I have 2 printers, a x1c and an a1, the x1c’s feed is fine in the mobile app and bambu studio. The video feed for the A1 is very slow in both, like 1 frame every 2 seconds.
I saw mention of an update for the network plugin on the A1, I updated to the latest firmware, didn’t seem to change anything.
Any ideas of what to try next? I didn’t try a factory reset, I did power off for 30 seconds and back on.
Other than that, the A1 has been great, a touch slower than the X1C but a great little printer so far.
I too have the A1 and most of what I have seen this is known for this camera. I believe its as good as it can get with this specific printer its more for Timelapses but I could be wrong. I hope I am and we get at least 30fps in a firmware update as I think I am getting maybe 1 or 0.5 fps
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I too would favour a 30fps over anything else
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From what I learned, this is a photo camera snapshot every 5 seconds. Not a video feed camera.
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Watch some of the videos on YouTube to see what others have shown. The camera is “low frame rate” according to Bambu. Just a quick check tool and a timeplapse tool
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Low frame rate in my case is literally 1 frame a second. As you said it works for checking that there isn’t a mess. Wasn’t sure if I had an issue or this is what’s expected, sounds like low frame rate on the A1 is expected
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I agree I mean it is 2024 now 
Shouldn’t that be the standard? I really do not think it would add any significant cost to the product but I am not sure. But if they are already purchasing a bunch dont know why it wouldn’t be the same camera as the P1s and X1C to keep SKU counts low and get volume discounts from the vendor. Must be a Processor bandwidth issue is my guess, the main board might not have video encoding or something so it cannot do 30FPS.
Yes, I’m not sure there’s any real use case for having the camera at all on the A1Minis, it’s angle is so low, and the frame rate so slow, it’s the most useless thing on the printer IMHO.
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Basically what it’s good for, is occasional look-ins to make sure something hasn’t failed.
I’ve already put an external light pointing at it, and that does help a lot. Next step is to re-purpose one of my Raspberry Pi’s as a camera.
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they dont have the extra processing power for higher frame rates. the P1 series is the same only X1 has 30fps because its using a much more powerful processor
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My giggest issue with the A1 camera isn’t the framerate which I knew in advance was abyssmal, it is the angle. There’s no way to se whether fine details are printing OK or not, and most of the print is obscured since the camera is almost on the side.
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The purpose of the low res camera is largely to see if your not creating a string ball if your not in front of the printer so you can stop it… while it would be nice if it were something better, its not, and its probably not going to change… Not sure if anyone created a time-lapse worth watching from it either…
If you want a better camera, get a small webcam or inexpensive security cam that you can view from a phone or tablet and perhaps over the internet if you can set it up that way… If you want good time-lapses, based on my reading Octo-print seems to be the way to go, though I am not sure if it’s compatible.
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I have to agree with Gobo and Macinfo. Because the 3D printer is primarily made for 3D printing objects. It would’ve been better if there’s little to no delay to make it easier for the user to spot the mistakes the printer is making to save the printer itself or the filament from being unnecessarily wasted.
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Since for some reason I can’t open my own topic, I have a question: If you only consider the filament that you can print with the A1 Combo, is the print quality significantly different compared to the P1S? I’m trying to understand if maybe a different software was installed (I’m new to the topic) or if I can expect the same print quality if I print the same filament and STL (template).
Thank you!
That’s actually not a bad idea. Pi cam it is
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The other advantage of this is being able to run Octoprint Spaghetti Detection.
Spaghetti Detection works on Bambu printers ! I’ve been running it for over 2 months.
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It is the one thing about the A1 mini that I don’t like - I have resorted to using a raspberry pi 3B+ with a good usb camera to get a web stream of 30fps at 1080p - the Bambu Labs camera is not realistically usable for anything but timelapse videos - unless you create content using timelapse, it is something you turn off pretty quick as it adds significant time to each print.
You can make a option that direct feeds via wifi, no processing needed by the printer. I have a mini wifi cam that runs off battery, 1080p 30fps, no big processor in it.
ATM I guess they have it hardwired to be controlled by the A1 board. Perhaps it can do redirect via wifi, but I dunno.
cheaper than youd think. dont be put off by the website, its the same place bambu sources their parts