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Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

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Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#91

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

DrBenCarson wrote: post #78
nialv7 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bait-and-switch? We, those who advocate for open source 3D printers, saw it coming from miles away. This has very very clearly been their plan all along, they themselves said as much (e.g. they are doing the "apple model"). They have been very transparent about this, yet people still fell for it.

AFAIK, Apple has never retroactively removed functionality from devices people already purchased Selling a walled garden is one thing, building walls around a garden you already bought is another thing entirely

This is the Google model then. Base everything on open source, even allow unofficial builds of your operating system (LineageOS, Graphene), but slowly introduce more and more device attestation and DRM so it becomes de facto impossible to actually use anything but the closed builds because everything from banking apps and electronic identification apps to streaming apps will refuse to run on your "unsafe" operating system.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#92

Post by floating-io »

franga2000 wrote: post #70
throwaway48476 wrote: post #10

If 3D printing isn't kept open source there's going to be laws about what you can and can't print that will kill innovation.

I can't imagine the printers being open source or not mattering for that, nor can I see any reasonable government banning printing of specific things. If something is illegal to own or manufacture, that already applies to 3D printers just as much as it did to CNC machines or any other method.

Are you so sure?

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A2228?utm_ca...

Not quite the same, and hopefully likely to fail if it hasn't already, but it shows that interest exists in regulating 3D printers. When enough interest exists, things will happen.

JMHO.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#93

Post by asyx »

bhhaskin wrote: post #38
myself248 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Security" on behalf of the user is a complete red herring. You can't print to my 2d printer or my 3d printer, but I can, with "any old device or application". Because they're on my network, not public on the internet.

I disagree. These devices can easily burn down people's homes if given bad G-code. Then they would be sued into the dirt for a security whole a mile wide. Looking at the changes this is about liability.

There shouldn’t be a single printer on the market that doesn’t come with basic emergency cutoff features.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#94

Post by mattclarkdotnet »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #24

I am angry at the bait-and-switch Bambu is pulling. I bought one of their printers in the Black Friday sale on the understanding it was reasonably hackable and open. Now they're trying to lock it down so I can't print on my own printer without using their approved software and DRM chain. It's outrageous. More info on the hacking (the first in what may be a long stupid fight): https://hackaday.com/2025/01/19/bambu-con…

That makes as much sense as saying you bought an Apple laptop expecting it to be hackable

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#95

Post by i5heu »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #24

I am angry at the bait-and-switch Bambu is pulling. I bought one of their printers in the Black Friday sale on the understanding it was reasonably hackable and open. Now they're trying to lock it down so I can't print on my own printer without using their approved software and DRM chain. It's outrageous. More info on the hacking (the first in what may be a long stupid fight): https://hackaday.com/2025/01/19/bambu-con…

Is this a defect under the EU law?

If so one could get a refund :)

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#96

Post by cuu508 »

jopsen wrote: post #65
goda90 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's so much open source software, firmware, and hardware out there for FDM 3D printers, I doubt they'll ever get as bad as regular printers. It's much more a tinkerers world than 2D printing ever would be.

Are regular printers that bad, if buy brother? I bought a B/W laser printer and have been generally impressed with the lack of BS that came a long with it. It did ask for toner once, so I bought something from a third-party.

Some are good, some are bad, buyer beware.

No direct experience, but I recently read[1] Brother HL-L3220CW counts printed pages, and refuses to print after a set number of pages, even if there's still toner in the cartridge. Some models have a way to reset the page count but this one apparently does not.

[1] https://spicausis-lv.translate.goog/2025/01-brother/?_x_tr_s...

(I also use a Brother B/W laser printer, got it second hand for almost nothing, works fine)

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#97

Post by rleigh »

nialv7 wrote: post #40
hooverd wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open source didn't compete on quality for price. I could pay 2k plus 40 hours of my time for a Voron or buy something that just works. I think Prusa only put out their CoreXY offering after they realized Bambu was eating their lunch. The Apple model works because people want to print rather than tinker.

I paid ~$750 for my 350mm Voron 2.4 kit (and, sure, 40 hours of my time. But look, you want to do 3D printing, 40 hours are just a small initial investment).

It really depends upon the target market. That's fine for hobbyists. But I use the Bambu X1 for small-scale prototyping in a company, and it has to be usable out of the box. We can't justify an entire week of labour for each printer we buy.

The Bambu has been ideal for that reason. Every material pretty much just works, and the quality is excellent. The cloud integration and janky LAN mode is the downside, and this current topic even moreso.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#98

Post by ipv6ipv4 »

c0nsumer wrote: post #14

I've been following along with a lot of this, because having picked up one of their printers about a month ago, I was immediately very nonplussed with the security. It took some work to get it running isolated on an IoT VLAN, yet still usable from my main machine. Thus, on first blush, I welcome security improvements from them, but I'm also anxious to see what they hold. I do wonder where this is going with the keys,…

It's vendor lock-in (or DRM), not security. Security would be a protocol based on a user specific secret that doesn't inherently require locking down anything to Bambu Lab only software (think username/password). Vendor lock-in is about locking the user into using Bambu Lab software, which is what we see here.

You would never allow your bank account to be secured with something akin to Bambu Lab's "security fix".

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#99

Post by imtringued »

nicman23 wrote: post #71
MindSpunk wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But look, you want to do 3D printing, 40 hours are just a small initial investment No. None of this crap. I want to 3D print. I don't want to service industrial machinery in my spare time. Why should 3D printing require spending weekends troubleshooting machines just to keep the thing working? I want to print models not play repair technician. Vorons are fantastic printers and a fantastic kit if 3D printing itself…

because 3d printing is not there yet. the whole process is basically cnc but with z hops and extruding instead of removing material. we do not even have conical slicing yet.

It is. I have no interest in messing around with 3D printers and was annoyed by the fact that Bambu lab lied about the 15 minute setup time. It was more like 45 minutes, but after that I never touched the printer again and started printing instead.

Also, subtractive manufacturing is much harder than additive manufacturing, because you need to position the machine around an existing piece of stock and sequence your operations manually, instead of letting a generic slicing algorithm slice from bottom to top with an offset vs the intended printing location only being a problem if you accidentally print over the edge of the build plate, which is usually not possible mechanically.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#100

Post by nicman23 »

abtinf wrote: post #75
nicman23 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because 3d printing is not there yet. the whole process is basically cnc but with z hops and extruding instead of removing material. we do not even have conical slicing yet.

> because 3d printing is not there yet Ya, it is, and it’s been there for quite a while now thanks to Bambu. The X1 just works. Coming up on a year of frequent use, I can count the number of failed prints on one hand. It’s incredible.

i do not believe you. it is mostly a material issue not a printer issue
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