Looks like Bambu is getting more enshittified. I am so glad I didn’t let my recent frustration at my clumsiness with my Prusa steer me into Bambu-land.
A few months ago, BambuLab talked about this change.
This shouldn’t catch anybody by surprise.
Ugh, ive been eyeing them for a first printer but the back-asswards network stuff kept me away (seriously? No ethernet for a large stationary device?). Are there any printers like Bambu (ie, plug and Play) that arent internet-of-shit cloud-only abandonware?
If only their prices matched the quality and performance of their products. They are overpriced for the performance and quality you get in today’s market. The edge they once had on competitors has been completely lost.
If you only consider the print performance, sure. But the point here is that you pay a hidden fee when going with more locked down solutions, and you should factor that into your assessment of the price as well. You might still end up with the same conclusion, but for me, avoiding enshitification traps is worth a lot more than a penny.
Ooh, that XL is certainly interesting. The main thing i want to design/print would be custom tool trays, so fairly shallow objects but wider and longer than the average 3d printers ive seen will handle. Things roughly laptop sized i can easily slide into my backpack
If you have time to be a little bit patient, they just announced their new core XY design printer due out in the next few months.
While I fully support that comment, their cloud printing thing also is annoying - I’d rather they spend effort on proper lan printing.
On my mini I’m still using octoprint (even though I’ve added a network card), on my mk4s I’m using the local connection for uploading - but I got the GPIO board, so once I have time that should enable me to get better monitoring working again. But it all still feels kludgy - something like enabling octoprint control via network instead of USB for the mk4 would be way nicer.
I get that it’s not for everyone, but I use home assistant and prusalink to do everything the cloud prusa connect does.
It doesn’t leave my network, it’s connected to physical Ethernet instead of WiFi, and I have zero outside connectivity requirements.
The only drawback is that I have one extra step instead of sending directly within prusa slicer.
Honestly, it’s been a better overall experience than using the cloud service, cause it doesn’t need to send any data over the Internet, just to download it back down to the printer.
Qidi.
I’ve owned two and they’ve been very nearly completely turn-key (the OG X-Plus) and absolutely completely turn-key (my current X-Max 3). Their bigger machines are fully enclosed and have active chamber heaters to manage pain in the ass materials like ABS and ASA, and even polycarbonate.
They have their “own” slicer but it’s just a mildly breathed upon fork of Prusaslicer with built in presents and which has all the plugins for remotely administering their machines already included. You can use stock Prusaslicer, Cura, or Orca with them if you prefer. The boards just run Klipper. You have terminal access, and you can hack the machine however you want if that’s your jam.
Their upcoming gen 4 machines promise compatibility with an AMS-like “Qidi box” filament exchanger system, although the details of that remain unspecified at the moment. If you want multimaterial now they have a true dual extruder model also.
As of yet, there’s no lockdown, no cloud bullshit (to be fair they do now have some kind of cloud bullshit platform available, but it’s entirely optional and I’ve never touched it or even bothered to look at it), nothing proprietary, and so far there have been no rug-pulls on any of the above.
A friend of mine was gifted an X-Smart 3, cool little machine. I’ve been tutoring himb on printing, then the other day he texted me, distraught, that the machine had broken down, displaying a Klipper serial error; told him not to worry, we’d fix it… He didn’t really believe me, but once there I just ssh’d into it from his computer (thank God Windows has PowerShell nowadays), found out that his printer.cfg had been zeroed! I extracted a copy from an update file, used scp to transfer it, et voilà, back in business.
Now, it’s disappointing that this happened at all, but the openness of the device allowed for a quick repair that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
My Ender 3 V3 SE is happily printing ABS currently with not much of a chamber, more two lack tables with some printed parts and some half finished walls. Yet to print ASA but I’m confident my jank is upto it.
Admittedly the AMS made me interested, I’ll have to look over Qidi’s range.
Damn where all the Bambu fan boys at now?
If you choose to upgrade to the firmware version with Authorization Features, you must download and install Bambu Connect (a printer control software) from the official website. After installation, you can export sliced .3mf files from OrcaSlicer and open them with Bambu Connect. This software allows you to send the files to your printer and monitor print progress.
It feels like an effort to start locking out third party tools (like any slicer other than Bambu Studio), but I’m sure it’s not going to stop there. For now, they’re making you slice it, export the 3mf project, import that to Bambu studio, then send it to the printer, which is likely to piss off a lot of people.
Luckily they have a procedure for enabling third party firmware, and the third party firmware (X1Plus) doesn’t have to include this crap.
Ngl I’m just never going to update my firmware, unless they force push it without my input. My x1c works fine there’s nothing I can see them adding that I need anymore.
