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Bambu Lab A1 Mini

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Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#121

Post by blitz_skull »

function_seven wrote: post #40
alsodumb wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh, classic hackernews upvoting the 'I hate cloud' comment to the top. I have a few Bambu lab printers (perks of being a grad student) and their offline mode is pretty good - there are printers in my lab that are pretty much never connected to internet and print 24/7. Sure, offline mode doesn't have all the features they mention on their website, but even without it, Bambu lab printers are better than their competit…

I totally believe that these printers are technically amazing. That’s why I made the Apple vs. beige box analogy. Those M-series chips and their hardware quality are way better. But there is stronger lock-in. I’ve been burned so many times by other products that I think my wariness is more than justified. And I’m not alone, which is why this is “classic”. (But the pricing is really good. I think I’ll wait and see a b…

I think this is a valid analogy. Albeit, one that makes me all the more excited to buy a Bamboo. I’ve been a software engineer for a while now and personally I adore Apple’s approach to products. It just works. I don’t have to spend time fucking around with things I don’t want to. And most importantly, IT JUST WORKS.

I hate what a pain it is to just get straight lines to print on my 3D printer! It shouldn’t be this hard.

Granted, hopefully a swing towards Bamboo will put pressure on the other players in the market and they’ll up their game so that all the non-enthusiasts who just want to print can select from a variety of products.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#122

Post by darknavi »

alsodumb wrote: post #37
function_seven wrote: post #4

EDIT: After some more poking around, I’m finding out that the cloud features of this thing are pretty integral to the experience. This thing looks nice, but the enshittification scaffolding is too much. I knew the price was too good. ORIGINAL COMMENT: Wow, I've been out of the 3D printing world for a bit. I have a Monoprice Maker Ultimate (Wanhao D6, rebadged) that has a slightly larger build area, but otherwise it's…

Ahh, classic hackernews upvoting the 'I hate cloud' comment to the top. I have a few Bambu lab printers (perks of being a grad student) and their offline mode is pretty good - there are printers in my lab that are pretty much never connected to internet and print 24/7. Sure, offline mode doesn't have all the features they mention on their website, but even without it, Bambu lab printers are better than their competit…

Can you connect Octoprint to them? I have an Ender now but I'd love to upgrade to a multi-spool printer.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#123

Post by fps-hero »

turnsout wrote: post #113
foxylad wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 3d printing journey seems to have ended with a Prusa Mini. Really solid and well engineered device, and it's delightful that Prusa acknowledge the open-source hardware and software they depended on to build their company. BambooLab... well it is a nice machine, and they have definitely advanced the the field with input shaping. But this machine is pretty much a Prusa Mini with linear rails, and I'd bet there is op…

People seem to love their Prusa machines… I've seen that brand mentioned by people who run 10+ machines for small-scale production runs. Can you add any color about why you chose Prusa, and how you view them within the broader market? Are they the Honda CRV of the 3D printer world?

If you want to use a car analogy, Prusa is the Toyota of the 3D printing world. No-one is arguably what they offer isn’t high quality, it’s just it’s 5 years too late, and costs too much.

For a company that’s been leading the charge on hobbyist 3D printing, they completely missed the boat on the Voron style printers. If they had simply mass produced a voron style 250x250x250mm printer, right around the time they announced the XL, and actually delivered it, the world would be a different place, and you could talk about Bambu Labs and Prusa in the same sentence.

Prusa is getting destroyed at every price point in every measure of quality. You can get the same quality for cheaper, or better quality for the same price.

Prusa’s ideological purity in reprap style printers has held them back. No significant innovations in hardware, no economies of scale from mass production, using open source firmware but failing to take advantage of community innovations like input shaping. The only place they really had an edge in was the slicer, which turned out to be the most portable part of their ecosystem.

Bambu labs illustrates how glacially slow the 3D printing industry have been innovating. A Prusa MK4 isn’t that far detached from the I3 that came 10 years before it. If the list of improvements amounts to a couple of dot points, that’s a sorry state of affairs.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#124

Post by iancmceachern »

javawizard wrote: post #70
antirez wrote: post #46

This looks much better than it actually is for a couple of reasons: - Multicolor is not something you actually use often and is horribly slow. Slow like in a 2 hours print becomes 12 hours print if it's colored. And it wastes a lot of plastic (and doing so does a lot of noise, too). - The printer can't print things like ASA. Limited to PLA/PETG/TPU. - While the design of the hotend and swappable nozzle looks nice at…

> Multicolor is not something you actually use often and is horribly slow Let's get the straw man out of the way: "multicolor" is not the only use for printing with multiple filaments. I own an X1C. I print with breakaway support filament all the time. It's a total game changer. And since only two filament changes are required for each layer that has a support interface, the time it adds to a print is negligible. The…

Exactly.

And for me, it's a huge time saver to not have to manually change filaments between prints, or changing over to a new role of the sake filament mid print. There are lots of reasons the AMS is a huge time saver that don't involve multi material printing.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#125

Post by iancmceachern »

function_seven wrote: post #4

EDIT: After some more poking around, I’m finding out that the cloud features of this thing are pretty integral to the experience. This thing looks nice, but the enshittification scaffolding is too much. I knew the price was too good. ORIGINAL COMMENT: Wow, I've been out of the 3D printing world for a bit. I have a Monoprice Maker Ultimate (Wanhao D6, rebadged) that has a slightly larger build area, but otherwise it's…

It's founded by former DJI engineers, what did we expect?

Top of class hardware tech, great design, almost too good to be true pricing, software is a bit weird and has some "weirdness".

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#126

Post by iancmceachern »

regularfry wrote: post #106
margor wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RFID reader is not a thing when you don't use AMS (for multi color printing). RFID is used to identify the filament, otherwise you just have to set it manually on what did you load to which holder.

That's one shitty CEO change away from "your AMS will only work with our filament" and they've already sold you the hardware to do it.

This problem has been solved on other printers. The dimension has been "jailbroken". Yoi can buy the rfid chips, reprogram them, people sell already done ones and even complete knock off filament cartridges.

It's just like ink jet printers, you say this will be a problem but it just won't, the community will solve it for you.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#127

Post by iancmceachern »

function_seven wrote: post #112
margor wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RFID reader is not a thing when you don't use AMS (for multi color printing). RFID is used to identify the filament, otherwise you just have to set it manually on what did you load to which holder.

Are the RFID tags available to filament makers? Can I order some myself so I can put them on other spools?

Yes, apparently there are places where you can buy the tags.

Here us a good thread on the whole thing:

https://github.com/Bambu-Research-Group/RFID-Tag-Guide

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#128

Post by iancmceachern »

function_seven wrote: post #42
jdietrich wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bambu printers will accept G-code on a MicroSD card, like basically any 3D printer ever. The cloud stuff is optional, but very useful. I completely understand why people hate Bambu Lab, but I wish they'd understand why other people like them. If you want a new hobby, there are lots of excellent FDM printers on the market. If you just want to print good parts, you'd be a fool to buy anything other than a Bambu. There'…

A lot of responses to my comment keep mentioning the amazing technical details of this hardware. I believe it. I am not complaining about the hardware being subpar. That’s not my beef. If I have to schlep an SD card back-and-forth from my laptop to my printer, that’s a crap experience. And for them to block local network uploading—and force you to make an account for that feature—sorry, that is a classic dark pattern…

You don't have to sneakernet it.

That's why they made this cloud enabled software, you should use that.

You hypothetically have to sneakernet it because you refuse to embrace new tech.

Ultimately 3d printers are like washing machines or vacuums. They're not a lifetime purchase. But it, use it for 4 years while it's up to date and has support, etc. Then when it doesn't, buy a new one.

It's like the people that worry about parts availability for 10 years from now when they buy a Camry. As long as you buy a Camry not a Jaguar, you will be able to buy parts.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#129

Post by iancmceachern »

I'm a hardware product design engineer, have been using 3d printers for 20 years professionally to get my work done.

Recently purchased an X1 Carbon with 2 AMSs and its incredible. It's a very high quality, enabling, wonderful piece if equipment.

I have used dozens of professional machines that cost hundreds of thousands, built, bought and run many lower cost machines also.

I can only count on one hand the number of times I've been this impressed by a 3d printer when it came out, and never by a printer even remotely in the X1s process range.

I think this A1 mini is a great entry level printer, if you only have $500 to spend on a printer, get this one. If you have $1500 get the X1.

Re: Bambu Lab A1 Mini

#130

Post by function_seven »

iancmceachern wrote: post #127
function_seven wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the RFID tags available to filament makers? Can I order some myself so I can put them on other spools?

Yes, apparently there are places where you can buy the tags. Here us a good thread on the whole thing: https://github.com/Bambu-Research-Group/RFID-Tag-Guide

Thanks for that link. It’s cool that people are hacking on this thing. But my question should have ended with “from Bambu?”

This sentence from your link…

> Since we don't know how Bambulab will react on this guide and the general reverse engineering of the tags: Please don't share you tag's UID and the related keys for now.

…means the answer is “no”. That the RFID system is meant to drive sales of their own inkjet cartri—er, I meant filament spools.

People have hacked the Keurig 2 coffee pod system, people have reverse-engineered Lexmark’s toner control system. Neither of those initiatives made me a more likely to purchase from Keurig or from Lexmark.

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