Wasn’t sure where to put this, since there’s no announcement page for Bambu Connect beta. I figure since we’re all lumping in all this stuff together (Bambu Studio, Bambu Connect, printer firmware), then maybe this might be the right place. Plus there hasn’t been a lot of talk about people actually using the software.
Here’s a breakdown of my experience with Bambu Connect. This is the only part I can really test since I’ve not received the beta firmware yet and Studio beta testing is pointless without the firmware. I’m probably missing stuff, but I’m tired and this is what you get.
- Slicing and exporting the sliced 3mf and then importing works as described and demo’d.
- Using the provided URL scheme bambu-connect://blahblahblah works as described. Running it starts up Bambu Connect with the loaded 3mf ready to import. Bambu Connect does not need to be running for this to work.
- The basic printer controls work without issue. They can sometimes be slow to respond though.
- Printing starts just fine with percentage and time displayed. Stop and Pause work.
- Can add LAN only printers without logging in, so no credential authentication needed. Just need to providing printers access code.
- Forgets about LAN only printers if you are not logged in to Bambu when you go to load the application again. Which means you have to reconnect your LAN only devices every time you load the application.
- Will not load if internet is unavailable, just gets stuck trying to load. Digging a little deeper and it specifically fails if it can’t reach api.bambulab.com.
- Does not have camera access. This is kind of a must if we are losing the controls from Orca and HA. LAN only would completely lose this feature.
- No SD card access. Which means no access to timelapse’s or models outside of FTP or loading SD card into a computer. Doesn’t matter if connected via LAN only or not. Kind of expected for LAN only printers, but not for logged in ones.
- Can only adjust filament type and color for AMS. Lose access to all other AMS and filament configurations.
- Cannot load or unload filament
- No AMS humidity status
- Cannot initiate device Calibration (Bed leveling, Vibration compensation, Motor noise cancellation)
- Cannot make changes to printer settings; Change nozzle size or Print Options.
- Forgets windows size and location. Have to resize to see cutoff controls each time application loads.
- Manual calibrations from the Calibration tab in Orca cannot work since it tries to send the print without an option to export 3mf. Probably can be easily fixed, but figured I’d throw it out there.