This looks to be a clone of the prior state of the repository that caused all the Bambu drama earlier this week.
I did a ton of research because I didn't understand what people wanted here, and this is what's going on:
Right now, Bambu have adjusted their system into two modalities:
* "default" or "Cloud" mode, where you get an app, remote monitoring, but you have to use Bambu Studio or Bambu Connect to send prints. They implemented this by adding cloud auth to their "internal API;" the client application has to get a token from Bambu's servers, even if the request it eventually makes is a "local" one.
* LAN / Developer mode, where the device displays a token and you put it into your app. This disables all of the remote monitoring but in exchange, clients can send prints locally.
What users want is to "have their cake and eat it too;" they want the local token authentication _and_ the cloud authentication enabled at the same time. This isn't actually possible, so this plugin approximates it by emulating the interface to the cloud authentication to make the "Bambu Network" cloud RPC calls from a local slicer (one of these calls is a local_print call, so ostensibly this allows you to send prints without running them through the cloud, although with all of the online functionality still enabled and required, this seems like a pretty brave thing to trust).
Personally, I find the Bambu reaction distasteful, and there's an argument that the offline mode only exists due to similar outrage, but I don't see the current system as particularly bad and find the appetite to restore "untrustworthy" cloud functionality a bit amusing.
> This isn't actually possible
This is only true due to a firmware they pushed last year. It's an artificial limit.
There's no reason at all a local client couldn't just talk to a local printer without any cloud.
Every problem BambuLabs have here is self-inflicted. They could allow simultaneous cloud and local queue management with or without authentication.
Sure, but it's their right to enact that restriction on their software. There are more open alternatives like Prusa , Elgoo, or Creality if people prefer a more open/freedom approach. On the other hand, Bambu has a reputation for having most of the best products in the space.
Of course, many prefer to break their license agreement because They Really Want It, in effect daring Bambu to get aggressive with license enforcement. They probably won't...
A comment defending abusive software terms on a website called HackerNews. Something amusing about that.
This is HP’s current philosophy towards consumer desktop inkjet and laser printing, and customers universally hate it. No thanks!
It is my right to do with my printer whatever I want.
The hardware yes. Bambu's software, not quite. If you want to flash it with 3rd party firmware & use 3rd party slicers, have at it.
If you want to use Bambu's software against their TOS, OK you wouldn't be alone in that, but there's no moral high ground in it.
Sure there is. When purchased, it was able to do something. Due to an update, the customer has now been misled, because a feature was removed.
In most countries, that would violate consumer rights. There's an ethics argument here.
That's a highly creative interpretation of events. The software license agreement usually upfront covers what can or cannot not change. It is pretty rare in most countries to see successful legal action for changed features, but best of luck.
The ACCC is more than happy to explain unenforceable terms, if you'd like to do business with Australia.
Feel free to consult Steam, Google, Meta and others, if a software license is enough to ignore consumer rights.
I look forward to them sternly changing Bambu Labs' practices!
Australia is a small enough market to not matter much
Taking functionality away from a product after you bought it is a scum move. If the law lets them get away with it, the law should be changed.
When I buy a product, I look at reviews and make my purchasing decision on the features and functionality at the time of sale. If a software update later ruins that, I want the option to get my money back.
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No, it’s not creative at all, it’s what happened — I have first hand experience to corroborate this.
Regardless, at least in the US, not only are software-based ToS becoming unenforceable, but there’s a large upswing towards “right to repair” legislation, which, I think, is what you’re arguing against here… and I really think you’re going to be on the wrong side of history with your current line of thinking (despite what Bambu Labs does).
> No, it’s not creative at all, it’s what happened — I have first hand experience to corroborate this.
As do I.... and I disagree. I think Bambu has been well behaved, and the "community" have largely been acting like entitled juveniles.
> not only are software-based ToS becoming unenforceable
Eh? The opposite is true.
> I really think you’re going to be on the wrong side of history with your current line of thinking
I'm on the side of history that is called "reality", not wishful thinking from people rationalizing their copyright violations.
But, your argument isn't with me, it's with the legislators you claim are, any day now, going to let you run roughshod over copyright. Make it so! Except for , you know, companies you don't like.... (eg. AI companies) then copyright really matters and must be strictly enforced!
No, it is with you -- the legislators are doing "fine" (and, again, are heading in a fine direction wrt RTR and software ToS).
I have no idea why you think copyright violations apply here? You seem to be throwing legal terms around without regard for their actual meaning. It's clear you're here to argue for the sake of argument, but I'd really encourage you to reflect and think about why you're so loyal to a corporate entity instead of your fellow consumers (of which there are many in the parent and sibling comments... hint: you may be on the wrong side).
Just for fun, pretend you bought a propane grill for cooking on Monday. On Tuesday, you cooked some bbq chicken and some corn. Later on Thursday, and without your knowledge or authorization, the grill no longer allowed you to use the propane apparatus for cooking non-meats unless you call a special telephone number and said a magic word whenever the call was answered. As a minimum, I feel, it'd be very confusing because, even though you're doing the exact same thing as Tuesday, the outcome is not the same.
Your freedoms have been restricted by someone else; if you are okay with that, then have fun licking boots. The rest of us will still be here advocating for your freedoms.
The "agreement" is at best coerced, and under blackmail of hardware you bought and paid for.
At worst, its a fraudulent indefinite rental masquerading as a 'sale'.
And lets discuss 'updates that fuck over your hardware'. In dwcent countries, thats hacking, and a serious criminal charge. But lol, companies are somehow exempt.
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Maybe legally, but morally “you have permanent physical access to this but don’t ’own’ it” and anti-circumvention are debatable.
There’s a small benefit of anti-circumvention where businesses sell hardware for cheaper with restrictions and a TOS that prevents bypassing them. But even that doesn’t apply here because Bambu changed the software after purchase.
> it's their right to enact that restriction on their software
The issue here is less "they put in a restriction" and more "they are trying to bankrupt/imprison consumers for daring to modify the property they purchased."
Bambu is trying to bankrupt/imprison their customers? Big if true!
Is that you doubling down on bad-faith arguments, or is it just ignorance about the risks of lawsuits or charges under the CFAA?
Hmm, I guess there's a third option: You admit Bambu is making threats of ruination, but you're whining that we shouldn't blame them for something they don't really "want" to do.
On our Bambu H2D Pro printers at work, we can print in cloud mode and LAN mode at the same time. Bambu literally has this firmware built but they reserve it for “pro” users. The other thing pro users can do is disable cloud without any developer mode stuff. Of course we do this.
Excellent machines by the way, primarily let down by the proprietary binary Bambu forces users to use for LAN mode which is extremely buggy and slow on Linux, and entirely technically unnecessary.
I think the enterprise “LAN Mode” is actually the thing this repo is emulating / replacing, which the consumer printers (might?) also support, where the cloud auth token is still in play but prints are (ostensibly, in a much more difficult to audit way given the client still needs access to the Bambu servers) sent directly to the printer.
Developer mode doesn’t require the proprietary binary.
Wow I didn’t know about developer mode! I wonder if that will improve things for me…
> This looks to be a clone of the prior state of the repository that caused all the Bambu drama earlier this week.
It looks like it might be a clone, but the git history is squashed for some reason.
I would recommend against installing this unless/until someone can do an audit to figure out which commit it was forked from and what the changes are.
Or better yet, find one of any of the other copies of the repository that don't have their git history squashed.
This looks like someone's attempt to capitalize on the drama to bring attention to their foundation (?) but losing git history is not a good thing for code provenance or security.
> attention to their foundation
FULU Foundation is a right to repair group, which explains their interest in this. I, for one, support them.
https://www.fulu.org/our-story
Just to confirm so I don't break anything accidentally, I currently have the app version where Bambu Studio is how I send prints to my Bambu P1S and I can look through its camera and see what filament is where and so on, but I also have the token that Home Assistant uses to watch the printer and its camera etc.
This isn't the thing you're talking about. There's a mode where I can send prints directly over the network which disables Bambu Studio, I assume?
> What users want...
Take a step back. What users want is to be able to use the machine they bought the way they want. The outrage is because Bambu are doing a bait-and-switch: selling an autonomous 3D printer, but switching to a 3D printing service. Enshittification pure and simple.
I don't think they baited and switched? I bought my P1S before the whole LAN mode debacle and even then it was all or nothing on the cloud. I just went with the cloud because they were using some IGMP stuff for the local connection, but I had the printer on a separate VLAN and pfsense IGMP proxying was broken.
A different way of looking at it is that Bambu is saying if you want to use their cloud you have to send everything through their cloud. Stupid? Sure. It's very much a technically solvable problem. But I don't think there was any rug pull (this time; in Jan 2025 they tried...)
I think this is all more out of incompetence than malice. Something bad happens, exposing wildly inadequate programming expertise, they panic and over correct, and the community pushes back. They're great at making 3D printers, terrible at cloud infra.
For me, I want to use orca for slicing there are many more additions to the local code. As both orca and Bambo are from the same open source, the current limitation in the Bambo version is breaking the licensing of the application, and my rights in that software are broken by this addition.
Then, during the print, I'm really happy to use the handy app to monitor the progress. This use case was supported when I got the hardware. Now I have to disable the app to get the slicer. I actually like to use both slicers to compare and see progress.
They are also terrible at software licensing, don't understand what open source is, and they found their main software on that. They probably should embrace the orca community and use their research for their own customers. Better slicing helps everyone.
You're missing two things from the whole picture:
1. Cloud mode works without local network access, so their server is involved in the transit of the data to the printer. This is pretty minor, but still within their rights to preserve.
2. For printing from the app, they actually run the computationally expensive slicing algorithm on their servers, so this is totally reasonable to protect.
But in this case the users want to use those features locally and are being blocked. Using a resource constraint argument doesn't make sense for it.
It seems more likely they want it as a revenue source at some point.
They probably want to establish a commercial-use license. If you have a big print farm, you likely need all of those remote capabilities so you're going to need to pay for the license. The schmucks at home will likely continue to get it for free. Locking them into the cloud API by dangling convenient features just ensures most people won't stray into the local-only mode.
Pretty sure you can still print locally either via LAN or just SD card. At least I can on my A1.
The current monetization that they are using is that you can charge for a print on their platform and they take a cut of the sale. If you don’t charge for the design, then it is still free hosting and delivery.
I see where the worry is, but at the moment it seems like people are imagining a worse case scenario.
If you turn on LAN mode, it acts exactly like every other printer. You can print directly to it from any slicer over your LAN, or dump gcode on the SD card directly.
People are saying the LAN mode lacks access to the webcam and possibly some other things. That is what this whole controversy is about. It's re-enabling some cloud features as local only and Bambu is calling it privacy or fraud.
I can use the webcam in LAN mode. Just - locally, in the slicer, not the cloud-based app.
> where the device displays a token and you put it into your app.
This sounds really unpleasant to use. Maybe users just want a better UX for the local mode?
I believe it's a one time pairing code, not each print. FWIW I like the design.
It's more of an API key that whatever client or code you're using needs.
it uses MQTT, FTP, and RTSP. the key and serial are the credentials.
Why should I have to send all my prints to Bambu when the printer is sitting right next to me? Why do I have to choose between being able to stop my printer remotely or Bambu not tracking my every move, when it's trivial to have both?
it's because you're the product and they want the designs i think
I don't think so. They can already track popularity very effectively because they control makerworld, and they could have Bambu studio, the app, and the printer phone home too. I don't think they care enough about the tiny tiny minority of users running orca with a LAN only printer.
More likely, it's technical incompetence. It's just easier (for their cloud) to send everything through their cloud
> clients can send prints locally
Using an AGPL violating mystery meat binary plugin that you run on your host, which potentially compromises any airgap you put around your printer (it attempts to connect to bambu servers, or did last time I checked it) and potentially your entire host.
No, the binaries aren’t necessary in LAN + Developer mode.
Correct - you can send prints over MQTT
Yeah, I have most the 'cloud' functionality all done 100% locally through home assistant. Its been pretty comfy.
Thanks for the cluestick!
Can you read the filaments installed in the printer over MQTT too?
A lot of the distrust toward Bambu is because they originally announced cloud auth would be required even for printing locally in LAN mode, and only backpedalled on that when they saw the backlash.
Critical Operations That Require Authorization
The following printer operations will require authorization controls:
Binding and unbinding the printer.
Initiating remote video access.
Performing firmware upgrades.
Initiating a print job (via LAN or cloud mode).
Controlling motion system, temperature, fans, AMS settings, calibrations, etc.
That’s a vibe coded AI slop website if I’ve ever seen one. It even has a careers page that they didn’t try to edit out.
There’s basically no information there. Is this just a copy of the other GitHub repo that was removed and someone is trying to rebrand it as their own? Or did they do some different work?
That’s an LLM generated website if I’ve ever seen one
basically louis found that not using AI to design his website drastically reduced the hits he would get from google.
That doesn't excuse the fake careers page
i think it does. you have to think through the development process here. if we start with the promise that an AI generated site gets more hits, then you'd want to change as little as possible from what the AI generates by hand. yes it's dumb, but the whole premise of generating a website with AI is dumb to begin with.
i'd say that when louis discovered that AI websites work better, it broke him in that regard. the choice is now creating a website that i own, as in "this is mine, i made this". or a website that works with google. but i'd want to distance myself from that website as far as possible. "i didn't make this myself, i needed this for google. i don't want to touch it"
It's not fake? Why do you think it is fake?
Because there's no jobs? No apply button? Nothing actually there except a few lines of text?
Maybe they don't have any openings at this time.
Vibe coding a slop website drastically increases your bounce rate and reduces trust in your project.
This looks like the kind of fake foundation website someone vibecodes to trick people into downloading a Trojan horse.
You can use an LLM to generate a website format and then take 10 minutes to review it and put real text on it.
This is just lazy excuse making. Don’t let a smooth talking YouTuber override what you can see with your own eyes.
Wait, why would the method in which the HTML that Google indexes was generated matter?
(I get that web vitals might be taken into account, but you don't need a slop generator to make a static page)
From what I gathered from (part of) the video, it's not about the HTML, it's the copy. Basically Google is accidentally/intentionally optimizing for copy that sounds like it came from an LLM or a LinkedIn lunatics post.
I'm skeptical but I don't have time to watch the entire video so I don't want to cast an initial judgement on if he's correct or if it just has to do with his specific copy.
It's not about the HTML. It's about the wording of the content. The more he had AI reword things, the better his ranking became.
google search evaluates based on their content and how they look. apparently, according to louis, AI generated websites get a higher score.
Makes sense, since AI is also doing the ranking.
It’s still AI slop, even if your favorite youtuber built it.
yes, but that is not the problem here. the problem is that google search favors AI slop that makes this the preferred method of webdesign.
there is a huge difference between creating AI slop because i am lazy (which i think most people doing that are) and creating AI slop because otherwise google gives your website a bad rating.
now you and i may not care about google ratings, but many other people do, and the end result will be that all websites that want good ratings will end up being AI slop.
somehow we need to send google a message to stop that.
> somehow we need to send google a message to stop that.
...
The Google excuse doesn’t even hold water when you consider that the content of the website is so bad that it’s not even going to register for the relevant search terms. It’s just empty AI slop copy.
What are they even trying to rank for? It doesn’t make sense.
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What is Bambu’s motivation here? What do they get for damaging their credibility like this? Just usage data? Training a model on everyone’s STL files?
Wild speculation here obviously, but it could be a regulation play--there's a lot of potential legislation that would regulate what you can legally 3D print, which would warrant a system to be the age-verification equivalent for 3D printing.
If this is the angle then I'm even more suspicious that they're secretly pushing for the legislation so when it goes into effect they'll effectively be the only game in town.
This is admittedly a bit tinfoil hat, but they wouldn't be the first company to attempt to legislate away the competition.
Bambu had any credibility to lose? Isn't this behavior exactly what was expected from them?
People just ignored it because, shiny!
Probably regulations, there are a few states trying to make it illegal for felons to own 3D printers by EOY. These things are about to get regulated like firearms, which is wild.
More strictly than firearms, in fact.
Some of the proposed 3d printer laws will require printers being sold to be capable of evaluating what you are using them for and blocking “bad” usages. I’m not aware of any such legislation around firearms.
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I've wondered the same thing because lately I've noticed a bunch of consumer companies forcing cloud-required models where it's not necessary and many/most users have no need for whatever features cloud connectivity may provide. Yet the companies keep insisting on it even when there's significant user blow back and bad brand PR. When they even bother to comment on "why", the answers never make much sense.
When it's companies based in the U.S. or EU, like Chamberlain / LiftMaster garage door openers, it's pretty obvious they plan to monetize some cloud services subscription for upgraded features beyond the free basic tier as well as probably selling consumer data.
However, the China-based companies like Bambu Lab (and many others) are more puzzling because meaningful ongoing subscription revenue seems unlikely. Especially in the case of lower-end consumer tech peripherals where the companies usually invest as little as possible in their websites, ongoing feature updates or direct end-user support. Which makes no sense if they really aspire to build long-term subscription revenue. Here's my theory: the Chinese government is quietly compelling them to require cloud connections to China-based data centers as a long-term strategy.
I'm not even saying the companies are some direct arm of the Chinese government or planting nefarious firmware. I think that's too likely to be caught if done at mass scale and it's not even necessary. As long as the cloud servers are in Chinese data centers, the Chinese government can get consumer IP addresses and usage data just from passive packet sniffing and if things turn icy with some foreign countries, they can cause a lot of turmoil simply by selectively blocking packets at the firewall to brick millions of consumer devices.
I know it maybe sounds paranoid and, to be clear, I'm not claiming Bambu Labs specifically is doing this. I actually came up with this theory before I ever heard of Bambu Labs because I have a lot of inexpensive Chinese home automation devices and was surprised by their bizarre insistence on forcing cloud connectivity despite there being no apparent business model incentive and these smaller-scale Shenzen hardware companies showing zero enthusiasm for making a real business out of cloud services. Their cloud implementations are almost invariably the bare minimum possible and seem woefully underfunded. After all, for a low-margin hardware peripheral, every dollar spent running a no-revenue cloud after the sale is pure overhead in a business that live or dies by pennies. It's almost like requiring a cloud connection is an export tax the company is paying just to be left alone to sell their hardware overseas.
For home automation gear, cloud-connectivity is a non-starter in my book. In some cases, it's literally built into our walls, so I only buy devices which will work on a local-only subnet or on which I can install open source firmware like Tasmota or ESPHome.
Squashing the git history is not cool.
> This version of OrcaSlicer restores full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers
I thought that was the point, that people didn't want to be tethered to their servers?
People want the option.
There are many reasons one might prefer OrcaSlicer over Bambu Studio. One might be perfectly fine using Bambu's cloud services while preferring OrcaSlicer for different reasons; this is for those people.
Others might not want to use Bambu's cloud services at all; OrcaSlicer as it currently exists is fine for them.
this is it for me
i bought the dang thing, let me decide how I use it.
> i bought the dang thing, let me decide how I use it.
Amazing how controversial this statement is here in 2026.
It's controversial because it's not how software licensing and ownership has ever worked. You want to use the hardware with proprietary software, congratulations, you're still stuck with their license agreement unless you want to sail the high seas.
there's not enough appeal with the investors and stock holders.
they're going to try to make everything you have a subscription, starting with the homes you might try to buy. they don't even live here, but there's no laws stopping them, because your representatives personally benefit from letting things go for certain corporations/people (the same thing after the Citizens United decision)
People want remote access to their printers, a feature which seems to be tied to Bambu servers.
I have an Ender3 that I use plugging in a microsd card to do prints with. What am I missing here? Seems like you can do the same with these printers. People want to use the cloud?
Even with an Ender3 many, including myself, would connect it to a raspberryPi with octoprint to be able to send prints over the network. The SD card flow gets very tedious very quickly.
Oh god. OctoPrint, I forgot about that tool. Jesus, I'm still subscribed after all of these years. I do not want to know how much money I have been quietly bleeding for this tool.
Subscribed? It's just free software that you can put on a Pi or something. Not sure what you'd be paying for.
The creator has a patreon[1]. I did a one-time payment too because early on it really changed how I used my 3D printer and thought it deserved some support.
I think people like having an option for remote over the network communication. The cloud is not technically required for that. Bambu made it required for no good reason.
Doesn’t it have a lan mode?
Yes, and aside from being able to send and monitor your prints from their mobile app (and there are third party implementation of a similar app), you really don't lose much by using LAN Mode, especially if you pair it with Tailscale.
The mobile app is quite nice.
Print error and print finish notifications. Webcam view when I’m not near my printer. The ability to pause it remotely if something looks off.
I use LAN mode, plus a home assistant plugin to restore the lost functionality. The default webcam is pretty bad so I’ve also mounted a better one to my printer for a live video view that’s at more than 1fps.
The main thing I’ve lost by using lan mode is printing from my phone? I think there are ways to do that. But OrcaSlicer has so many options that are frequently worth adjusting over random presets other creators used; it’s a strictly better experience compared to printing on mobile.
I think there is some niche “cancel printing of one specific object” feature that I dont know how to use without the mobile app. If you are printing many objects at once, and one fails, you can cancel a specific part/object using the mobile app. Not sure how to do that with OrcaSlicer + lan mode, or if it’s even possible.
I can imagine not having to do the “save to sd card, eject, put in printer, fiddle with the printers crappy ui to select the print” flow might be attractive to some. Find the model you want in the web, click “send to printer”, done.
I don’t mind the sd card thing, also happy with my bottom of the barrel ender 3.
I have an Ender 3 too. And I have a Bambu machine - that I leave offline and use via microSD card as the Ender got me used to.
I get it. The convenience of networking - when it works FOR the customer - is great.
But networking controlled by corporations is a path to enshittification.
At least your use case would be served well by enabling LAN mode, which doesn't let the printer talk to the internet, even if you want it to (and I want mine to).
The problem is trust. I don't want to get into an adversarial relationship with my printer over networking.
I could enable LAN mode and trust the mode does what it says.
I could trust others firmware reverse engineering to verify LAN mode does what it says.
I could isolate it on it's own wifi and I could block it at the home firewall from accessing the internet, to be sure.
But it was easier to simply leave it off my network.
Yeah, fair enough. I have a VLAN with no Internet access for those devices, it's convenient.
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Imagine if traditional printers were this big of a pain to use… oh
As long as 3d printers are less than 50% harder to use than normal printers, they're dimensionally easier per capita.
For a moment I thought this was a way to get cloud printing restored to bambu printers without leaving lan-mode, would have been nice
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If Bambu Lab responds to this criticism with lawyers instead of clear technical answers, it will only make the forced cloud requirement look more suspicious.
To me, this is an obvious security risk. These printers are often used in labs, startups, engineering teams, and potentially even government environments. If print data, models, logs, or usage patterns are routed through a company controlled infrastructure, that creates a real opportunity for corporate espionage or data harvesting.
I would not be surprised if Bambu Lab eventually faces the same level of scrutiny that Huawei network devices did.
I’ve been running mine offline for years, I don’t know why other people haven’t been. They’re the only competent and reliable printer that isn’t a project car in itself, but they’re obviously not completely trustworthy. Easily fixed with an air gap, updates work just great from a USB drive.
They are an adversarial player in the market, actively trying to lock users into an ecosystem that is incompatible with other printers.
Like Adobe's 'creative' software and Onshape, they are working as hard as possible to make YOU pay more to have less.
When you're the best at what you do, you do what you can to fend off competition without entirely alienating users.
idk, my 10 year old makerbot 2 has been pretty reliable, ever since Prusa slicer came out and I tuned a profile for it maybe 6 years ago it's been spitting out quick dimensionally accurate prints. i use it all the time, probably go through a spool every month or two and all i've had to replace is the cooling fan for the extruder once
i'm mostly printing small mechanical parts and i can't say i have any complaints, i assume a modern prusa would be much better, surely there are other FDM printers that are good?
I tried it but switched back to the online mode because being able to remotely check in via the app is very useful to check the print hasn't failed.
Bambuddy and tailscale was my solution to losing access to mobile app once I went lan-only. Has video stream ,monitoring and control. Plus home assistant integration via MQTT. Only thing I’m missing is the ‘AI’ spaghetti monitoring. But those are rare for me.
There's also the Openbu or LanBu android apps if you just want a basic app for monitoring from your phone like Bambu Handy did. Although if you want to access your printer from a remote network you'll still need tailscale or similar.
Another feature locked behind the app is individual part cancelling which is nice for partial print failures.
Mine is now offline.
But when it was online, I never checked the app for failed prints. If the print has failed, I'll find out when I'm near enough to it to do something about it.
When offline, it amused me when there was a "hairball" and the printer detected it advising "AI Detecting Print Error".
At what level does an image analysis algorithm become "AI"?
If the print has failed you can stop it from the app to prevent it becoming a huge mess and possibly causing damage to the printer.
I'm curious what concise phrase you'd display to convey the same information to that audience.
"Computer Vision Model and Nozzle Telemetry Analysis Detect Print Error"?
"Print Error Detected"?
I laughed pretty hard at this, and you're right. Problem solved.
“Print Error Detected (Maybe?)”
This isn’t a PC Load Letter we can trust!
> They’re the only competent and reliable printer that isn’t a project car in itself
Prusa.
Yeah I’ve had one, still do, it never gets used because it’s a project car. Compared with one button press and coming back to a print in a few hours, it’s a constant nightmare of debugging, print issues, and manually changing filaments that aren’t stored in an airtight container and get wet. It’s not even competition, as much as I would like to support open source tools the Prusa stuff is an order of magnitude more expensive than a A1 Mini that will make a reliable print every time.
It’s like saying a bicycle is a serious contender to a train, they both have kind of similar things going on but you’d have to be insane to suggest that they do as good of a job as one another at the things people actually want to achieve.
I've done zero debugging on my Prusa and it's been pretty much fire and forget. I had one spaghetti print failure in years on it, and it was my own fault for disabling supports and the print falling over :)
Automatic filament changes would be nice for sure, I look forward to upgrading to one of their new INDX models.
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Two words: Good luck!
At this poting BL is just like USA tech companies, touch their food and you are toasted.
Sell your printer while you can get the its worth back.
Our food toasts people when touched?
That was my takeaway; TIL. Perhaps a "USA tech compan(y)" will productize this.
This looks to be a clone of the prior state of the repository that caused all the Bambu drama earlier this week.
I did a ton of research because I didn't understand what people wanted here, and this is what's going on:
Right now, Bambu have adjusted their system into two modalities:
* "default" or "Cloud" mode, where you get an app, remote monitoring, but you have to use Bambu Studio or Bambu Connect to send prints. They implemented this by adding cloud auth to their "internal API;" the client application has to get a token from Bambu's servers, even if the request it eventually makes is a "local" one.
* LAN / Developer mode, where the device displays a token and you put it into your app. This disables all of the remote monitoring but in exchange, clients can send prints locally.
What users want is to "have their cake and eat it too;" they want the local token authentication _and_ the cloud authentication enabled at the same time. This isn't actually possible, so this plugin approximates it by emulating the interface to the cloud authentication to make the "Bambu Network" cloud RPC calls from a local slicer (one of these calls is a local_print call, so ostensibly this allows you to send prints without running them through the cloud, although with all of the online functionality still enabled and required, this seems like a pretty brave thing to trust).
Personally, I find the Bambu reaction distasteful, and there's an argument that the offline mode only exists due to similar outrage, but I don't see the current system as particularly bad and find the appetite to restore "untrustworthy" cloud functionality a bit amusing.
> This isn't actually possible
This is only true due to a firmware they pushed last year. It's an artificial limit.
There's no reason at all a local client couldn't just talk to a local printer without any cloud.
Every problem BambuLabs have here is self-inflicted. They could allow simultaneous cloud and local queue management with or without authentication.
Sure, but it's their right to enact that restriction on their software. There are more open alternatives like Prusa , Elgoo, or Creality if people prefer a more open/freedom approach. On the other hand, Bambu has a reputation for having most of the best products in the space.
Of course, many prefer to break their license agreement because They Really Want It, in effect daring Bambu to get aggressive with license enforcement. They probably won't...
A comment defending abusive software terms on a website called HackerNews. Something amusing about that.
This is HP’s current philosophy towards consumer desktop inkjet and laser printing, and customers universally hate it. No thanks!
It is my right to do with my printer whatever I want.
The hardware yes. Bambu's software, not quite. If you want to flash it with 3rd party firmware & use 3rd party slicers, have at it.
If you want to use Bambu's software against their TOS, OK you wouldn't be alone in that, but there's no moral high ground in it.
Sure there is. When purchased, it was able to do something. Due to an update, the customer has now been misled, because a feature was removed.
In most countries, that would violate consumer rights. There's an ethics argument here.
That's a highly creative interpretation of events. The software license agreement usually upfront covers what can or cannot not change. It is pretty rare in most countries to see successful legal action for changed features, but best of luck.
The ACCC is more than happy to explain unenforceable terms, if you'd like to do business with Australia.
Feel free to consult Steam, Google, Meta and others, if a software license is enough to ignore consumer rights.
I look forward to them sternly changing Bambu Labs' practices!
Australia is a small enough market to not matter much
Taking functionality away from a product after you bought it is a scum move. If the law lets them get away with it, the law should be changed.
When I buy a product, I look at reviews and make my purchasing decision on the features and functionality at the time of sale. If a software update later ruins that, I want the option to get my money back.
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No, it’s not creative at all, it’s what happened — I have first hand experience to corroborate this.
Regardless, at least in the US, not only are software-based ToS becoming unenforceable, but there’s a large upswing towards “right to repair” legislation, which, I think, is what you’re arguing against here… and I really think you’re going to be on the wrong side of history with your current line of thinking (despite what Bambu Labs does).
> No, it’s not creative at all, it’s what happened — I have first hand experience to corroborate this.
As do I.... and I disagree. I think Bambu has been well behaved, and the "community" have largely been acting like entitled juveniles.
> not only are software-based ToS becoming unenforceable
Eh? The opposite is true.
> I really think you’re going to be on the wrong side of history with your current line of thinking
I'm on the side of history that is called "reality", not wishful thinking from people rationalizing their copyright violations.
But, your argument isn't with me, it's with the legislators you claim are, any day now, going to let you run roughshod over copyright. Make it so! Except for , you know, companies you don't like.... (eg. AI companies) then copyright really matters and must be strictly enforced!
No, it is with you -- the legislators are doing "fine" (and, again, are heading in a fine direction wrt RTR and software ToS).
I have no idea why you think copyright violations apply here? You seem to be throwing legal terms around without regard for their actual meaning. It's clear you're here to argue for the sake of argument, but I'd really encourage you to reflect and think about why you're so loyal to a corporate entity instead of your fellow consumers (of which there are many in the parent and sibling comments... hint: you may be on the wrong side).
Just for fun, pretend you bought a propane grill for cooking on Monday. On Tuesday, you cooked some bbq chicken and some corn. Later on Thursday, and without your knowledge or authorization, the grill no longer allowed you to use the propane apparatus for cooking non-meats unless you call a special telephone number and said a magic word whenever the call was answered. As a minimum, I feel, it'd be very confusing because, even though you're doing the exact same thing as Tuesday, the outcome is not the same.
Your freedoms have been restricted by someone else; if you are okay with that, then have fun licking boots. The rest of us will still be here advocating for your freedoms.
The "agreement" is at best coerced, and under blackmail of hardware you bought and paid for.
At worst, its a fraudulent indefinite rental masquerading as a 'sale'.
And lets discuss 'updates that fuck over your hardware'. In dwcent countries, thats hacking, and a serious criminal charge. But lol, companies are somehow exempt.
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Maybe legally, but morally “you have permanent physical access to this but don’t ’own’ it” and anti-circumvention are debatable.
There’s a small benefit of anti-circumvention where businesses sell hardware for cheaper with restrictions and a TOS that prevents bypassing them. But even that doesn’t apply here because Bambu changed the software after purchase.
> it's their right to enact that restriction on their software
The issue here is less "they put in a restriction" and more "they are trying to bankrupt/imprison consumers for daring to modify the property they purchased."
Bambu is trying to bankrupt/imprison their customers? Big if true!
Is that you doubling down on bad-faith arguments, or is it just ignorance about the risks of lawsuits or charges under the CFAA?
Hmm, I guess there's a third option: You admit Bambu is making threats of ruination, but you're whining that we shouldn't blame them for something they don't really "want" to do.
On our Bambu H2D Pro printers at work, we can print in cloud mode and LAN mode at the same time. Bambu literally has this firmware built but they reserve it for “pro” users. The other thing pro users can do is disable cloud without any developer mode stuff. Of course we do this.
Excellent machines by the way, primarily let down by the proprietary binary Bambu forces users to use for LAN mode which is extremely buggy and slow on Linux, and entirely technically unnecessary.
I think the enterprise “LAN Mode” is actually the thing this repo is emulating / replacing, which the consumer printers (might?) also support, where the cloud auth token is still in play but prints are (ostensibly, in a much more difficult to audit way given the client still needs access to the Bambu servers) sent directly to the printer.
Developer mode doesn’t require the proprietary binary.
Wow I didn’t know about developer mode! I wonder if that will improve things for me…
> This looks to be a clone of the prior state of the repository that caused all the Bambu drama earlier this week.
It looks like it might be a clone, but the git history is squashed for some reason.
I would recommend against installing this unless/until someone can do an audit to figure out which commit it was forked from and what the changes are.
Or better yet, find one of any of the other copies of the repository that don't have their git history squashed.
This looks like someone's attempt to capitalize on the drama to bring attention to their foundation (?) but losing git history is not a good thing for code provenance or security.
> attention to their foundation
FULU Foundation is a right to repair group, which explains their interest in this. I, for one, support them. https://www.fulu.org/our-story
I agree with your point about git history, though. https://github.com/FULU-Foundation/OrcaSlicer-bambulab/issue...
Just to confirm so I don't break anything accidentally, I currently have the app version where Bambu Studio is how I send prints to my Bambu P1S and I can look through its camera and see what filament is where and so on, but I also have the token that Home Assistant uses to watch the printer and its camera etc.
This isn't the thing you're talking about. There's a mode where I can send prints directly over the network which disables Bambu Studio, I assume?
> What users want...
Take a step back. What users want is to be able to use the machine they bought the way they want. The outrage is because Bambu are doing a bait-and-switch: selling an autonomous 3D printer, but switching to a 3D printing service. Enshittification pure and simple.
I don't think they baited and switched? I bought my P1S before the whole LAN mode debacle and even then it was all or nothing on the cloud. I just went with the cloud because they were using some IGMP stuff for the local connection, but I had the printer on a separate VLAN and pfsense IGMP proxying was broken.
A different way of looking at it is that Bambu is saying if you want to use their cloud you have to send everything through their cloud. Stupid? Sure. It's very much a technically solvable problem. But I don't think there was any rug pull (this time; in Jan 2025 they tried...)
I think this is all more out of incompetence than malice. Something bad happens, exposing wildly inadequate programming expertise, they panic and over correct, and the community pushes back. They're great at making 3D printers, terrible at cloud infra.
For me, I want to use orca for slicing there are many more additions to the local code. As both orca and Bambo are from the same open source, the current limitation in the Bambo version is breaking the licensing of the application, and my rights in that software are broken by this addition. Then, during the print, I'm really happy to use the handy app to monitor the progress. This use case was supported when I got the hardware. Now I have to disable the app to get the slicer. I actually like to use both slicers to compare and see progress. They are also terrible at software licensing, don't understand what open source is, and they found their main software on that. They probably should embrace the orca community and use their research for their own customers. Better slicing helps everyone.
You're missing two things from the whole picture: 1. Cloud mode works without local network access, so their server is involved in the transit of the data to the printer. This is pretty minor, but still within their rights to preserve. 2. For printing from the app, they actually run the computationally expensive slicing algorithm on their servers, so this is totally reasonable to protect.
But in this case the users want to use those features locally and are being blocked. Using a resource constraint argument doesn't make sense for it.
It seems more likely they want it as a revenue source at some point.
They probably want to establish a commercial-use license. If you have a big print farm, you likely need all of those remote capabilities so you're going to need to pay for the license. The schmucks at home will likely continue to get it for free. Locking them into the cloud API by dangling convenient features just ensures most people won't stray into the local-only mode.
Pretty sure you can still print locally either via LAN or just SD card. At least I can on my A1.
The current monetization that they are using is that you can charge for a print on their platform and they take a cut of the sale. If you don’t charge for the design, then it is still free hosting and delivery.
I see where the worry is, but at the moment it seems like people are imagining a worse case scenario.
If you turn on LAN mode, it acts exactly like every other printer. You can print directly to it from any slicer over your LAN, or dump gcode on the SD card directly.
People are saying the LAN mode lacks access to the webcam and possibly some other things. That is what this whole controversy is about. It's re-enabling some cloud features as local only and Bambu is calling it privacy or fraud.
I can use the webcam in LAN mode. Just - locally, in the slicer, not the cloud-based app.
> where the device displays a token and you put it into your app.
This sounds really unpleasant to use. Maybe users just want a better UX for the local mode?
I believe it's a one time pairing code, not each print. FWIW I like the design.
It's more of an API key that whatever client or code you're using needs.
it uses MQTT, FTP, and RTSP. the key and serial are the credentials.
Why should I have to send all my prints to Bambu when the printer is sitting right next to me? Why do I have to choose between being able to stop my printer remotely or Bambu not tracking my every move, when it's trivial to have both?
it's because you're the product and they want the designs i think
I don't think so. They can already track popularity very effectively because they control makerworld, and they could have Bambu studio, the app, and the printer phone home too. I don't think they care enough about the tiny tiny minority of users running orca with a LAN only printer.
More likely, it's technical incompetence. It's just easier (for their cloud) to send everything through their cloud
> clients can send prints locally
Using an AGPL violating mystery meat binary plugin that you run on your host, which potentially compromises any airgap you put around your printer (it attempts to connect to bambu servers, or did last time I checked it) and potentially your entire host.
No, the binaries aren’t necessary in LAN + Developer mode.
Correct - you can send prints over MQTT
Yeah, I have most the 'cloud' functionality all done 100% locally through home assistant. Its been pretty comfy.
Thanks for the cluestick!
Can you read the filaments installed in the printer over MQTT too?
Yes
Here's a good resource: https://github.com/Doridian/OpenBambuAPI
A lot of the distrust toward Bambu is because they originally announced cloud auth would be required even for printing locally in LAN mode, and only backpedalled on that when they saw the backlash.
I'm not sure why their entire domain has been excluded from archive.org but you can still see the original post for now: https://blog.bambulab.com/firmware-update-introducing-new-au...
--
Critical Operations That Require Authorization The following printer operations will require authorization controls:
Binding and unbinding the printer. Initiating remote video access. Performing firmware upgrades. Initiating a print job (via LAN or cloud mode). Controlling motion system, temperature, fans, AMS settings, calibrations, etc.
https://www.fulu.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jhRqgHxEP8
That’s a vibe coded AI slop website if I’ve ever seen one. It even has a careers page that they didn’t try to edit out.
There’s basically no information there. Is this just a copy of the other GitHub repo that was removed and someone is trying to rebrand it as their own? Or did they do some different work?
That’s an LLM generated website if I’ve ever seen one
the explanation for that is here https://youtu.be/II2QF9JwtLc
basically louis found that not using AI to design his website drastically reduced the hits he would get from google.
That doesn't excuse the fake careers page
i think it does. you have to think through the development process here. if we start with the promise that an AI generated site gets more hits, then you'd want to change as little as possible from what the AI generates by hand. yes it's dumb, but the whole premise of generating a website with AI is dumb to begin with.
i'd say that when louis discovered that AI websites work better, it broke him in that regard. the choice is now creating a website that i own, as in "this is mine, i made this". or a website that works with google. but i'd want to distance myself from that website as far as possible. "i didn't make this myself, i needed this for google. i don't want to touch it"
It's not fake? Why do you think it is fake?
Because there's no jobs? No apply button? Nothing actually there except a few lines of text?
Maybe they don't have any openings at this time.
Vibe coding a slop website drastically increases your bounce rate and reduces trust in your project.
This looks like the kind of fake foundation website someone vibecodes to trick people into downloading a Trojan horse.
You can use an LLM to generate a website format and then take 10 minutes to review it and put real text on it.
This is just lazy excuse making. Don’t let a smooth talking YouTuber override what you can see with your own eyes.
Wait, why would the method in which the HTML that Google indexes was generated matter?
(I get that web vitals might be taken into account, but you don't need a slop generator to make a static page)
From what I gathered from (part of) the video, it's not about the HTML, it's the copy. Basically Google is accidentally/intentionally optimizing for copy that sounds like it came from an LLM or a LinkedIn lunatics post.
I'm skeptical but I don't have time to watch the entire video so I don't want to cast an initial judgement on if he's correct or if it just has to do with his specific copy.
It's not about the HTML. It's about the wording of the content. The more he had AI reword things, the better his ranking became.
google search evaluates based on their content and how they look. apparently, according to louis, AI generated websites get a higher score.
Makes sense, since AI is also doing the ranking.
It’s still AI slop, even if your favorite youtuber built it.
yes, but that is not the problem here. the problem is that google search favors AI slop that makes this the preferred method of webdesign.
there is a huge difference between creating AI slop because i am lazy (which i think most people doing that are) and creating AI slop because otherwise google gives your website a bad rating.
now you and i may not care about google ratings, but many other people do, and the end result will be that all websites that want good ratings will end up being AI slop.
somehow we need to send google a message to stop that.
> somehow we need to send google a message to stop that.
...
The Google excuse doesn’t even hold water when you consider that the content of the website is so bad that it’s not even going to register for the relevant search terms. It’s just empty AI slop copy.
What are they even trying to rank for? It doesn’t make sense.
What is Bambu’s motivation here? What do they get for damaging their credibility like this? Just usage data? Training a model on everyone’s STL files?
Wild speculation here obviously, but it could be a regulation play--there's a lot of potential legislation that would regulate what you can legally 3D print, which would warrant a system to be the age-verification equivalent for 3D printing.
If this is the angle then I'm even more suspicious that they're secretly pushing for the legislation so when it goes into effect they'll effectively be the only game in town.
This is admittedly a bit tinfoil hat, but they wouldn't be the first company to attempt to legislate away the competition.
Bambu had any credibility to lose? Isn't this behavior exactly what was expected from them?
People just ignored it because, shiny!
Probably regulations, there are a few states trying to make it illegal for felons to own 3D printers by EOY. These things are about to get regulated like firearms, which is wild.
More strictly than firearms, in fact.
Some of the proposed 3d printer laws will require printers being sold to be capable of evaluating what you are using them for and blocking “bad” usages. I’m not aware of any such legislation around firearms.
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I've wondered the same thing because lately I've noticed a bunch of consumer companies forcing cloud-required models where it's not necessary and many/most users have no need for whatever features cloud connectivity may provide. Yet the companies keep insisting on it even when there's significant user blow back and bad brand PR. When they even bother to comment on "why", the answers never make much sense.
When it's companies based in the U.S. or EU, like Chamberlain / LiftMaster garage door openers, it's pretty obvious they plan to monetize some cloud services subscription for upgraded features beyond the free basic tier as well as probably selling consumer data.
However, the China-based companies like Bambu Lab (and many others) are more puzzling because meaningful ongoing subscription revenue seems unlikely. Especially in the case of lower-end consumer tech peripherals where the companies usually invest as little as possible in their websites, ongoing feature updates or direct end-user support. Which makes no sense if they really aspire to build long-term subscription revenue. Here's my theory: the Chinese government is quietly compelling them to require cloud connections to China-based data centers as a long-term strategy.
I'm not even saying the companies are some direct arm of the Chinese government or planting nefarious firmware. I think that's too likely to be caught if done at mass scale and it's not even necessary. As long as the cloud servers are in Chinese data centers, the Chinese government can get consumer IP addresses and usage data just from passive packet sniffing and if things turn icy with some foreign countries, they can cause a lot of turmoil simply by selectively blocking packets at the firewall to brick millions of consumer devices.
I know it maybe sounds paranoid and, to be clear, I'm not claiming Bambu Labs specifically is doing this. I actually came up with this theory before I ever heard of Bambu Labs because I have a lot of inexpensive Chinese home automation devices and was surprised by their bizarre insistence on forcing cloud connectivity despite there being no apparent business model incentive and these smaller-scale Shenzen hardware companies showing zero enthusiasm for making a real business out of cloud services. Their cloud implementations are almost invariably the bare minimum possible and seem woefully underfunded. After all, for a low-margin hardware peripheral, every dollar spent running a no-revenue cloud after the sale is pure overhead in a business that live or dies by pennies. It's almost like requiring a cloud connection is an export tax the company is paying just to be left alone to sell their hardware overseas.
For home automation gear, cloud-connectivity is a non-starter in my book. In some cases, it's literally built into our walls, so I only buy devices which will work on a local-only subnet or on which I can install open source firmware like Tasmota or ESPHome.
Squashing the git history is not cool.
> This version of OrcaSlicer restores full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers
I thought that was the point, that people didn't want to be tethered to their servers?
People want the option.
There are many reasons one might prefer OrcaSlicer over Bambu Studio. One might be perfectly fine using Bambu's cloud services while preferring OrcaSlicer for different reasons; this is for those people.
Others might not want to use Bambu's cloud services at all; OrcaSlicer as it currently exists is fine for them.
this is it for me
i bought the dang thing, let me decide how I use it.
> i bought the dang thing, let me decide how I use it.
Amazing how controversial this statement is here in 2026.
It's controversial because it's not how software licensing and ownership has ever worked. You want to use the hardware with proprietary software, congratulations, you're still stuck with their license agreement unless you want to sail the high seas.
there's not enough appeal with the investors and stock holders.
they're going to try to make everything you have a subscription, starting with the homes you might try to buy. they don't even live here, but there's no laws stopping them, because your representatives personally benefit from letting things go for certain corporations/people (the same thing after the Citizens United decision)
People want remote access to their printers, a feature which seems to be tied to Bambu servers.
I have an Ender3 that I use plugging in a microsd card to do prints with. What am I missing here? Seems like you can do the same with these printers. People want to use the cloud?
Even with an Ender3 many, including myself, would connect it to a raspberryPi with octoprint to be able to send prints over the network. The SD card flow gets very tedious very quickly.
Oh god. OctoPrint, I forgot about that tool. Jesus, I'm still subscribed after all of these years. I do not want to know how much money I have been quietly bleeding for this tool.
Subscribed? It's just free software that you can put on a Pi or something. Not sure what you'd be paying for.
The creator has a patreon[1]. I did a one-time payment too because early on it really changed how I used my 3D printer and thought it deserved some support.
[1] https://octoprint.org/support-octoprint/
I think people like having an option for remote over the network communication. The cloud is not technically required for that. Bambu made it required for no good reason.
Doesn’t it have a lan mode?
Yes, and aside from being able to send and monitor your prints from their mobile app (and there are third party implementation of a similar app), you really don't lose much by using LAN Mode, especially if you pair it with Tailscale.
The mobile app is quite nice. Print error and print finish notifications. Webcam view when I’m not near my printer. The ability to pause it remotely if something looks off.
I use LAN mode, plus a home assistant plugin to restore the lost functionality. The default webcam is pretty bad so I’ve also mounted a better one to my printer for a live video view that’s at more than 1fps.
The main thing I’ve lost by using lan mode is printing from my phone? I think there are ways to do that. But OrcaSlicer has so many options that are frequently worth adjusting over random presets other creators used; it’s a strictly better experience compared to printing on mobile.
I think there is some niche “cancel printing of one specific object” feature that I dont know how to use without the mobile app. If you are printing many objects at once, and one fails, you can cancel a specific part/object using the mobile app. Not sure how to do that with OrcaSlicer + lan mode, or if it’s even possible.
I can imagine not having to do the “save to sd card, eject, put in printer, fiddle with the printers crappy ui to select the print” flow might be attractive to some. Find the model you want in the web, click “send to printer”, done.
I don’t mind the sd card thing, also happy with my bottom of the barrel ender 3.
I have an Ender 3 too. And I have a Bambu machine - that I leave offline and use via microSD card as the Ender got me used to.
I get it. The convenience of networking - when it works FOR the customer - is great.
But networking controlled by corporations is a path to enshittification.
At least your use case would be served well by enabling LAN mode, which doesn't let the printer talk to the internet, even if you want it to (and I want mine to).
The problem is trust. I don't want to get into an adversarial relationship with my printer over networking.
I could enable LAN mode and trust the mode does what it says.
I could trust others firmware reverse engineering to verify LAN mode does what it says.
I could isolate it on it's own wifi and I could block it at the home firewall from accessing the internet, to be sure.
But it was easier to simply leave it off my network.
Yeah, fair enough. I have a VLAN with no Internet access for those devices, it's convenient.
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Imagine if traditional printers were this big of a pain to use… oh
As long as 3d printers are less than 50% harder to use than normal printers, they're dimensionally easier per capita.
For a moment I thought this was a way to get cloud printing restored to bambu printers without leaving lan-mode, would have been nice
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If Bambu Lab responds to this criticism with lawyers instead of clear technical answers, it will only make the forced cloud requirement look more suspicious.
To me, this is an obvious security risk. These printers are often used in labs, startups, engineering teams, and potentially even government environments. If print data, models, logs, or usage patterns are routed through a company controlled infrastructure, that creates a real opportunity for corporate espionage or data harvesting.
I would not be surprised if Bambu Lab eventually faces the same level of scrutiny that Huawei network devices did.
I’ve been running mine offline for years, I don’t know why other people haven’t been. They’re the only competent and reliable printer that isn’t a project car in itself, but they’re obviously not completely trustworthy. Easily fixed with an air gap, updates work just great from a USB drive.
They are an adversarial player in the market, actively trying to lock users into an ecosystem that is incompatible with other printers.
Like Adobe's 'creative' software and Onshape, they are working as hard as possible to make YOU pay more to have less.
When you're the best at what you do, you do what you can to fend off competition without entirely alienating users.
idk, my 10 year old makerbot 2 has been pretty reliable, ever since Prusa slicer came out and I tuned a profile for it maybe 6 years ago it's been spitting out quick dimensionally accurate prints. i use it all the time, probably go through a spool every month or two and all i've had to replace is the cooling fan for the extruder once
i'm mostly printing small mechanical parts and i can't say i have any complaints, i assume a modern prusa would be much better, surely there are other FDM printers that are good?
I tried it but switched back to the online mode because being able to remotely check in via the app is very useful to check the print hasn't failed.
Bambuddy and tailscale was my solution to losing access to mobile app once I went lan-only. Has video stream ,monitoring and control. Plus home assistant integration via MQTT. Only thing I’m missing is the ‘AI’ spaghetti monitoring. But those are rare for me.
There's also the Openbu or LanBu android apps if you just want a basic app for monitoring from your phone like Bambu Handy did. Although if you want to access your printer from a remote network you'll still need tailscale or similar.
Another feature locked behind the app is individual part cancelling which is nice for partial print failures.
Mine is now offline.
But when it was online, I never checked the app for failed prints. If the print has failed, I'll find out when I'm near enough to it to do something about it.
When offline, it amused me when there was a "hairball" and the printer detected it advising "AI Detecting Print Error".
At what level does an image analysis algorithm become "AI"?
If the print has failed you can stop it from the app to prevent it becoming a huge mess and possibly causing damage to the printer.
I'm curious what concise phrase you'd display to convey the same information to that audience.
"Computer Vision Model and Nozzle Telemetry Analysis Detect Print Error"?
"Print Error Detected"?
I laughed pretty hard at this, and you're right. Problem solved.
“Print Error Detected (Maybe?)”
This isn’t a PC Load Letter we can trust!
> They’re the only competent and reliable printer that isn’t a project car in itself
Prusa.
Yeah I’ve had one, still do, it never gets used because it’s a project car. Compared with one button press and coming back to a print in a few hours, it’s a constant nightmare of debugging, print issues, and manually changing filaments that aren’t stored in an airtight container and get wet. It’s not even competition, as much as I would like to support open source tools the Prusa stuff is an order of magnitude more expensive than a A1 Mini that will make a reliable print every time.
It’s like saying a bicycle is a serious contender to a train, they both have kind of similar things going on but you’d have to be insane to suggest that they do as good of a job as one another at the things people actually want to achieve.
I've done zero debugging on my Prusa and it's been pretty much fire and forget. I had one spaghetti print failure in years on it, and it was my own fault for disabling supports and the print falling over :)
Automatic filament changes would be nice for sure, I look forward to upgrading to one of their new INDX models.
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Two words: Good luck!
At this poting BL is just like USA tech companies, touch their food and you are toasted. Sell your printer while you can get the its worth back.
Our food toasts people when touched?
That was my takeaway; TIL. Perhaps a "USA tech compan(y)" will productize this.
I like toasts. Taste better than people.