I never bought a Bambu in the first place because all of this was foreseeable. Bambu costumers simply didn‘t care at the time.

I heard that the Centauri Carbon by Elegoo is a really good enclosed CoreXY printer for the price. The Qidi Q2 is the upgraded version of the Q1 Pro (which lots of people love very much), and it's s little more expensive than the Elegoo but it has additional features like a heated chamber. Those two would probably be my go-to picks if you want something good value.

However, if you have a higher budget, Prusa's machines are very reliable, have great customer support, and are upgradeable too! If you get them as a kit you can also save a bit of cost. Their Core One+ prints very well. You also have the Prusa XL, which is large and expensive and has six toolheads if you need it.

Avoid printers by Bambu, as they have been locking down on their ecosystem and blocking third-party software and hardware, and as Jeff Geerling recently mentioned, they have also been very hostile to open-source developers. Additionally, I've heard that Creality is also pretty shady company with not-so-great QC.

Another important thing to consider is what filament you want to print with. The Centauri Carbon will work just fine with PLA, PERG, or similar, but engineering-type filaments need a heated chamber like that on the Qidi Q2. The Centauri Carbon also currently does not have a multi material unit while both Qidi and Prusa do

I am still able to use OrcaSlicer on my Bambu A1 (which was bought before all these shenanigans) and mine is in v4.0.0.0 firmware with LAN only mode enabled. I believe newer machines require a special developer mode hidden deep in the settings to allow third-party software (stupid, I know).

It means you won't be able to use Bambu Handy (not too bad for my use case though)

There are plenty of videos discussing the topic though. If you don't have a Bambu printer yet, please don't go out and buy one. If you're stuck with one, put it to LAN only mode (or developer mode which is a special hidden LAN only mode on newer versions) to use OrcaSlicer

Turns out, the 3D printing world is thankfully NOT a duopoly. You have Qidi (their Q2 is very competitive from what I have heard), Sovol (makes a lot of good budget printers), Elegoo (lots of people love the Centauri Carbon), and even Voron machines if you're into those! And a majority of the competitors make good machines that can be on par, and often times cheaper, than Bambu's machines.

Additionally, Prusa not only is better for longevity, but you will also get far better customer support (Bambu's support isn't great)

Bambu is no longer to be trusted as they have been hostile to the open-source community, have blocked third-party software that used to work and hardware that people have bought, and no, putting it under a hidden developer mode doesn't fix the issue. There are additional restrictions like not being able to access your printer remotely without something like Tailscale!

And given that they already have RFID tags on their filaments, I believe it's a matter of time before they become the HP of 3D printers and block third-party filaments from being used

If you buy a Bambu P2S, you don't really own it. Bambu can see and control each file printed, and are suing anyone that attempts to rectify that change.

If you buy a Prusa Core One, you do own it.

The boycott just makes financial sense.

It might suck, but if you haven't, maybe give ImplicitCAD a try: https://media.ccc.de/v/bob2020-110_implicitcad_haskell_all_of_the_things

I'm looking to upgrade my ancient Ender-5 Plus and have been eyeballing Anycubic for the excellent pricing on multicolor printers.

You seem pretty knowledgeable, any recommendations or things to stay away from?

That's their market my brother bought 3 of them because he wanted to start a 3d printing business (with no additional planning so it did not last). Now I have one and my dad has one. I haven't actually set mine up because I have my old Creator X clone dialed in and don't really need anything more. Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.

"Just about"

Hey thanks, I'll check it out!

Same. I've been trying to force myself to use it but it's a chore. I've yet to get anything usable out of it.

Same here, and I think it was also obvious to Jeff (from the OP), but I'm glad he bought one because he's in a position to raise awareness of the issue.

Excuse my own ignorance on this issue, i was under the impression that in response to the BS they pulled last year they committed to always having the option for a fully offline (but potentially less-featured) printer?

I'm never watching this video again! I already didn't watch it, and I'll do it again!

TY I'm going to look into those. I appreciate the detailed response, hopefully someone releases a CFW for all the bambu users out there.

The RFID thing i feel like could be rectified pretty easily by just cloning the tag (hopefully), if nintendo couldn't combat that for amiibos, i doubt bambu will be able to.

They were the best at actually 3d printing. Which is what the device is for when you get down to it.

F off with this stuff. Not everyone who bought one was fully aware of all the potential downfalls.

It's a choice of values and future thinking. I understand the average user choosing Bambu, but for a 3d printing figurehead knowledgable about the industry and influencing the decisions of others, I think this was a poor choice initially. I bought a prusa probably around the same time he bought the Bambu, knowing full well that the Bambu had better performance specs. It's not like I was getting blown out of the water with my 3d printing though. Every day I have less regrets about that choice.

You should search this guy. I have heard time imagining he couldn't have such foresight, but if that's the case even more of a reason to unlike and unsubscribe - there are plenty of tech influencers that did and they are more likely to advise better for other products then.

Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.

I've got to admit, I've never understood that sort of issue. I've owned two 3D printers, a Monoprice MP Select Mini (bought back when it was the only 'cheap' printer in existence... holy shit, probably almost a decade ago) and a Creality Ender 3 V3 SE (because it was the best 'cheap' printer as of a couple years ago), and both of them gave me decent prints pretty much out of the box. After bed leveling, obviously, but without any other weird hardware adjustment or excessive experimentation with slicer settings.

I feel like the vaunted 'superior ease of use' of the Bambu stuff is overblown, but IDK, maybe I've just been lucky.

I have made some stuff for gridfinity, there's a FreeCAD plugin, and a few other small things.

I remember reading someone getting taken down because they were asking how to extrude instead of pad while they were on the ‘part design’ workbench

Why are those even two different things at all?!

The video covers that "option".

Admittedly I started pretty early on with the commercially available ones and I'm sure things have improved since then but that was my experience. I was fighting it for weeks screwing with leveling and temps, I completely burned through one set of leveling screws and had to replace them before I gave up and took the extruder apart and constructed a jig to make sure the nozzles were even. After that I started getting better results. By comparison my brother was given the exact same model by a coworker of his and he gave up on it because he's just doesn't think about technical things the same way I do. When he got the bambu though he was able to just go with it because he didn't have to really troubleshoot anything.

Can I get a tl;dr for someone who isn't into 3d printing (yet)? I like to know about companies to avoid and why, but it'll still be a while before I get into 3d printing.

Bambu lab a while ago came out with printers and an ecosystem that was very easy to use compared to other printers for the price. However, there were a few red flags like proprietary parts, software which required the cloud, and DRM chips in filament. Bambu lab promised they weren't gonna exploit any of that and that they will keep their printers and ecosystem open and all the red flags were just used to aid in user experience like automatic print settings for DRM chipped filament, easy to swap parts, and cloud monitoring and notifications. Despite the promise, they're still a corporation and thus went against their word and closed off 3rd party slicers and firmwares so you must use their cloud and their software.

You do not own the printers, Bambu does. So now you cannot install third party firmware on your Bambu 3d printer or use a different slicer. Everything you do on your Bambu printer goes through their cloud unless you take countermeasures and use old versions of software and firmware before the lockdown happened and you completely block internet access to the printers.

People saw these big red flags early on and called them out on it saying they're gonna lock down their ecosystem later on but people kept buying into Bambulab since they were so easy to use and got amazing prints out of them.

Tl;Dr, Bambulab released printers and software that were so easy to use for the price but came with many red flags. Bambulab ended up closing down their entire ecosystem so they have full control of the printers and you are at their mercy if you wanna keep using it.

I get your point, but when a part broke on my Prusa, I jury rigged it, downloaded and printed a replacement part and swapped out the broken part for the (improved) new one. With many other brands it would have been an expensive purchase and I would have had to wait for parts to arrive.

Ender 3s originally used Marlin has that changed? I thoughtKlipper required too much processing for the simpler printers like Enders.

Its not only that the ui/ux is bad. It's that the people working the project seem to constantly rename, or change tool names which effectively eliminated every YouTube tutorial that came before.
I've tried several times to get into it, and still recognize how necessary it is that it exists and thrives, so I keep trying. But ffs, be consistent.

Like Firefox

Bambu are not the only easy to setup anymore, but they did influence the trend.

They also have MakerWorld/Bambu handy that makes it really easy to start a print from anywhere.

So they are extremely easy to use.

But they are trying to leverage that to close their ecosystem and lock users in with shady practices..

The RFID thing i feel like could be rectified pretty easily by just cloning the tag (hopefully)

I don't want to give Bambu any ideas, but I think they could modify their plastic to require special settings (maybe it requires a lower temperature to print or something, needs a certain extrusion speed, etc.) and ensure that the print settings are automatically set depending on the RFID tag (this already exists, but they could easily disable the ability to manually change some of the print settings given they now have a monopoly on the slicer software), so putting the same RFID tag on another spool would cause the print to look bad. Of course, I believe this is unlikely, but it is still a possibility. At the very least, it will be annoying to rip out a tag from a Bambu spool, making third-party spools undesirable for users.

TY I’m going to look into those.

No problem!

I can recommend the Elegoo Centauri Carbon, a CoreXY and enclosed 3D printer that is raved on by reviews. If you will only print PLA, PETG, and maybe some ABS with a bit of tinkering with settings, it's a nice option. It won't be as good for engineering-type filaments, and it doesn't have a multi-material unit (yet, but don't buy things based on promises!)

The Qidi Q2 is an upgraded version of the Q1 Pro, the latter having been noted as an exceptional value. The Q2 is relatively new and doesn't have too many reviews, but from the specs, it is a big jump from the Q1 Pro (it has a heated chamber, for example). The Q2 is also compatible with their "Qidi Box" multi-material unit, which could be something you are looking for given that you want multi-colour prints!

And of course, if you want the most reliable machine with the best customer service, you have Prusa's Core One. It's expensive, but you're supporting a company that emphasises upgradeability and manufactures their hardware in Europe. It won't be the best value though purely based on feature set, but if you like what Prusa stands for, that could be of value to you!

*correction, Elegoo does now sell the "Canvas" as an add-on for the Centauri Carbon. It looks like it has, as of writing this edit, sold out, so it is certainly very popular!

You can also get the Centauri Carbon 2 Combo, which includes the Canvas out of the box and has a very big hat to cover the tubes. Haven't looked into it too much, so I'm not sure if there are any other changes.

You also forgot that their slicer was based on AGPL licensed Prusa Slicer and at first they tried to avoid releasing their source. In general a lot of their work was based on open source hardware and software and they closed it down.

They never promised to keep anything open. It never was open.

Unpopular opinion but. A company doesn't owe you open access to their tech or software.

Bambu spends an enormous amount of money on r&d.

They have incredibly high quality printers that are intuitive and easy to use.

They collect data to improve their machines.

You can opt out of that collection.

The replacement parts are cheap. Comparable to other brands.

And you can buy non Bambu parts. That fit. But why when official high quality parts are available for same price.

I don't know why everyone is so mad that Bambu won't let them tinker with the software. Or "jail break it".

Why would you want to on a Bambu. ? It already works optimally.

if you want a tinker printer than get one that's open.

Most people don't need that. They just want to print things.

I get that people think "it's my device and I should be able to jail break it if I want".
Ok

Then buy a device that lets you.

It would be different if Bambu printers were crap and needed tinkering but wouldn't allow it. Or they lied about being open.
But that's not the situation.

Bambu has been up front since the begining that their printers would not be open.

They never mislead about that.

Why are you mad about something they made clear from the begining ?

And yes I know they used open source data to base a lot of their tech on. (Yeah and Linux is used a lot for proprietary stuff too. It is what it is). But they have proprietary software and hardware now that was a result of their own investments into research and development.

You can't hold it against a company for not giving away advancements they made to their competitors.

With so much unethical and anti-privacy , companies blocking right to repair. And all the shitty tech companies out there, it's hard for me to take the complaints against Bambu as anything other than grifting and online created drama.

Their products were always closed. They never said they would be open.

Use a different brand if that's a problem for you.

Didnt they sign a contract to make it open the moment they used open source Code as their base?

I don't think so. Open source stuff doesn't usually require that for using it as a base.

Android OS is based on open source.

Did Microsoft or whoever owns it, sign a contract saying they promise to keep it open since it's based on linux ?

I don't think it works like that.

Open source base just means you can't charge money for it.

Agreed. I had to wait months for v1.1 to drop because I was having graphic display issues on CachyOS. It still glitches out when I'm trying to select sketch surfaces and even crashes too often for my comfort. The promise is there, it's just that the execution needs a little more time so I could finish migrating from Solidworks.

Generally speaking, I will recommend software based on the audience's core competency.

As of FreeCAD 1.0 I can't in good conscience recommend against trying it, especially anyone that is new and just learning the principles of parametric CAD.

I get that it is still not as easy, and it's especially hard for old dogs to learn new tricks, but I feel anyone that is willing to learn how to use CAD in the first place can now learn how to use FreeCAD.

I have personally found it very fulfilling to learn FreeCAD in the last year and know I'm no longer tied to any source of enshittification in my 3D printing pipeline. (Shoutouts to MangoJelly and Deltahedran on YouTube btw.)

I also feel that as that audience grows for FreeCAD and its popularity rises, that in turn helps the users of the proprietary software. Healthy competition is important after all!

Please look up ooensource because it is a lot more nuanced than that and there are a lot of different approaches and even definitions of open source.

I sold my x1c at a loss and got a core one when they announced Indx. It is less polished and I need to tinker. But it is ooensource all the way through and that is worth it. To me.

Shows.

He does own a Bambu printer and would likely have bought a new one if the tech advanced enough.

Just as an update, Elegoo did finally release their multi material solution (canvas). I was ready to get my first printer a few months back but decided to wait for this and also to see what the reviews would be like for the Snapmaker U1 with its multiple heads that can do multi-material with much less waste.

All this stuff isn't so fresh in my head anymore and I need to look into all this again but just wanted to point out Elegoo did release the solution now.

Okay but we are talking about Bambu using a specific open source code for creating their software and firmware.

Have they violated the use of that specific open source code in some way ?

Their software is free to use.

Creality firmware is based on open source but they make it hard to jail break their printers too.

Why aren't you going on tirade about creality?

I just got this Info from a Youtube channel yesterday, so take it with a grain of salt, but they said that the license indeed includes that clause.

I started with FreeCAD 1.1 a few weeks ago, with virtually no CAD experience. Because I screw things up and change my mind a lot, the parametric approach has been rewarding.

Oh, I didn't know that! That's pretty cool. It's on pre-order right now, so it's not properly released just yet, but it's quite close to it! It also looks quite unique, being very tiny without an enclosure or a dedicated spool holder. Perhaps this will make it more reliable (like how the AMS Lite was reported to be more reliable than the enclosed AMS)