Both the commands START and DEPLOY will start your Signature instrument using the configuration that is currently uploaded to the instrument. While START immediately will start the measurements, DEPLOY has the option to set a later starting time by including an extra argument (for more information about the commands themselves, please refer to the Commands section in the Integrators Guide – Signature). If you start your instrument by using the "Start recorder deployment" option in the Signature Deployment software, this is the same as using the DEPLOY command.

There is however one significant difference between the two commands, especially important to be aware of if you for example plan on removing and reapplying power during the deployment. When starting the instrument with the START command the instrument will start a measurement any time the instrument returns to measurement mode (for example after applying power, or by timeout from data retrieval mode). By using the DEPLOY command the instrument will synchronize the measurements to follow the same time schedule even if the instrument has been out of measurement mode. This means that if the time of a measurement has passed when for example power is applied, you might have to wait for one measurement interval before the instrument starts to ping. When using the START command the instrument will rather start immediately, this can be useful in some cases of integration, but be aware that this can lead to inconsistent time stamps in the saved data.