7mo ago

Bamboo 3D Printers Disallowing Third Party Slicers

wiki.rossmanngroup.com

301 Moved Permanently

Summary https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1i3gq1t/why_you_should_care_about_bambu_labs_removing/

Lewis Rossman video https://youtu.be/aIyaDD8onIE

tl;dr: A firmware update scheduled for January 23rd will remove the ability of third-party software such as Orca Slicer or the Panda Touch to connect directly to your printer. Users of third-party slicers will have to export sliced files and load them in a new "Bambu Connect" app in order to start prints or manage the printer.

11 comments

And there it is. Isn't bambulabs also the ones that have RFID tags on their spools that they pinky promise are just used as convenience and will never be DRM?
- Yep, I'm pretty sure you can still just use spools without tags and then manually set the filament settings, but since they control the firmware and can block downgrades, they can at any time require RFID tags for it to print. And since the tags have proven to be mostly cryptographically secure, that leaves open an avenue for them to lock out third party filament. It looks like you can currently clone the tags, but in theory they could program them like printer cartridges where it will recognize when you've printed a full spools length from any specific RFID tag ID, and then block printing using that tag ID. That could make cloning the tags useless and force you to only buy bamboo filament just like HP and printer companies and their ink.
- My XYZ was similar, but thankfully they allowed spools to be used on the outside. I also found a print to allow me to respool the cartridges but can’t use the chip to monitor spool usage. But someone did come up with a way to reset those tags but I never got around to doing it.
  Hopefully the same can be done here too.
  Such a shame because while I don’t like FDM printing much anymore, Bamboo printers look like awesome printers minus all this BS.
Bambu straight used open source slicer and made it proprietary too?
And you have to be connected to their cloud service to print anything so there’s IP and security concerns for companies.
- IIRC Slic3r and all its derivatives are copyleft though, not permissive. Is Bambu doing a GPL violation?
- And you have to be connected to their cloud service to print anything so there’s IP and security concerns for companies.
  That’s ripe for abuse.
  Sounds like they’re going that route that some other manufacturers and slicers are going for “public safety” by preventing people from printing things like guns, but then it’s going to extend to more under the same guise.
I've been seeing a lot of comments on lemmy, youtube, various forums and 3d printing sites, of people promoting bambulabs printers lately.
I'm not saying they're definitely paying people or having employees go make comments pushing their products, but I do have a foil hat on standby...
I'm content with my own ender 3 setup with some modifications in an enclosure but for a split second, I actually considered Bambu for my next printer.
They killed my desire completely with all their proprietary shit.
Let me use whatever I want to use with the thing I own, or get completely fucked. Preferably by a cactus, but pineapples are an okay substitute
- I dunno about comments, but they are heavily doing the "give influencers a free printer" thing. I watch a bunch of maker/DIY stuff, and it feels like half the channels I watch got a Bambu printer lately.
- I mean their printers have a lot going for then. Easy setup, maintenance and they just work with basically no down-time. And for a long time they were just unbeatable when it came to the speed and quality of the prints.
  The move now is terrible but people recommending them is just logical.
We need the names of the CEO and board of directors more than the name of the company. The company didn't make itself shitty, the executives did.
We should know about it when they move to other companies to ruin them, too.
Same issue with the Ankermake M5. Don't buy it.

11 comments