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Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

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261–270 of 367 posts

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#261
post #187
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Prusa was open and did compete. But for 3D printers that worked out of the box under $1000, Prusa had no real competition itself. The Mk3 came out in 2017 and I swear Prusa just sat on their laurels. I was a Mk3s+ owner (well, still am) and was pretty disappointed how little improved with the Mk4. Bambu’s competition was Prusa and they clearly strived to improve over what Prusa had accomplished.

The problem is even with Prusas recent efforts to catch up with the Core One, it's expensive, and they still dont have a viable answer to the AMS. The MMU is still a hot mess, requires tinkering, isn't stable and overall just doesnt come close to an out of the box experience. They still seem to be thinking the primary audience of 3d printers is people who tinker. It's not been that way for a long time. People just wa…

Prusa’s primary audience has been people who don’t want to tinker.

I think they just screwed up the design of the MMU but they never went back to the drawing board.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#262
post #34

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…

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.

no, it hasn't been their clear plan all along, and blaming the victims is not advocating for open source 3d printers. Fully open source, DIY 3d printers that are available today suck compared to Bambu. The commercial offerings built on top of Orca (I have a magneto X) suck compared to bambu.

The 3d printing community just slapped down heygears for similar BS to what bambu is pulling right now. Once Bambu hire some better software devs and sort out their issues, open access will return, I bet.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#263
post #117

I wish Prusa weren't asleep at the wheel, then we would have bought a core one (that is, the hypothetical variant with large build volume and same quality as bambulab). Instead, we bought a P1S, which is, technically speaking, a fantastic machine.

Not really asleep at the wheel. More like they invented the wheel, produced the open source slicer (a fork of the original slicer but vastly improved), which was then used by Bambu who could manufacture a printer for less in China rather than in the EU. Prusa themselves run 600 printers. They are commercial grade. If I was using a printer for commercial design or prototyping I would go with Prusa. Not only because I…

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Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#264
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just some of them: - Battery Management (iPhone 6, 6s, and SE): In 2017, Apple introduced a battery management feature in iOS 10.2.1 to prevent unexpected shutdowns by throttling the performance of iPhones with degraded batteries. This led to slower device performance without informing users, which is a removal of expected performance functionality. - 32-bit App Support: With the release of iOS 11 in 2017, Apple drop…

> This led to slower device performance without informing users, which is a removal of expected performance functionality. As opposed to the device unexpectedly shutting down due to a degraded battery not being able to push enough energy to support the CPU? They didn't remove expected performance, they prevented crashes which are by definition 0 performance. All Li-ion batteries degrade over time. That's not removing…

> This whole thing was totally overblown.

No, it isn't. If the battery was broken and they knew the battery was broken, they should have informed the user the phone could be fixed with a new battery. They decided to gimp the device and not tell the user so they would be more likely to purchase a new device rather than simply fixing the old one.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If NY state did require a background check to buy a 3D printer, you'd have to get one regardless of whether you're buying a prusa or a bambu printer.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#266

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.

Well, at least you can build a 3D printer at home. I built mine years ago (https://lucasoshiro.github.io/hardware-en/2020-06-14-3d_prin...) nowadays you can even build a better one.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#267
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bambu Lab have been quite explicit about this. Their consumer-grade printers rely on a cloud service; for people who want or need printing over a private LAN, they offer the X1E. https://store.bambulab.com/products/x1e

That hasn't been true for years, the regular X1C has an officially supported lan mode and works fine without any of the cloud stuff. (I believe the smaller ones do too, but I haven't used them so I can't speak to them).

Yup, P1S does as well. Well, did.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#268
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Take a load" = perform mechanically and or structurally at levels of force, temperatures, etc. at levels higher than the properties of PLA allow for. Don't get me wrong here. PLA is a great polymer, However you can't really expect parts made with it to hold up when compared to other "engineering grade" polymers.

I don't think anyone expects PLA to be used for anything that requires structural stability. There's far better filaments for that application. Some of the carbon fiber infused PETG filaments for example are incredibly strong. Not many people use 3d printing for applications that require extreme strength though, that's really not the goal many people are aiming for.

You would be surprised!

I do this for a living and people are always looking for more parts to run through the process and better filaments to see those parts end up performant.

CF-PETG is strong! For a bit more toughness and temp resistance, PA12CF35 is seeing a lot of use. Some companies out there have service departments to keep machinery running. They apply FDM more than you might expect. Alloy 910 for gears, Cf of various kinds for abrasive scenarios, like cardboard handling, in one scenario.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Take a load" = perform mechanically and or structurally at levels of force, temperatures, etc. at levels higher than the properties of PLA allow for. Don't get me wrong here. PLA is a great polymer, However you can't really expect parts made with it to hold up when compared to other "engineering grade" polymers.

Well for example layer bonding is better compared to some other materials. It's just that load over time it will creep. And of course shite under temperature. It can be a fantastic material for some functional parts. But even if not, I don't see how it's invalidates that there are printers out there that are more or less set and forget.

Bambu printers, or at least the one in our shop runs ASA set and forget style.

It is a great machine though it does not always make the strongest parts, and single material builds is geometry limiting. Lack of chamber heat and one nozzle makes some things easy, but does not entirely avoid the trouble with higher performing polymers.

Re: Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 op…

it is not that. i mostly mean that for anything functional that needs to take a load you need at least petg or asa (abs is a bit old now), which require proper storage. also there are so much stuff that are in open prs and issues for years that are not implemented for slicers.

There are countless firearm receivers that have been printed on pla plus, many with thousands of rounds on them. Sure they may turn into a puddle in a hot vehicle, but they are functional and definitely take a load. Pla + is actually preferred in that community over the others you mentioned, although asa is becoming more popular, along with filled nylon alloys.
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