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Discussion Sentiment

73% Positive

Analyzed from 3489 words in the discussion.

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#bambu#printer#don#more#cloud#printers#drama#prusa#print#still

Discussion (96 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

jchw•34 minutes ago
I made the tragic mistake of getting a Bambu printer (an X1C, with AMS even...) right before they gave all of us the middle finger. I now have it offline, running out of date firmware, connected to a special WiFi network that is isolated from the Internet.

That upset me, but now I'm pissed. Now I don't even care about their stupid printers. Now I'd like to waste Bambu Lab's time and cause problems for them.

And also, while this X1C should be going strong for years, my eyes are on Prusa should I want another printer any time soon for any reason. Less polished or not, they seem like they're still better for consumers even though they are apparently less open than they used to be. But I'm of course interested in hearing what people recommend, too. (I got an X1C because I knew it would be simple, but I don't particularly mind getting my hands dirty or anything. I did build an Ender 3 kit before that.)

sottol•23 minutes ago
Once you have a reliable printer, the workflow is mostly to slice -> send to printer -> wait and check on it every couple of hours until it's done ime. Imo it no longer super matters how much better the on-screen ui or webcam are.

Mutli-color though is where Bambu has a good leg up.

(Diluted) Vision Miner Nano Polymer Adhesive and a good bed leveling probe has done a lot to make my printer set and forget, no matter which print sheets I use.

busterarm•5 minutes ago
> Mutli-color though is where Bambu has a good leg up.

I'm excited for INDX but going to wait a year or so.

ChristianJacobs•about 1 hour ago
Bambu showed their true colours last year when they would've eliminated offline access altogether if not for public outrage. You don't own your Bambu printer, you're leasing it at a subsidised premium.

This move does not surprise me at all, and I'm genuinely happy that Louis is willing to shell out money to help those that can't defend themselves.

I'm happy that Bambu finally made Prusa care, but I will not cheer them even if they consistently innovate. It's just sad.

exabrial•about 1 hour ago
Louis is one of the most passionate YouTubers you can watch. I don't think he gets it right 100% of the time, but when you are that vulnerable (and what appears to be authentic) you're bound to not make the the right call every once in awhile (as we all do).

I support him even though people can pick him apart.

the_biot•about 1 hour ago
As a matter of fact he's a never-ending source of drama and outrage, all of which are his own opinions. His repair channel isn't even about repair anymore, it's all drama, all the time. I can hardly believe people fall for his shtick anymore.
stingraycharles•41 minutes ago
Yeah I agree, it’s almost a political drama channel at this point and his opinions lack nuance.

I don’t understand why an article from Tom’s Hardware about an opinion of Louis Rossman who tells a 3D printer maker to go fuck themselves is currently the most upvoted article on HN.

sillysaurusx•35 minutes ago
And yet he’s having an effect. Are either of you pledging $10k to defend hackers in court?

I can hardly believe headlines like these are met with anything but cheers. It’s literally the hacker spirit in the classical sense: a big company is trying to legally threaten a project offline, and people like Louis are helping prevent that.

You could at least throw in a “it’s cool that he’s pledging money” before insulting his channel. And if his channel wasn’t as political as it is, it’s doubtful he could rally the kind of support we’re seeing here.

Lerc•35 minutes ago
I often find him a bit much myself, but don't doubt his passion, and even if I did, I would only express that opinion publicly accompanied by supporting evidence, because using phrases like "people fall for his shtick" is essentially implying deliberate fraud, and that doesn't seem to be something you should throw around lightly.

I don't think an opinion becomes more based in reality by sticking the words "As a matter of fact" in front of them.

greggsy•40 minutes ago
His passion does manifest as drama 90% of the time, but it’s somewhat necessary to build momentum and attention to the causes that he promotes. Also, he has to toe the line of opinion to avoid being slapped with spurious legal challenges.
quietsegfault•21 minutes ago
Thank you. My Bambu printer works excellently. The previous one I bought years ago is still going strong with a friend now. When parts wear out, I can easily get official, known quality replacements.

I have never had a problem with the software, the outrage is totally manufactured to have something to complain about. Louis was fun to listen to for a while, but his schtick is so tired now.

Aurornis•21 minutes ago
> I don't think he gets it right 100% of the time, but when you are that vulnerable (and what appears to be authentic)

Saying anything less than glowingly positive about Rossmann is dangerous due to his fan base, but I think this mentality of pre-forgiving his misinformation is not healthy.

Being passionate and putting on a vulnerable schtick shouldn’t excuse someone from misleading their large audience.

Rossman is a drama YouTuber, like many others. This is an entire YouTube genre. Most of them have the same schtick where they appear to be the most passionate, vulnerable, on-your-side narrator of a story. His schtick is common in the drama YouTuber genre.

You shouldn’t develop such a parasocial relationship with a person that you reflexively defend every topic they engage in. Discuss the topics each on their own factual merits and be prepared to look for second sources. Don’t align yourself with someone because they are passionate and appear “vulnerable”. At the end of the day, you need to remember that putting on this display is how he makes his money. It’s a show.

preuceian•2 minutes ago
> Rossman is a drama YouTuber, like many others.

I dont see how he is “like many others”. A lot of YouTubers cover controversy for controversy sake, or just as material for another sponsored video. He does not do sponsored content, and usually seems to use it to push for something concrete around consumer rights. So I think the comparison to other drama Youtubers is unfair.

In my view, the drama is more a way to draw attention to his activism. He does tend to put his money and time where his mouth is.

But perhaps my view is biased, since I only see the videos the YouTube algorithm suggests to me, and those may be the ones that are more focused on consumer rights than drama. Still, that has consistently been my impression, and from what I have read in this thread, I am not the only one.

BoredPositron•38 minutes ago
It would help if he wouldn't throw fits like a high schooler in a lot of his videos. For his brand and for the causes he champions. Its almost only drama on his channel now.
Aurornis•about 1 hour ago
OrcaSlicer supports Bambu printers already. Does anyone have any better sources for what this other fork supposedly did?

EDIT: I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video, but from what I can see someone tried to make a branch of OrcaSlicer that interacted directly with Bambu’s private cloud APIs to impersonate Bambu Studio. I don’t agree with the legal threats but this case is about connecting to their non-public cloud APIs, not connecting to the printer directly.

RobotToaster•about 1 hour ago
Bambu's proprietary networking plugin uses the agpl libraries from slic3r/prusaslicer, by not releasing the source code they're violating the AGPL.
exitb•about 1 hour ago
Some time ago the printers were able to communicate over both cloud and local protocols. Then, in a firmware update, they created distinct modes for those. You can still use the printers with OrcaSlicer, but in a mode that prevents being controlled by cloud too.
ben-schaaf•about 1 hour ago
Note that at least for now you can also downgrade the firmware and use the "legacy" plugin with OrcaSlicer to fully restore functionality.
hamdingers•about 1 hour ago
This is a feature. When I enable LAN mode I do not want Bambu to be able to control my printer.

It remains astonishing to me that this is controversial. Not everyone has the knowhow to block internet access to their printer, so having a toggle in firmware is terrific. I've verified after turning it on that it never phones home. Couldn't be happier.

exitb•about 1 hour ago
It’s fully understandable to want that and exactly what I use too. It still sucks for people that did want to start their prints locally and control them over the app.
dspillett•about 1 hour ago
> I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video

Try https://youtu.be/0tdZ5Z7nRDY?si=vjnJ90p6ba_Xik9B for a less emotive take on this specific case, and the closely related matter of Bambu's attempt to circumvent some of AGPL's protections.

Aurornis•43 minutes ago
Since you’re familiar with the topic, any sources that are not YouTube videos?
dspillett•25 minutes ago
Not that contain any information not covered in the above, or aren't LLM summaries of summaries of the matter, unfortunately. At least not that I've seen thus far. Such is the current timeline, where everything has to be a monetizable video, slop, or both…
jonpurdy•about 1 hour ago
Very useful comment. I’ve had an A1 Mini for a year now and it has been my favourite purchase in years. Like when I got my first mobile phone, I feel like I’ll have some sort of 3d printer for the rest of my life. Bambu made it super easy and inexpensive for this to happen.

I’m completely against bullying and attempts to lock out open source software from using 3d printers directly; if they locked out OrcaSlicer from direct control I’d have a big problem with that.

But trying to interact directly with Bambu’s private infrastructure/APis seems reasonable for Bambu to block. I think a cease and desist might backfire on Bambu but i don’t think it’s unreadable. (Didn’t watch the video. Just getting context from parent comment. )

dspillett•about 1 hour ago
> But trying to interact directly with Bambu’s private infrastructure/APis seems reasonable for Bambu to block.

Even if they have taken away other routes that used to exist so that this is the only way?

I've also been very happy with my A1 (bought ~18 months go), and have since bought a U1 (which has networking problems of its own, but is otherwise a great upgrade) alongside it. Unless Bambu changes its tack significantly I'll not be buying another of their machines or more of their materialsÂą.

--------

[1] well, maybe the light grey PLA as I've not yet found anything similar enough easily available in the UK, and it is perfect for prints that I want to look neutral or for some scifi ships & similar…

stavros•about 1 hour ago
It's not like you have a choice, the printer doesn't work locally unless you enable LAN mode, and then it only works locally. Bambu make you pick either "closed servers" or "the mobile app doesn't work" for no reason.

I'll chip in to this developer's legal defense fund because I want to be able to do whatever I want with my printer, and "I can't do what I want with my printer" is a bigger problem for me right now than "the developer made a TCP connection on my behalf to a server he didn't own".

switchbak•about 1 hour ago
But we’re geeks, we can run tailscale on the local lan and access it anywhere, no? Obviously that’s not for everyone, but that’s workable for savvy users, no?
xattt•44 minutes ago
Although local LAN control is still unhindered, browsing the filesystem on the printer from the slicer is locked behind cloud mode.

Getting cloud mode means using Bambu Studio. Getting Bambu Studio means one more notch in slowly getting locked into the walled Bambu garden.

PunchyHamster•about 1 hour ago
Definitely gives me second thoughts about getting one. They look like easiest way to get into 3d printing as a tool (rather than another hobby), but their recent attitude just makes me think I should suffer a bit less advanced product just to not have to deal with that shit.
comboy•19 minutes ago
There's some drama, and they did some wrong calls. But the hardware is still really fantastic (as a X1C owner). If you want to have some things printed and don't necessarily want fine tuning your printer as a hobby, I highly recommend it.
vitaflo•about 1 hour ago
You can use Bambu printers fully offline. All this vitriol about them is severely misplaced IMO.
HowTheStoryEnds•about 1 hour ago
Where can I get the source code they modified?
stavros•about 1 hour ago
That comes with a big caveat. You can either choose to use the printer offline, or online, with no ability to use both. If you want the ability to monitor or pause a print when you're not home on the off chance something goes wrong, you HAVE to send every print through their cloud, there's no middle ground.

That's not Bambu being open, that's them doing the absolute minimum to allow people to say "you can use Bambu printers fully offline" in comment sections.

greggsy•35 minutes ago
Can you access all that on you local lan though?

If so then you could access it over a reverse proxy like Tailscale.

Its trivially easy to set one up these days.

Toutouxc•about 1 hour ago
Wait, that’s still just about their phone app. When you disable the cloud features, you lose the phone app, but otherwise the printer is fully usable. You can still connect to it through Bambu studio, you just have to roll your own networking (e.g. a VPN), right?
sottol•35 minutes ago
Bambu also tried to patent several widely used techniques in china, fyi.

https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/6/141

rdiddly•about 1 hour ago
Can someone explain to me like I'm 5, why you would need to communicate with a cloud service to use a 3D printer?
coldbrewed•about 1 hour ago
Remote device control allows for running and monitoring prints from another networks with zero effort, but more importantly local device control can't be monetized. It's just about the money.
delecti•about 1 hour ago
To steelman their use case, Bambu has marketed themselves as the most approachable way to get into 3D printing. In addition to their low prices, that includes ease of setup, and ease of going from a model on their website to a physical object in your hand. If you're already getting the model from their website (and realistically, the overwhelming majority of 3d prints are downloaded), then having their online software ecosystem handle everything for you just reinforces that approachability.

But realistically, because if they control how you use your machine, they can start skimming profit off of those digital services every time you print something. That's only works if they have control over how you use the machine in your house.

To outward appearances, they seem to be trying to recreate the printer ink/razor blade business model on 3d printers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor-and-blades_model#Printer...

isoprophlex•28 minutes ago
The RFID reading of their Bambu brand filament spools sure is convenient... for now. Give it a few more years and you might not be able to print non-bambu filament. The hardware side is fully equipped for this bullshit, just takes one more braindamaged MBA to have a Great Idea
davidee•31 minutes ago
This isn't defending Bambu, and it's not an ELI5 because, whether you meant it sarcastically or not, the easy answer to your question is "you do not need to connect to a cloud service to use a 3D printer".

Bambu Labs however, has chosen to market their printers with an app that provides a "one-stop shop" for all things 3D-printer. You can browse their version of Thingiverse (or Printables or Cults 3D) and send jobs directly to your printer. You can also access your printer remotely (read outside your home network without tunnelling/port-forwarding/VPNs) to monitor prints, get notified when a print is done, get notified you've run out of filament, watch the printer work if it's equipped with a camera, etc. etc.

Bambu has been attempting to remove features that enable easy local (not-internet-connected) use cases and force everyone to use the cloud, etc. Or at least make it as painful as possible to skip the cloud.

Relevant context: X1C owner who did not update the firmware that forced bambu's "secure printing" workflow on users that previously used their local network "plugin".

I stopped using Handy, blocked the printer's access to the internet, and ultimately, did not miss a thing. The printer continued to work fine with my slicer of choice (softfever's fork of Bambu Lab studio's fork of Prusa Slicer's fork of slic3r, now known as OrcaSlicer).

Like most things these days, they make a decent printer, but are part of tech's steadfast march to control everything. The twist is that they're in a space defined very much by breaking control.

freeopinion•36 minutes ago
Should we start with an explanation of why you would need to communicate with an IP network to use a 3D printer? Is it impossible to just plug in a USB connection and print?
galleywest200•33 minutes ago
On my Bambu printer I keep it offline and use the SD card to transfer files to it like some kind of caveman.
junon•about 1 hour ago
You don't really, but the entire ecosystem is quite ergonomic for people who don't want to fiddle with software, connections, config, permissions, etc. and Just Print something.

Not defending Bambu. The UX is quite straightforward and easy, however.

gambiting•about 1 hour ago
So obviously it's not necessary at all, but Bambu built their entire brand on ease of use - the app allows you to pick from thousands and thousands of premade models and send them to your printer directly from the app. Judging by the Facebook Bambu groups, most people never bother with installing PC Bambu Studio. And because phones don't necessarily have the raw power to slice the model on device, it's sent to their servers for slicing to fit your printer and filament type.

So it's a nice to have thing, but it could have very easily been optional. Instead they made it so that every print, even ones sent from Bambu Studio, has to go through their servers(unless you enable Lan mode)

Jabrov•29 minutes ago
“Our cloud services are inundated” … says company that killed product from working offline and forced it to be connected
TurdF3rguson•32 minutes ago
30 Million requests per day is not coming from hobbyists, and even if it were, a $40/month VPS can handle that easily.
j1elo•about 1 hour ago
Pawel Jarczak could consider donating the code to an anonymous random friend who happened to upload it to a chinese code forge where development could continue.
amelius•about 1 hour ago
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the_af•44 minutes ago
I have to say the Bambu A1 Mini has been a game changer for me. I wouldn't own a 3D printer otherwise. While it doesn't really "just work" as the hype would have it (I believe this is impossible with current tech), it comes pretty damn close. Probably the printer that does it best.

I didn't want another hobby, fiddling with settings and materials, and generally going down the 3D printing rabbit hole. I just wanted to print stuff for my actual hobbies. And the A1 does this, with little fuss, for which I am forever grateful.

wpm•4 minutes ago
Have you owned any other printers?

So much of this opinion sounds like a Bambu ad read from YouTube, as if they're the only ones making printers that just work now, like a Prusa can't crank out perfect first layers without breaking a sweat.

daneel_w•16 minutes ago
I have the A1 Mini as well. Mostly having sat unused since I bought it a few years back, I'm now wondering if the thing will function normally again. Any advice on basic "cold boot" maintenance? It's been a year since I last turned it on.
galleywest200•31 minutes ago
This is part of the reason their attempts frustrate me so much. I love my A1 Mini but I do not want to support this kind of behavior so I will probably go to another company if I ever upgrade.
smitty1e•about 2 hours ago
Who are some 3D printer vendors that are worthy of support?
sottol•about 1 hour ago
I would have said Prusa a year or two ago but they've reneged a little on their open-ness. That was probably in response to Bambu being fully closed and gaining so much market share.

The Core line of printers seems promising and a big leap towards closing the gap towards Bambu's corexy printers but haven't used one yet and I've been out of the game a little. Bambu though is probably more of a high-end appliance type than Prusas more utilitarian feel.

GuB-42•about 1 hour ago
I'd say Prussa.

I am not going to say they are perfect, but I think they have a good balance of ethics, openness, product quality, innovation, availability and price. By that I mean their are the best in none of them, but I don't think of anything better as a combination.

nullstyle•about 1 hour ago
Prusa sat on its haunches for a decade, happy to leave progress on the table as long as their salaries got paid. Bambu actually got non-technical people into the hobby and has always had more bang per buck.

Buy a bambu; use Orcaslicer

Edit: didn't mean to say "held the industry back"; I would categorize my opinion more along the lines of "were happy to get fat on past offerings" or the like.

sottol•44 minutes ago
My thing with bambu was always that they polished whatever the industry (and hobbyists) had invented and closed it all off, then also innovating on top of that but never giving back unless they _had_ to. Polish and mechanical design are great but corexy kinematics, input-shaping are imo what made the X1 stand out as the fast+good-qual printer when it launched. A lot of what they added on top was then to build a moat.

This may be a controversial take, but imo it would be Bambu to set the industry back by a decade if they "win" and lock up the market. That's clearly their strategy afaict.

Does anyone remember Bambu patenting existing open inventions as their own? I can't seem to find good links anymore (?!) but there's some details here https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/6/141

therouwboat•40 minutes ago
I did quick search and bambu p2s seems to be 30% faster than prusa mk4s and few hundred cheaper. Prusa is more accurate, more open and has better spare parts supply. Bambu doesn't have wifi connection unless I use their cloud?

I'm gonna keep using mk4s.

stavros•about 1 hour ago
How did Prusa hold the industry back? Were they suing other printer manufacturers who innovated?

"Not innovating myself" isn't the same as "holding other's innovations back".

Lukas_Skywalker•about 1 hour ago
I have a Prusa MK3S and it has been very very reliable. There's also a ton of mods you can download and print, which modify or extend the printer for specific use cases. They are a bit more expensive then their Chinese counterparts, but in my opinion, it's definitely worth the extra cost for the peace of mind.
kennywinker•about 1 hour ago
I just bought a qidi printer. It arrives in a few days, so I can’t speak to the machine’s quality beyond saying it’s reviewed pretty well - but the software is all open source klipper with no locks preventing you from modifying it. The hardware itself is closed source, but if you want an open hardware machine in 2026 you need to build your own voron.
cjbgkagh•about 1 hour ago
Obviously it depends on what you’re doing and what is importante to you. It’s hard to beat Bambi Labs H2D or X2D for versatility, practicality, and price. Engineering filaments are getting a lot cheaper as the market expands so it helps to have a printer than can handle those. Given Bambi Labs is so cheap compared to the alternatives customers would probably be better off putting aside the savings to buy a second printer from a different supplier when one starts to catch up.
stavros•about 1 hour ago
Prusa is the most open of the printer manufacturers. They did have to backtrack a bit because Bambu copied their slicer to use for themselves and undercut them, but they're still as open as you can get in a capitalist economy.
iwontberude•about 1 hour ago
They just can’t help themselves, they want market share and the margins
selectively•41 minutes ago
Oh boy, the lunatic libertarian that maintains a Kiwi Farms account and engages in a great deal of harassment has opinions.

This is HN. This isn't YouTube. Rossman is beneath this place.

rafram•about 1 hour ago
When was the last time Rossmann had anything nice to say? He seems utterly miserable. I don’t doubt this is an important issue, but when he inserts himself into a dispute, it only gets more overblown and vitriolic on all sides.

(The ridiculous NYC to Austin thing is pretty representative. Complained incessantly about loony liberal New York, moved to Austin, now he complains about Texas. Sorry! Turns out there is no utopia for pathological contrarians.)

gambiting•42 minutes ago
He's just like Steve nowadays - he built his entire brand on being angry, so he has to be angry or his core audience will leave. And if that's what you like then fine, but for me it's just not interesting anymore.
overfeed•17 minutes ago
It's the sad thing about field experts who become YouTubers: to keep up the viewership, they undergo self-Flanderization.

I was sad to watch Sabine Hossenfelder devolve from a level-headed critic of how research is done, into a loony crank who select the contrarian angle on every issue. I'm sure the YouTube analytics inform her which topics perform better.

chappi42•about 1 hour ago
Rossmann lost all my respect when he shit-talked GrapheneOS. Bambu works great. He can rant around the world while monetizing his videos. I neither care nor listen.
HowTheStoryEnds•about 1 hour ago
Bambu Labs is completely ignoring their legal duties under the AGPL code they used while trying to make others comply to their licensing terms through abuse of the legal system.

Nobody forced them to use said code, they chose to when it was in their best interest and now they renege on the part in the license (the only thing that gives them a right to use and build on said code) when they deem it not in their interest any longer and think they're big enough to squash individuals protesting.

Nothing wrong there, right, chairman?

daneel_w•about 1 hour ago
If you are referring to his video from May 2023, "Why I deleted GrapheneOS", it is about the team lead, Daniel Micay, not about GrapheneOS itself. He, in fact, praises GrapheneOS to no end in the very same video.
hamdingers•38 minutes ago
Perhaps the fact that he brings petty interpersonal drama wherever he goes is the root of the complaint?
daneel_w•29 minutes ago
If you with "he" mean Daniel Micay, I unfortunately agree, based on observations from previously having idled in the GOS Discord for a couple of years. Plenty of downright mean and unforgiving behavior, not seldom due to him misinterpreting others' statements and questions.
gosub100•about 1 hour ago
he projects a lot of is emotional issues into his work. I support what he does, but he appears to make himself miserable in the process.
cjbgkagh•about 1 hour ago
I think there is an element of audience capture. Similar to how ElectroBOOM has to keep electrocuting himself for his audience. It’s a living…
stavros•about 1 hour ago
Maybe you know this, but ElectroBOOM doesn't actually electrocute himself, it's just a running gag.