Last year I said I'd probably never recommend another Bambu Lab printer again. I still use my P1S, but after Bambu Lab started pushing their always-connected cloud solution as the new default: I blocked the printer from the Internet via my OPNsense Firewall I stopped updating the firmware I locked the printer into Developer mode I deleted Bambu Studio and started using OrcaSlicer I had to do that to keep it under my control, instead of Bambu's.
  • 0ops@piefed.zipEnglish
    41·
    14 hours ago

    Damn, I naively bought an A1 a few months ago for my first 3d printer. “Easy for beginners” was really all I knew about them at the time

    • sbeak@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      2 hours ago

      I have an A1 too, and when the news came out that third-party slicers (like OrcaSlicer, which I was and still am using) were going to be blocked, I set my printer to LAN only mode. I wouldn’t recommend a Bambu to newbies to 3D printing anymore, but I’m stuck with mine and it has been printing ok. Like any printer, it struggles with overhangs and such, it’s not always a magic “it just works” experience".

    • Tayb@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      13 hours ago

      Bambu Lab printers to me are for the people who don’t care about tinkering on their printer as a hobby, and just want to print things without fuss. Stay in their Apple-like ecosystem and their cloud environment and you’ll be perfectly happy. If you want the printer itself to be the hobby, there are a number of similar spec devices that with some tinkering can work just as well.

      • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        What are my options if I don’t want the printer itself to be the hobby, and I just want to print without fuss, but I also don’t want to deal with all that vertical integration crap?

        • sbeak@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2·
          2 hours ago

          Well, the most open you can get is Prusa’s machines. Repairable, upgradeable, with great customer service to boot.

          Other companies are more open than Bambu but few support the open-source movement like Prusa. Qidi, Elegoo, etc. all have great printers that I can recommend (Q2 and Centauri Carbon are fantastic options based on feature set) but they don’t use a very open firmware. They are compatible with OrcaSlicer and aren’t as bad as Bambu though.

      • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        5·
        11 hours ago

        You’re also giving money to a company that has completely screwed all the people who made 3d printing possible by a culture of open sharing.

    • PaleRider@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      13 hours ago

      They are… My daughter wanted one for Christmas last year because she’s into cosply and it works great out of the box for someone who has no idea about 3d printing…

      But from what I’ve read on here it’s not the best company because of all the proprietary shit they keep coming up with.

      For what daughter uses it for, it does the job and does it well…