Today's inkjet printers charge mandatory subscriptions and lock you to their supplies? If so, much has changed since I owned one. I know they always scare you into buying their things, but never locked you into it. My HP laser (not inkjet) printer will happily accept third party toner cartridges.
> Today's inkjet printers charge mandatory subscriptions and lock you to their supplies? I guess you're not aware HP has been doing this for a few years now?
Obviously not. Wow, that sucks. Thankfully my HP laser printer doesn't.
I assume you're into multi-material printing and want a true multi-extruder setup. Then, quality wise your remaining options are: Prusa, Flashforge, and Snapmaker. Snapmaker very recently just shot themselves in the foot in a similar way that Bambu did, so you're left with Prusa and Flashforge. Of the two remaining, I really only trust Prusa. Yes you pay a lot more, but I guess that's some sense voting with your wall…
Another option would be a Voron kit with INDX or some other tool changer added to it. (Also, what did Snapmaker do? I thought they were relatively innocuous?)
Oops my bad, I mixed up Flashforge and Snapmaker. It was Flashforge that also started closing down their ecosystem. Snapmaker has been having a good track record so far with their open-source Klipper-based firmware and I hope they continue to do so!
I think the answer is still Prusa. It's mostly Chinese companies undercutting Prusa's price and they probably care as little about free software licenses and users as Bambu. I saw this mess coming from miles ahead (and it will repeat itself), so when it was time to replace our Ender 3v2, I got a Prusa printer. Yes, it was much more expensive than Bambu, but at some point we have to put our money where our mouth is. W…
The Prusa i3 mk4 is about 4 times as expensive as the roughly equivalent A1. Their stuff also seems to have less features and less polish. I get voting with your wallet but not many people want to spend 4x more for a worse product.
> I get voting with your wallet but not many people want to spend 4x more for a worse product.
Yeah as much as I like Prusa, I really hope they figure out how to cut down their prices because, let's be real, most of the people buying a 3D printer don't give a cent about how "open" it is, and if Prusa continues this trend I'm afraid it'll become obsolete. Having competitors with genuinely good products (like Bambu, despite them not being a good company) is healthy, but not helpful if Prusa doesn't do anything to catch up to their competitor.s
You didn't specify a price range, but a Prusa Core One with INDX, or a Prusa XL could work if you aren't price sensitive. I have heard good things about the Snapmaker U1 that just released, though apparently the slicer software isn't quite there yet, but you could just run stock OrcaSlicer instead. Time will tell how reliable and more importantly serviceable the Snapmaker is. Prusas are renowned for both of those.
The upcoming INDX looks promising. But I can't see how Prusa solves the "dust and moisture" problem. They don't have something like Bambu Lab's AMS, do they? Same problem with the Snapmaker U1. Edit: the Snapmaker U1 also seems to have an open top, which is problematic for ABS, I assume.
Instead of hanging spools off the side, get a few Creality Space Pis or similar filament dry boxes you can print directly from.
If I were to leave a key to my house in public, it would still be breaking and entering if someone entered my house without my permission. Not saying Bambu is in the right here, but your view of how the law works is a bit lacking.
You didn't leave a key somewhere, you distributed the key publicly and gave everyone permission to use it. Now you're threatening someone for taking and posting a photo of that key.
Not only that, but you also made it so anyone using the key must also make it publicly available to others.
You didn't specify a price range, but a Prusa Core One with INDX, or a Prusa XL could work if you aren't price sensitive. I have heard good things about the Snapmaker U1 that just released, though apparently the slicer software isn't quite there yet, but you could just run stock OrcaSlicer instead. Time will tell how reliable and more importantly serviceable the Snapmaker is. Prusas are renowned for both of those.
But what does Prusa offer for dust and moisture free filament storage? Why doesn't Prusa copy the "enclosed filament storage on top of printer' solution that is so much better then spools dangling on the side? I don;t want to but a BamuLabs I am willing to spend 2k+, but not on a printer that does not have a properly integrated filament solution.
Plastic degrades over time with heat. Filament that stays in an "enclosed filament storage on top of printer" will either have to be hermetically sealed or actively heated to keep moisture out of the plastic. Given the very nature of these boxes (they need to feed filament to the printer through a tube), they can't be sealed - so you're left with either something that doesn't keep filament dry for long, or degrades it over time due to over reliance on keeping it hot.
> Today's inkjet printers charge mandatory subscriptions and lock you to their supplies? I guess you're not aware HP has been doing this for a few years now?
Obviously not. Wow, that sucks. Thankfully my HP laser printer doesn't.
Yeah, hang on to that thing. Pass it down to your grandkids, etc. :D
I don't know why it's so mysterious for you. It's not an open hardware platform and prusa is the gatekeeper here.
I think it's as misterios to GP as to anyone else, inclusing yourself given how difficult it seems to be to come up with an actual answer.
No. It's easy. I develop tools. Some of which are tools I may want to sell to other. if I am dependent on a platform to make money, I don't want to ask permission to do so.
But what does Prusa offer for dust and moisture free filament storage? Why doesn't Prusa copy the "enclosed filament storage on top of printer' solution that is so much better then spools dangling on the side? I don;t want to but a BamuLabs I am willing to spend 2k+, but not on a printer that does not have a properly integrated filament solution.
What is wrong with a set of third party dry boxes, possibly even cheap DIY ones? I seem to remember there is a common plastic box that is made for storing cereal in that is just the right size. Just add some reverse Bowden tubes and put a series of those on top of the printer. https://www.printables.com/search/models?q=drybox shows plenty of fancier alternatives as well.
The filament handling is part of the printer to me. You wouldn't want a car without a gas tank (just strap a jerrycan on the roof), or a table saw without dust collection. Ok, bad examples but to me the filament handling is part of the problem I want solved. And I want it solved in a single machine/ setup. I have an old prima that I made en enclosure for and a bit Ikea tub with silica beads and 5 spools of filament routed through custom tubes to the MMU. That is a messy setup, takes a lot of space, and look like crap. If I spend north of 1k or maybe 2 for an upgrade, I want the entire problem solved. Not 80% with an implied hobby project included. No thanks