EV3 - At what time DIRECT_REPLY is sent by brick?

Question

For example: I've sent DIRECT_COMMAND_REPLY to rotate the motor for 720 deg. When EV3 brick should send reply:

1. before motor finished rotation (right after my command was received) or
2. after motor finished rotation?

Now, I have feeling that reply is sent right after my command was received by EV3 brick.

Answer 1

I have the same observation as you, it seems to be sent as soon as the brick receives the command.

A workaround that I have found is to send a "stop motor" command after every movement, this way you know when the motor is stopped for sure.

Out of curiosity, what library are you using?

EDIT:

Have you been capturing the packets that the EV3 sends back to the computer?

Answer 2

The DIRECT_REPLY is sent when all of the operations in the DIRECT_COMMAND are completed. (Side note: you can have more than one operation in a direct command).

So the better question might be "when does the motor rotation operation complete?". It completes immediately and moves to the next operation in the direct command. This is why you get a reply before the motor movement is completed.

You could try appending opOUTPUT_READY to your direct command to see if it will delay the reply.