Bambu Lab pushes a “control system” for 3D printers, and boy, did it not go well
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Watching the key Reverse Engineering threads, one detail that caught my eye is the certificate reportedly expires in October 2025; which suggests a new printer FW is required to keep printing. If this is true, it suggests a motive to tighten the ecosystem further. Yes, the January 2025 key leaked, but that's less useful if you need a new key and in turn need a new FW soon; and then this hypothetical new FW is free to add more anti-features like shutting out third party filament or third party slicers. Not saying Bambu will do this. Just saying it looks like they can.
I like my Voron. it runs Klipper. It has zero clouds. It prints what I want when I want, as long as I have cleaned the build plate.
I like my Voron. it runs Klipper. It has zero clouds. It prints what I want when I want, as long as I have cleaned the build plate.
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I'm glad Bambu is getting all this pushback, it's healthy. I also think people are blowing up a lot of issues out of proportion.
Suggestions that they're going to lock down their printers to only use their filament etc are just FUD or conspiracy theories. They make good printers, but not that good.
Bambu provided a much needed kick in the ass to the industry, and real competition. But the same thing can happen to them if they stray too far. I don't believe they're trying to be HP, but I also don't think they can be HP.
If you can't just use any filament you want on an FDM printer people will buy something else.
In the meantime I will continue to use my X1C, I'm very happy with it. I'd be hard pressed to buy another Prusa right now. I was happy to support them when they were the more expensive option, but you got more for your money. Now they're just ... more expensive.
My Mk3S feel painfully ancient now. It's nice to have as a second FDM printer, I do use it, but only when I have no real choice.
However well the Core One works the 250mm×220mm bed size is a complete non starter for me. I routinely wish I had more space than my X1C provides at 256mm x 256mm, I couldn't go down from it.
Suggestions that they're going to lock down their printers to only use their filament etc are just FUD or conspiracy theories. They make good printers, but not that good.
Bambu provided a much needed kick in the ass to the industry, and real competition. But the same thing can happen to them if they stray too far. I don't believe they're trying to be HP, but I also don't think they can be HP.
If you can't just use any filament you want on an FDM printer people will buy something else.
In the meantime I will continue to use my X1C, I'm very happy with it. I'd be hard pressed to buy another Prusa right now. I was happy to support them when they were the more expensive option, but you got more for your money. Now they're just ... more expensive.
My Mk3S feel painfully ancient now. It's nice to have as a second FDM printer, I do use it, but only when I have no real choice.
However well the Core One works the 250mm×220mm bed size is a complete non starter for me. I routinely wish I had more space than my X1C provides at 256mm x 256mm, I couldn't go down from it.
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Sadly, this isn't all that surprising from Bambu. They tried to crack down on people trying to use their hardware that they paid for however they wanted to last year as well. That took them off my buy list.
The weird thing is that 3D printing is still a "maker/hacker/nerd" community. Of course they're not going to this. These are people spending hundreds of dollars to make shit in their office that they can't get any other way. They're tinkerers, hackers, technical people.
The only people who would accept this are fanboys all in on the ecosystem. If they were banking on that, they pulled the trigger way too soon.
The weird thing is that 3D printing is still a "maker/hacker/nerd" community. Of course they're not going to this. These are people spending hundreds of dollars to make shit in their office that they can't get any other way. They're tinkerers, hackers, technical people.
The only people who would accept this are fanboys all in on the ecosystem. If they were banking on that, they pulled the trigger way too soon.
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For what it's worth, my strong advice is never buy any 3D printer on presale, that always ends in tears for some people. And really, it's best to wait at least three months after release. The reviewers never pick up all on the issues while they are all racing to being first to post a review.
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The Mk4 series are pretty much plug-and-go, we use ours quite hard at work and I've not had to tweak anything if I follow Prusa guidance.
I'm sure you could tune more if you wanted to.
Mk3s are more of a fuss with setting first layer height but the Mk4 does it automagically.
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So far the last 4 models have been rootable by Creality. The K1, K2, KE and the V3 all have an option to turn on "root" which allows you to ssh and upload custom firmware and extension.
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I bought an A1 Mini over the holidays and liked it enough that I was seriously considering upgrading to an X1C this spring. Not sure what to make of the situation at the moment. Would eventually like to try 3rd party slicers but it's not a make or break item.
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They already require cloud lock-in and are now breaking third-party apps for a transparently lying reason. Why wouldn't they work to increase revenue in other ways?
If you look at their history and this action, why is it unreasonable to believe they won't hesitate to squeeze their customers for that delicious "recurring revenue"?
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Maybe I misinterpreted, but the right to repair guy highlighted Bambu's TOS say they can brick your machine if you don't upgrade firmware or block a firmware update if they force one.
Have they done so yet... No.
But they certainly reserved the right to make this non-optional.
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
May not transfer to their printer but I have one of their Otter scanners which requires administrative rights - and inputting the admins user name but not the password every time you use the software. Bizarre.
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Yes and no. Building a Voron is not for everyone. Especially BambuLab owners who just want to "Click Print" and it comes out. I think most Prusa owners would do well with Voron.
Note: FOr those that are not in the 3D printing field, Voron users are like Arch-Linux users. They love to tell you how they built their own printer. So ....
I have my stock Voron v2.4 with a 350mm x 350mm bed after 6+ months of solid printing, I have started working on the new ToolChanger (ala Prusa XL) with my configurations I can have 6 tools but starting with just 2 cause it's pricey! LOL (Voron fan boy rant done).
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It's unreasonable because it doesn't pass the smell test, that's why.
Like, leaving out everything about it that doesn't make sense from a business or market perspective, and there's a lot, the simple fact is the printers don't have a mechanism to even do it.
AMS units have RFID, but not the printers.
The real truth is Bambu is a lot like Apple, and not because of the company or their products, but because the name alone is enough to turn discussions into weird fanboy wars. This "they're about to get you!" talk has been around for years.
This new development sucks, I'm not defending it, but I'm not into the way people try and turn it into more than it is either.
3D printing is awesome, I am a huge fan of it. I do not care what company is "winning". I'm very happy with my X1C. I was very happy with my Prusa Mk3 when it was new. If Prusa made a new printer that was compelling feature and price wise I'd be happy to buy it again. Just because the Core One isn't it for me doesn't mean anything, I just personally will only upgrade to a larger printer now.
Or Qidi or Creality or anyone else, I really don't care if the product is good.
I 3D print to make things, not to cheerlead companies, and honestly not to tinker with or hack my printers anymore. I enjoyed the era of being able to upgrade my Mk3 to a Mk3S+ (I think? I updated it twice, that sounds right). But I'm very happy to be in the "just works" appliance phase of things.
That there's still a community making Vorons etc is great too, I just don't want 3D printers themselves to be my hobby.
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I'm a happy owner of a Bambu X1C, and have been following this whole kerfuffle pretty closely; and while there are indeed some legit concerns with this upcoming firmware update, there is also a ton of FUD and just straight up catastrophic thinking going on right now.
For the vast majority of users, this firmware update will have absolutely zero affect on how they use the printer. For those using 3rd party slicers (specifically OrcaSlicer), the update will prevent Orca from having full control over the printer as it currently does, but it won't prevent you from using OrcaSlicer (or using any other slicer for that matter). Those that will be affected the most are those in print farms that rely on 3rd part automation software (most often Home Assistant), which is why Bambu is offering the developer option in LAN mode to keep these types of systems working. Perhaps more importantly, not only is this firmware update not out yet, but it's being released in an opt-in beta capacity first, and no one will be forced to upgrade to this firmware (Bambu makes several references in it's blog posts about staying on the current firmware).
On the other hand, Bambu absolutely bungled the initial announcement (albeit not to the level some would have you believe) and thus bear quite a bit of responsibility for the negative reactions. They have since clarified many things (albeit not to everyone's satisfaction), but the damage has already been done - and those in the open source community do not forgive, let alone forget, easily.
Speaking of open source, I have found myself somewhat amused by the hand wringing coming from the open source community about how Bambu has betrayed their trust, when Bambu never once tried to hide their closed source nature. I purchase my X1C knowing full well that it's OS isn't open source (most 3rd printers are based on the open source Klipper OS), and that it's network plug-in (used for communication b/w your computer and the printer) was a closed source extension. I do feel bad for users that relied on those 3rd party tools, but Bambu has been pretty upfront that it can't guarantee those tools will always continue to work. It's kind of like buying an iPhone with the intent to jailbreak it, only to get upset with Apple when the close the loophole allowing jailbreaking.
In addition, while Bambu is significantly more closed source than competitors, they've also kept their printers fully repairable with a bevy of parts available for purchase on their website (for a very reasonable price) and a very comprehensive wiki with step-by-step guides on how to repair/replace things; something that can't be said for other brands out there.
With all of that being said, if I hadn't already purchased my X1C (I've had it since last summer - and it really is an amazing printer), I would definitely be taking a wait and see approach with things. Hopefully competitors will catchup with Bambu's offering, especially when it comes to their AMS units (automated material system - allowing you to make prints using multiple colors/materials in a single print), as right now there just isn't anything on the market that matches what the Bambu printers can do. When I'm next in the market for a printer (which will hopefully not be for many, many years), I'll get whatever best fits my needs, whether that be a Bambu or a Prusa or a Creality, etc.
On a side note, the fact that Louis Rossman is now involved in all of this just makes me shake my head. I know he's an outspoken proponent of right-to-repair, which is great, but I honestly think he just likes being involved in controversies so he can give his smug, and FUD-riddled opinion on things. Rossman is the type of person who legit thinks his shit doesn't smell.
For the vast majority of users, this firmware update will have absolutely zero affect on how they use the printer. For those using 3rd party slicers (specifically OrcaSlicer), the update will prevent Orca from having full control over the printer as it currently does, but it won't prevent you from using OrcaSlicer (or using any other slicer for that matter). Those that will be affected the most are those in print farms that rely on 3rd part automation software (most often Home Assistant), which is why Bambu is offering the developer option in LAN mode to keep these types of systems working. Perhaps more importantly, not only is this firmware update not out yet, but it's being released in an opt-in beta capacity first, and no one will be forced to upgrade to this firmware (Bambu makes several references in it's blog posts about staying on the current firmware).
On the other hand, Bambu absolutely bungled the initial announcement (albeit not to the level some would have you believe) and thus bear quite a bit of responsibility for the negative reactions. They have since clarified many things (albeit not to everyone's satisfaction), but the damage has already been done - and those in the open source community do not forgive, let alone forget, easily.
Speaking of open source, I have found myself somewhat amused by the hand wringing coming from the open source community about how Bambu has betrayed their trust, when Bambu never once tried to hide their closed source nature. I purchase my X1C knowing full well that it's OS isn't open source (most 3rd printers are based on the open source Klipper OS), and that it's network plug-in (used for communication b/w your computer and the printer) was a closed source extension. I do feel bad for users that relied on those 3rd party tools, but Bambu has been pretty upfront that it can't guarantee those tools will always continue to work. It's kind of like buying an iPhone with the intent to jailbreak it, only to get upset with Apple when the close the loophole allowing jailbreaking.
In addition, while Bambu is significantly more closed source than competitors, they've also kept their printers fully repairable with a bevy of parts available for purchase on their website (for a very reasonable price) and a very comprehensive wiki with step-by-step guides on how to repair/replace things; something that can't be said for other brands out there.
With all of that being said, if I hadn't already purchased my X1C (I've had it since last summer - and it really is an amazing printer), I would definitely be taking a wait and see approach with things. Hopefully competitors will catchup with Bambu's offering, especially when it comes to their AMS units (automated material system - allowing you to make prints using multiple colors/materials in a single print), as right now there just isn't anything on the market that matches what the Bambu printers can do. When I'm next in the market for a printer (which will hopefully not be for many, many years), I'll get whatever best fits my needs, whether that be a Bambu or a Prusa or a Creality, etc.
On a side note, the fact that Louis Rossman is now involved in all of this just makes me shake my head. I know he's an outspoken proponent of right-to-repair, which is great, but I honestly think he just likes being involved in controversies so he can give his smug, and FUD-riddled opinion on things. Rossman is the type of person who legit thinks his shit doesn't smell.
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Bambu = Apple iMac
Prusa = Dell PC running W11 with Admin rights
Voron = Self-built PC running Linux (Arch, BTW)
That's not being nasty about any of them, it's just they are serving different customers.
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I love makers. I love 3D printing. I love nerds. I don't enjoy fighting with "my people".
But I do wish some could ... dial it down a little. The Louis Rossman yelling at the camera thing isn't for me.
If Bambu isn't for you then don't buy them. I got my 10 year old niece and 6 year old nephew an A1 Mini for Christmas with 8 spools of filament. He's been going ham on it, just printing things from Makerworld from a phone. Figured out how to switch filament mid print himself, it's awesome.
At some point we'll get him going on slicers and learning more, but the fact that a 6 year old can enjoy a 3D printer without supervision is to me super rad. That wasn't gonna happen before Bambu.
I don't like it when enthusiasm turns into gatekeeping. Any more than I like companies pulling shading cloud gatekeeping. I'd never buy a Glowforge for instance, and if the FUD were to ever happen with Bambu I'd ditch them. But not until it actually happens, instead of it being a theory.
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Sounds like you deserved all those downvotes, there uh, isn't a locked down filament system lol, what are you even talking about?
They have RFID on their spools that auto inputs info into the AMS for you. Or ... you could just enter the material and color yourself, it takes seconds. They even have lots of popular brands pre-entered. I just put a Polymaker Matte PLA spool in my AMS and it was cake. The RFID is a mild convenience.
What I like a lot more than the RFID is the reusable spools, cutting down on the waste and shipping boxes is great, wish more would do that.
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You got downvoted because there is no locked down filament system. You can use whatever the hell filament you'd like in their printers.
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One thing this article doesn't mention is that DEV mode was not available initially. After the outrage they added this. Also talk that running in DEV mode voids any customer support.
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Two things have historically been true with Bambu:
They are not great communicators.
and
They respond to community feedback quickly.
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There are a lot of other good options. Don't put off buying a 3D printer if you want one because of this.
Personally I bet I'm going to keep recommending Bambu, because I don't believe they're stupid and will see what this is costing them. But if I'm wrong I'll find another go-to to recommend.
They're just a company in an ecosystem, it's not like you can't easily print without buying one.
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We've discussed this pretty heavily in the Fora.
I'm a critic of Bambu, in part because I've been in and around the hobby since it's infancy (IE, I worked with some of the earliest Makerbot Cupcakes, as well as Reprap Darwin and Mendel's), have worked on the hardware development side a bit (Custom machined hotend components, sensor and safety system integrations, heated chamber builds etc), and am now something of an advisor for several small companies doing 3D printing work in the miniatures space. The industrial machines have long been easily as plug and play as Bambu. However, the proprietary nature and locked down ecosystems kept anyone from upgrading the machines and kept prices sky high (You complain about material prices, how about 200+ for 750g of ABS?). I've seen the industry go that path previously, and stagnate. I have no interest in owning a Bambu machine, just like I had 0 interest in keeping the XYZprinting DaVinci Jr. I won ages ago at a trade show once it ran out of filament.
However, I'm also happy to recommend Bambu. Or at least, I was. I want to see where this all lands before I give recomendations again because they have altered the deal, make no mistake. That's because unlike XYZ, they may chip their first party spools. But they aren't tagged with quantity as far as I can tell, and the RFIDs just give settings and color info to the slicer. Which is great for consumer ease of use. That's something that was, at one point, a common solved problem. That Bambu hasn't done that says they probably won't, especially as their base printers don't currently have RFID readers if I understand correctly.
Bambu also optically code their build plates. But haven't locked that down at all. Unlike Stratsys, which would give you a specific number of times you could print on the build plates before they needed replacement (in part because they were a sacrificial plastic surface that wasn't heated, just warmed by the chamber heaters). They seem to have made no effort to stop 3rd parties from using their optical codes, either.
So, given that Bambu has had multiple areas where they could easily further lock down their printers and haven't, I'm not going doom and gloom. I still have zero interest. But an important thing to remember is that Bambu isn't bringing any unique special sauce in. It's motors, sensors, and heaters. Any other controller could run a Bambu, maybe without the LIDAR stuff, but TBH, I haven't seen a lot of actual utility from that on the printers I support or from the owners peripherally, especially as during Bambu's cloud SNAFU (Which was their own incompetence, not an attack, as far as has been publicized), they managed to fail so badly that they printed parts on other parts and wrecked printers by ramming the head into complete parts, which shows that LIDAR is hardly a silver bullet.
I also think Bambu made foundational missteps with the way they designed and built their printers to integrate with cloud services. I would very much prefer to see them build an MQTT broker and similar into the printers, at a hardware level. However, unlike the printers I'm frequently building, adding 30$ into the BOM for a raspi server or some such shit matters a lot more for them as they need to make money on the sale of the goods, rather than off the operation of it, which would raise their prices by a nontrivial amount considering how cut-throat pricing is on Chinese origin printer brands.
TBH, I think the big thing is that Bambu failed to communicate and in doing so alienated a ton of the loud influencer people, which honestly will have more of an impact than the actual changes. Because as good as Bambu is, the amount of overly effusive praise and the use of them everywhere on Youtube was a big part of pushing their brand culturally, just like how Apple got a major toehold by making some of the best products for creative professionals. But now Bambu has set a lot of that on fire.
I'm a critic of Bambu, in part because I've been in and around the hobby since it's infancy (IE, I worked with some of the earliest Makerbot Cupcakes, as well as Reprap Darwin and Mendel's), have worked on the hardware development side a bit (Custom machined hotend components, sensor and safety system integrations, heated chamber builds etc), and am now something of an advisor for several small companies doing 3D printing work in the miniatures space. The industrial machines have long been easily as plug and play as Bambu. However, the proprietary nature and locked down ecosystems kept anyone from upgrading the machines and kept prices sky high (You complain about material prices, how about 200+ for 750g of ABS?). I've seen the industry go that path previously, and stagnate. I have no interest in owning a Bambu machine, just like I had 0 interest in keeping the XYZprinting DaVinci Jr. I won ages ago at a trade show once it ran out of filament.
However, I'm also happy to recommend Bambu. Or at least, I was. I want to see where this all lands before I give recomendations again because they have altered the deal, make no mistake. That's because unlike XYZ, they may chip their first party spools. But they aren't tagged with quantity as far as I can tell, and the RFIDs just give settings and color info to the slicer. Which is great for consumer ease of use. That's something that was, at one point, a common solved problem. That Bambu hasn't done that says they probably won't, especially as their base printers don't currently have RFID readers if I understand correctly.
Bambu also optically code their build plates. But haven't locked that down at all. Unlike Stratsys, which would give you a specific number of times you could print on the build plates before they needed replacement (in part because they were a sacrificial plastic surface that wasn't heated, just warmed by the chamber heaters). They seem to have made no effort to stop 3rd parties from using their optical codes, either.
So, given that Bambu has had multiple areas where they could easily further lock down their printers and haven't, I'm not going doom and gloom. I still have zero interest. But an important thing to remember is that Bambu isn't bringing any unique special sauce in. It's motors, sensors, and heaters. Any other controller could run a Bambu, maybe without the LIDAR stuff, but TBH, I haven't seen a lot of actual utility from that on the printers I support or from the owners peripherally, especially as during Bambu's cloud SNAFU (Which was their own incompetence, not an attack, as far as has been publicized), they managed to fail so badly that they printed parts on other parts and wrecked printers by ramming the head into complete parts, which shows that LIDAR is hardly a silver bullet.
I also think Bambu made foundational missteps with the way they designed and built their printers to integrate with cloud services. I would very much prefer to see them build an MQTT broker and similar into the printers, at a hardware level. However, unlike the printers I'm frequently building, adding 30$ into the BOM for a raspi server or some such shit matters a lot more for them as they need to make money on the sale of the goods, rather than off the operation of it, which would raise their prices by a nontrivial amount considering how cut-throat pricing is on Chinese origin printer brands.
TBH, I think the big thing is that Bambu failed to communicate and in doing so alienated a ton of the loud influencer people, which honestly will have more of an impact than the actual changes. Because as good as Bambu is, the amount of overly effusive praise and the use of them everywhere on Youtube was a big part of pushing their brand culturally, just like how Apple got a major toehold by making some of the best products for creative professionals. But now Bambu has set a lot of that on fire.
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It’s a shame. I’ve been waiting for their new, bigger, newer technology printer for almost a year since they told me it was coming out early this year. Now, I’m going g to wait until this shakes out. The ceo seems to be a nice guy. Hopefully he will quickly understand that this could be a major problem for the company and revert back, or do this in a way that it won’t have the same impact.
I really do want that new printer.
I really do want that new printer.
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It's why I went with a 350mm bed on my Voron. Tons of people said I would regret it. Pfst I'm ok, my back is something else, LOL. I've gotten a solid 6 months on this machine and now I am working on adding extra toolhead so I am planning it all out so I only have to flip the beast over once.
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For the specific example Aurich gave--using non-Bambu filament--is there a good way for them to even force the issue?
As I understand it, the current filament recognition system picks up an RFID on the spool. Does removing the RFID from a Bambu spool and taping it to another not look like a relatively simple work-around? I get the impression that fooling this check would be, if anything, easier than fooling Keurig coffee pots. I would expect Bambu would make a potential hack much more difficult if they had serious plans to lock machines down to their filament. Their filament is not like HP print cartridges that contain meaningful electronics in addition to the printing material.
Take that question off the table (and I don't think it belongs), and the question becomes whether Bambu is going to try to force the cloud on folks. From what I read, there was a kerfluffle on the X1 Plus firmware back in January, and the current TOS dates back to shortly after that (last April). At that time, Bambu was pretty clear about wanting to offer an Apple approach to the 3D printing market. While I can't say I'm a fan of Apple myself, I not necessarily steer folks who may think differently away from them without more philosophical reasons.
Bambu would have a stronger sell on this Apple-like approach if it was clearer what the borders are. What functionality are they wiling to commit to offer without requiring use of the cloud?
The back and forth on MQTT protocols reminds me of the API stability question on the Linux kernel, if I am honest. Folks may remember when ZFS stopped building with newer Linux kernels (until it was retrofit) because the kernel developers removed an internal API call that ZFS had been using. The kernel devs pretty much told folks to either check their code into the kernel if they want help keeping it up to date with the internal kernel API's or just live with changes as they come. The kernel developers saw the internal kernel API's as internal and a place where they did not want to keep a public interface. Is it really so awful if Bambu intends the same of their MQTT protocol?
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Bambu have made excellent products: great printers and took the slicer software and improved upon it. Bravo to the engineers! However, right from the start they showed their business model, and it was a shocker: scraping the Prusa websites (remember that - lies, denials, then justifications once proof was shown?). Patent theft - yes taking ideas that were in common use/ open and registering their name on patents for these is theft.. Then after a LOT of pressure they appeared to start to play nice. Now the whitewash coat has faded and true colours are shining through again. I feel the latest is more gaslighting while lining users up for more cash extraction, and effective blackmail, changing the nature of the original agreement between seller & buyer.
I'd really love an A1 or Carbon, but at this rate only if it's jailbroken so when I purchase it I'm not just renting it on a periodic contract.
I'd really love an A1 or Carbon, but at this rate only if it's jailbroken so when I purchase it I'm not just renting it on a periodic contract.
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At least in my local nerd community, more people are wanting a 3D printer to supplement their hobbies, not have the printers BE the hobby. It's still a geek toy but I think those days are numbered.
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Agreed. Comparisons to HP are a bit odd since Bambu filaments aren't required, and actually are quite reasonably priced especially when you buy in bulk during one of their many sales seasons. Bambu does the "plug-it-in-and-print" extremely well, better than any other comparably priced printer as far as I can tell. If other companies think they can steal market share by doing the same but in a more open platfom...GREAT! Do it!I'm glad Bambu is getting all this pushback, it's healthy. I also think people are blowing up a lot of issues out of proportion.
Suggestions that they're going to lock down their printers to only use their filament etc are just FUD or conspiracy theories. They make good printers, but not that good.
Bambu provided a much needed kick in the ass to the industry, and real competition. But the same thing can happen to them if they stray too far. I don't believe they're trying to be HP, but I also don't think they can be HP.
If you can't just use any filament you want on an FDM printer people will buy something else.
In the meantime I will continue to use my X1C, I'm very happy with it. I'd be hard pressed to buy another Prusa right now. I was happy to support them when they were the more expensive option, but you got more for your money. Now they're just ... more expensive.
My Mk3S feel painfully ancient now. It's nice to have as a second FDM printer, I do use it, but only when I have no real choice.
However well the Core One works the 250mm×220mm bed size is a complete non starter for me. I routinely wish I had more space than my X1C provides at 256mm x 256mm, I couldn't go down from it.
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What? Why would you regret it? 350mm sounds awesome! I think 300 even would be a big step up for me, I run into the boundaries a lot where just a little more breathing room would be a big help.
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Having read the announcement, they did not say that dev mode voids support. This might conflate two issues.
There have been two "rollbacks" in the past year or so I am aware of. In the first, Bambu was going to lock down its firmware to prevent rooting of the X1, but in response to outcry made a rootable firmware available. The catch is that you give up support commitment as a condition of downloading the rootable firmware. I find that arrangement reasonably fair...but as far as I know it has not been extended to the A1 or P1.
For the second item, the recently promised Dev mode, Bambu did not say they would withdraw support from customers who used it; what they did say is that they would not support Dev mode itself. This is tantamount to saying, "We are not going to answer tickets on Dev mode itself. If you have an issue that needs attention, reproduce it in a supported mode and give us a call." It's not my preferred response, but that is a far cry from support going away. The approach appears to be, "Here's the internal API we use. It's not really intended for public use and could change to suit our supported features, but you can play with it. That said, don't bug us to explain it to you." That's reasonably fair, even if I'd prefer these devices to have a reasonable public "API" for a lot of these use cases.
That said, there is no promise that the dev mode option will apply to new models any more than the rootable firmware has been extended beyond the X1.
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Just to make it more clear since I didn't fully explain it before: zero Bambu printers have RFID readers built into them to even read the spool chips. X1C, P1S, A1, A1 Mini, none of them have it. They haven't a clue what you load up, it's not Keurig.
Bambu has an add-on for their printers, the Automatic Material System aka AMS, which takes multiple rolls and does auto switching. That has the RFID built in. But those are optional and plenty of printers don't have them.
So this idea that they could lock their printers to only their filament is simply not possible. It's literally FUD.
I don't know why we can't just criticize them for what's happening instead of made up scenarios that aren't based in reality.
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So Voron Trident it is...only 1400 pieces in the BOM...how hard can it be?Bambu = Apple iMac
Prusa = Dell PC running W11 with Admin rights
Voron = Self-built PC running Linux (Arch, BTW)
That's not being nasty about any of them, it's just they are serving different customers.
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I actually downsized from a CR-10 to X1-C. I thought it would be a constraint, but the positive is that the more compact size is kinda nice on the bench. 95%+ of the prints I do fit, and in a year all those that needed to be cut up & joined wouldn't have fitted the CR-10 anyway.
One annoyance with the X & P (&A?) printers is there is a 20 x 28mm dead zone at the front that it needs to do its filament cutting op. That, plus the purge block, means you don't get the full 256 x 256 area. Well you can get around it with mono prints, but I don't think it's possible at all with multi-colour, or if it is it would be very painful. None of the reviewers mention this that I know of.
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Ahh, ditto. I’d been really thinking of finally getting a 3D printer and a Bambu X1. But, welp. Not now.
I’ll just kick my feet up and continue to wait and research other options later. Too bad.
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