after a full day of printing, the work is almost never lost. It is sitting on the robot waiting for a signal.
What has to happen before data can appear
Three things, in order. If any one of them hasn't happened, the Portal has nothing to show.
The work has to be recorded. The robot creates a record only when the iPad tells it to station, measure, or print. Opening a layout on the iPad does not by itself create anything for the Portal.
The robot has to get online. The FieldPrinter connects through its built-in cellular (LTE) connection, or through a jobsite hotspot it recognizes when it powers on. A robot that reaches neither keeps everything queued.
The robot has to stay on long enough to finish sending. Uploads happen in batches. Powering down partway through leaves the rest for the next time the robot is on and connected.
How long each step takes
| Step | Typical time | What holds it up |
|---|---|---|
| The robot records the work | Immediate | Nothing; this is written to the robot itself |
| The robot uploads to the cloud | Within about 15 minutes of the work, when connected | No cellular signal, no recognized hotspot, or the robot is powered off |
| Print data appears in the Production Report | Minutes after upload | Rare processing delays |
| Floor Elevation data appears in the Elevation tab | Up to an hour after upload | Measurement data is processed on an hourly cycle |
| The Portal displays it | When you load the page | Refresh the page if you're looking at a stale tab |
Connectivity is the variable that matters. Once data is uploaded, the rest is minutes for print data and up to an hour for measurement data. A robot with no signal is open-ended: on a site with poor coverage it can be days or weeks.
Why data can look missing when it isn't
The robot has been offline for a while. This is the most common cause by a wide margin. Nothing is lost. It uploads the backlog the next time it connects.
The robot was powered down mid-upload. Part of the work shows up and the rest arrives later, which can make a finished layout look partly printed.
You're looking at a different layout. The Portal ties print data to the specific layout that was printed. If the crew printed from another layout, or another published version of the same one, the progress shows up there instead.
The layout was republished. Republishing a layout resets progress and measures it against the new published version. See How to Read the Production Report in the Dusty Portal for how the report handles published versions.
How to get a stalled robot to upload
Work through these in order:
- Power the robot on within range of your jobsite hotspot and leave it on for at least ten minutes.
- If nothing uploads, confirm the hotspot name and password on the robot are correct. See Connecting the FieldPrinter Using a Phone Hotspot in Restricted Wi-Fi Environments.
- If there's no hotspot available, move the robot somewhere with cellular coverage and leave it powered on.
- Leave it running until the upload finishes. Powering down early restarts the wait.
The Last print update timestamp at the top right of the Production Report tells you when the Portal last received data from the robot. Use it to confirm an upload actually landed.
When to contact Dusty Support
Reach out with the robot name, the layout name, and the date the work was done if:
- The robot has a confirmed internet connection and data still hasn't appeared after an hour.
- The printed footage in the Portal is clearly wrong for the work that was performed.
- Data appears under a date that doesn't match when your crew was on site.