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Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#351

Post by deepsun »

alnwlsn wrote: post #214
kn100 wrote: post #30

Full disclosure: I've never owned a Bambu because I've never loved the idea of a "closed" ecosystem 3D printer, however I have used them, and am very familiar with the 3d printing space beyond Bambu. For anyone considering alternatives: You should know that almost all other 3D printers expect you to know a little more about how they actually work than Bambus. Bambus are as close as you can get to a "just works" type…

If you decide to get a Bambu anyway, let me heartily recommend against an H2D. It did "just work" for a while, but then the print cooling fan went bad. On my home Voron, this would be a 5 minute fix. On the H2D, it is this [0]. You basically have to take the entire toolhead apart, removing the mainboard inside it with no less than 11 very tiny and fragile custom ribbon cables that connect to it, plus 5 more connectio…

Sounds like RC quadcopters society -- everyone knows DJI, but they make fan guards a part of the frame. Guards and props are the most fragile parts, a consumable really. Something an enthusiast often carry spares for, to quickly swap on the field for any other RC quad, but with DJI you need what, send the whole frame to factory?

Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#352

Post by dzhiurgis »

deepsun wrote: post #351
alnwlsn wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you decide to get a Bambu anyway, let me heartily recommend against an H2D. It did "just work" for a while, but then the print cooling fan went bad. On my home Voron, this would be a 5 minute fix. On the H2D, it is this [0]. You basically have to take the entire toolhead apart, removing the mainboard inside it with no less than 11 very tiny and fragile custom ribbon cables that connect to it, plus 5 more connectio…

Sounds like RC quadcopters society -- everyone knows DJI, but they make fan guards a part of the frame. Guards and props are the most fragile parts, a consumable really. Something an enthusiast often carry spares for, to quickly swap on the field for any other RC quad, but with DJI you need what, send the whole frame to factory?

I have DJI drone, broke prop maybe once, replaced in few minutes. Prop guards work as intended.

I did once got it into iron sand which seized the motors. Luckily their insurance covered full replacement.

There are much worse things about them like subpar performance or shitty way to access the card slot in Avata, but otherwise they solid.

Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#355

Post by 15155 »

xp84 wrote: post #268
bredren wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which garage door opener brands / models would you recommend?

Though I'm not OP, I will say that it seems like there are two brands that mostly have the market cornered. Chamberlain/Liftmaster/MyQ is all the same company; they are a gross company that hates the idea of giving you control over your device. Zero LAN control story, Zero Homekit story, zero Home Assistant and no possibility of any of these. Genie - whose "app" thing is called Aladdin Connect is the other one. There…

> no possibility of any of these.

Except, you know, a UART?

https://ratcloud.llc/

Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#356

Post by ok_dad »

15155 wrote: post #346
abigail95 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With no authentication it's a "gates down" scenario and it's assumed that if you put your server on the open internet you intend people to connect to it. With authentication it's "gates up" and then "without authorization" from CFAA kicks in. I think it's unlikely that a user agent string creates a "gates up" situation, especially not if it's from code granted under a permissive license.

The law isn't some autistic computer system, "authentication" is a very broad and amorphous term.

Even if that’s correct, Bambu has a right to then press charges on the users, but can’t really complain about the guy simply copying AGPL software to make it work. He’s not the one doing the illegal part.

Bambu clearly didn’t want to press charges on their users, though, so they weaponized the law to try and prevent this, and it’s causing them issues.

In any case, we’re not in some “only the laws matter” reality, we’re also have ethics and morals to consider, in which case Bambu is clearly in the wrong. If they want to secure their servers, they should do it properly rather than using legal threats.

Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#357

Post by dzhiurgis »

m4rtink wrote: post #265
kn100 wrote: post #30

Full disclosure: I've never owned a Bambu because I've never loved the idea of a "closed" ecosystem 3D printer, however I have used them, and am very familiar with the 3d printing space beyond Bambu. For anyone considering alternatives: You should know that almost all other 3D printers expect you to know a little more about how they actually work than Bambus. Bambus are as close as you can get to a "just works" type…

Given how I'm not sure there are 2D printers that really "just work" and don't throw opaque hard to track down errors at random - I actually like open 3D printers that do break, but you can be sure any issue is fixable & you will learn something new in the process. :)

I know it's popular to shit on 2D printers, but other than very often being very slow and running out of ink (or rubber rollers hardening after 20 years of use) - I actually didn't have any issues with them? But then I actually didn't really use them for 20 years either.

Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#358

Post by cassianoleal »

samatman wrote: post #280
cassianoleal wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Plus 4. It's usable but takes a lot of work to become decent, and needs a lot of maintenance.

Is it older than March 2025? The first year was rough, from what I've read. Mine arrived March 2025, it has taken no work to print excellently, and at about 700 hours I have lubricated it every 200 hours, and I just tightened the belts about 50 hours ago. That's it. If it's less than $100 a roll I've probably printed it. I have no complaints.

I bought it in June 2025.

From what I've gathered across Discord servers (QIDI official, QIDI unifficial and Team 7 mostly), there is a decent percentage of machines that more or less just work, as has been your experience. For the less lucky ones, it's a lifetime of tinkering. I'm on the latter cohort, unfortunately.

Not to mention that out of the box you need to lock the printer in a cabinet as its printing. It used to give me headaches to be close to it for more than a couple minutes.

Re: Bambu Lab is abusing the open source social contract

#360

Post by kennywinker »

shrx wrote: post #335
kennywinker wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like making the slicer only able to talk to the printer via the cloud was a bad way to do things, where any issue results in “instability felt by all users.”

It can talk to the printer directly if you use "LAN mode". This also work with 3rd party slicers like OrcaSlicer.

So if my printer isn’t working because their network is down, it’ll swap to lan mode for a seamless experience? No? Huh.
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