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Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

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Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#231

Post by op00to »

zanderwohl wrote: post #53
sho_hn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy a Prusa in non-kit form, it's not any harder to unbox or operate, and more reliable, while generally achieving somewhat better results. Without phoning home and while maintaining the software Bambu forked theirs from. A recent review coming to a similar conclusion was Maker Muse' review of bedslingers. It's a channel I respect a lot, because he has over the years relentlessly disclosed emails of companies…

> it's not any harder to unbox or operate I agree with this > and more reliable I emphatically disagree with this. > while generally achieving somewhat better results I agree with this. I'd also like to add that my Prusa Mk3s+ is significantly slower than my P1S. Also, without the MMU it still cost more than my P1S with AMS. Choosing a Prusa is making a philosophical choice, because it's certainly not about convenien…

Is the fact that the printer is slower the main reason why you get better results?

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#232

Post by theshrike79 »

nunobrito wrote: post #225
theshrike79 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A typical car driver can't change the oil in their car, nor can they do a headgasket swap either. People don't go telling that Ford "refuses users to let their change their oil". It's all perfectly doable, but you do need the tools and an ability to follow a step by step guide with pictures.

Imagine Ford deciding their cars must drive at 50% their speed when the engine oil is older than 2 years and at the same time forbidding users from changing the oil. Yet there are always people justifying these type of awful practices as better for users. These aren't, the measures are only good for business.

Have you driven a German car ever?

They are SO LOUD if you don't service them at regular intervals. They're even doing fancy tricks to make sure you're not faking the service.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#233

Post by dagmx »

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…

I don’t understand why you think it was hackable or open?

Since the launch of the X1, it’s been closed firmware and tightly controlled. That’s always been the compromise people make to get one.

I’d really like to understand what bait and switch you think has happened, and what you could do before with officially sanctioned methods that you can’t now?

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#234

Post by hn8726 »

asah wrote: post #207

Their response: https://blog.bambulab.com/updates-and-third-party-integratio...

Honestly, the response is not that great. Right off the bat they're just going on the defensive, enumerating "false claims" that printer will require subscription etc. But the concern wasn't that Bambu _will_ do that, but that they _could_ do that, and generally that inserting Bambu's infrastructure as a mandatory step in the printing pipeline is _not great_.

Then, the first point in their `truth about the update` section:

> This is NOT about limiting third-party software. We're creating Bambu Connect specifically to ensure continued third-party integration while enhancing security. We're actively working with developers like Orca Slicer to implement this integration.

The `we're actively working` with Orca was already addressed by the OrcaSlicer developer [0]

> Bambu informed me of this change two days before their announcement.

and Bambu's idea of "working with" is helping to implement redirect from Orca to their own software that would actually start the print. Seems like limiting third-party software to me.

> This is beta testing, not a forced update. The choice is yours.

This is bizarre, surely beta firmware is intended to be release firmware at some point? If anything, the community outrage proved beta track to work as intended.

> About Panda Touch. We reached out to BTT as soon as we became aware of their product. We warned them that using exploited MQTT protocols...

Also addressed by BQ in [1], tl;dr they tried to work with Bambu but didn't get much response, only a warning that the MQTT might stop working in a future update. So technically Bambu _reached out_, but only to say "don't improve our product". In the end, Bambu is screwing over their customers more than BQ

Further down they still go and defend their decision

> When using third-party slicing software like Orca Slicer, the difference in users experience is not much.

and proceed to demonstrate that Orca Slicer will _easily_ open the new app which will be able to start the printing. Which is exactly what the community complained about, and doesn't address things like missing Linux support.

Finally, they're presenting a diagram showing how the new flow looks like. Except the diagram is missing any details about what the new software does — it doesn't show how, when and why the new software communicates with the cloud.

For someone with even cursory understanding of security, the changes just don't make much sense, and Bambu is not doing much to explain the security protocols they're trying to implement. For all I know they just slapped a private certificate somewhere in the Bambu Connect app and started signing requests to the printer, which doesn't improve security at all if the private key is already public

[0] https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/issues/8063#issuecom...

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/BIGTREETECH/comments/1i5lzzf/latest...

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#235

Post by stavros »

op00to wrote: post #228
stavros wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a printer. It had some stuff. I didn't want that stuff to be gone after I bought it. That's a bait-and-switch, because they didn't explicitly say "be aware, that stuff is going away on Jan 2025".

They never officially supported compatibility with Orca, or Home Assistant. Vendors break compatibility with unsupported stuff all the time. Don’t make purchase decisions on unsupported features if you’re gonna get all bent out of shape about it.

They officially supported me printing without an Internet connection, which is stopping now.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#236

Post by K0balt »

Xelbair wrote: post #164
theshrike79 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a matter of "charging more often". The phone just shut down when the battery was somewhere between 0-40% Source: had two 6S's in the family. In the cold it could just suddenly shut down mid-call from 60% battery.

you are still missing the point. USER should chose that. not apple. not all of them shut down, someone might get a battery replacement. What apple should've do is to introduce a toggle, give a warning in notification. and in case of crash, display it again.

Yes this would have been better.

But the way they did it was far from malicious. It only affected users who were actually in danger of an emergency shutdown, during times when the shutdown was imminent. While I don’t want anybody diddling my firmware without giving me a choice, this particular issue was really a nothing burger in the end.

It was discovered when it became apparent that replacing a defective battery made the phone faster. Seems like a standard reliability / user experience fix to me. Not Many people would choose the “don’t adjust system power consumption to prevent unplanned shutdowns when the battery is about to fail” toggle.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#237

Post by K0balt »

Xelbair wrote: post #221
theshrike79 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple (IMO rationally) chose that people would prefer a working phone, one they can use to call emergecy services, for example, to a phone that just suddenly dies. After the massive hissy fit the Internet threw (along with lawsuits), they added a switch. Now you can choose to have your phone suddenly die. But the legend lives on that "Appple slowed down phones permanently!!" - even though the fix for that is a 40€ ba…

Again, let user chose. apple sold a product, it's out of their hands to decide what users do with it. Maybe i want to use the device in a way that's 100% connected to the charger and repurpose it. It's not apple's business what I'm doing with it

If you left It hooked up to a charger, their fix would never have affected you. It only slowed down the cpu when the risk of catastrophic shutdown was imminent.

I like a toggle for features like this, but it was a pretty standard user experience / reliability choice imho.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#238

Post by bsder »

rustcleaner wrote: post #90
userbinator wrote: post #27

I'm not surprised that 3D printers are turning out to be as hostile as 2D ones. As usual these days, "security" is the excuse.

With 3D printing out for a while now, there's zero good reason IMHO that there isn't a 2D-plotter retrofit which allows someone to attach one or more [colored] pencils or pens. I'm really shocked the overpriced ink monopolies weren't attacked in this manner, as a young child I distinctly remember a kiosk in a grocery store which 'printed' messages and images on blank cards using colored pencils, for customer order. N…

> I'm really shocked the overpriced ink monopolies weren't attacked in this manner

Because those of us who understand mostly don't care. Those who know bought a Brother laser printer and got on with life.

When those who understand need genuine inkjet prints, we go to a store that owns a printer that is several orders of magnitude better than we will ever need and pay them a pittance to get it printed.

That having been said, I really do wish we had an open source laser printer because, at some point, Brother is going to pull this same bullshit.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#239

Post by K0balt »

nunobrito wrote: post #225
theshrike79 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A typical car driver can't change the oil in their car, nor can they do a headgasket swap either. People don't go telling that Ford "refuses users to let their change their oil". It's all perfectly doable, but you do need the tools and an ability to follow a step by step guide with pictures.

Imagine Ford deciding their cars must drive at 50% their speed when the engine oil is older than 2 years and at the same time forbidding users from changing the oil. Yet there are always people justifying these type of awful practices as better for users. These aren't, the measures are only good for business.

Forbidding them from changing the oil? I personally changed my battery, I did not feel like it was forbidden.

Not even that hard.

For me, the firmware fix helped me limp through the 2 months before I finally got around to replacing the battery.

It made my phone that was flaky and unreliable below 40percent battery into a phone that worked slightly slower once the battery got low, but didn’t just randomly shut off during calls anymore.

I’d have preferred a toggle, but to be honest I doubt I’d have ever used “reckless disregard for remaining battery capacity” mode.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#240

Post by Polizeiposaune »

zanderwohl wrote: post #55
Polizeiposaune wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on recommendations here a couple years ago I built a Prusa Mk3 from a kit (right before the mk4 came out). Building it took a while but I think was a worthwhile investment of my time and I think of it as a system I can understand rather than as a black box. I had a little bit of trouble with it maybe six months ago (repeatedly tripped offline during prints from a thermal issue) but Prusa's online support talked…

One thing to be said for Prusa is that their support is actually knowledgeable and experienced. You're not going to get a tier 1 support person who has never touched a printer and is just reading from a script.

Yep, my one support chat with Prusa was probably the best tech support experience I've had in at least a decade -- possibly longer.
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