I have a year old P1S that is running firmware version 01.06.00.00. I also have a Panda Touch (which I love dearly) and the BTT website states that it is still compatible with 01.07.00.00. My printer has been bugging for a while to update to the latest version, which I assume is 01.08.00.00, I have tried to find instructions on how to pick the version I want instead of what Bambu Labs wants. I found a way to do it with a micro SD card, but you need to be on 1.07 already, so that won’t work for me. Can someone point me in the direction of the “*this is how you do it” instructions. I’ve looked on the forum, on Reddit, and the interwebs, but so far have come up empty.
This topic has been my personal bone of contention with Bambu Labs. In fact it is the exact precise moment that I parted ways with their business philosophy so please understand that my comment is very colored against Bambu.
The TL;DR version: If you want to keep what you have, never upgrade the firmware again!!! Period!!!
Bambu lab has decided to claw back the freedoms we had by making future firmware upgrades incompatible with BTT, Orca Slicer and other enhancements I can’t think of right now.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is that Bambu Restricts backward downgradability to only the latest major revision. So if the current rev is let’ say 1.04 then you can’t go from 1.05 backward. I was bullied into upgrading against my will. They simply stated that if I wanted support, before they would answer any more questions I had to upgrade and only then would they address my issues. The result? I now have a less stable version of LAN-Only mode that forced me to acquire a separate wifi router and they still never solved my issue.
First of all, thank you for responding. Secondly, please accept my most sincere and heartfelt sympathies. For the most part, I’m happy with my P1S. So much so that I bought both of my adult daughters an A1 Mini combo (my small business did very well last year). I’m perfectly happy with staying on 1.06, and I’ll just keep clicking cancel every time I turn it on. I use the Touch to interact with my printer, to the point that I hardly ever use the little controller that came with it. I even put an extra dock in front of my PC, so I can keep an eye on things from there. My real fear is that at some point they’ll say “update, or you can’t print anymore”. To be honest, my only real complaint is their filament refills. Sometimes the cardboard is so chewed up I can’t even get them on the spools. But that’s a rant for another day.
You can go to previous firmware versions using Bambu Handy, using it to go back to 1.07 (I anyway had to do the cloud thing because the 1.05 firmware that was preinstalled lacked both the LAN only mode and offline update according to the wiki).
Even if you are on 1.07 it will ofc keep annoying you about updates. I am anyways on LAN only + OrcaSlicer, so I just went into my router and told it to prevent internet access for the printer. Works perfectly and doesn’t ask for updates anymore.
I’m currently on 1.06, and I wouldn’t mind going to 1.07 on my P1S, as long as my Panda touch is still supported (BTT says it is). From what I’ve read, I have to already be on 1.07 to do an offline update. At this point, I guess I’m stuck, unless someone knows some super secret squirrel stuff.
Yeah, seems you are stuck. No other option than to go to 1.08 first and then downgrading + factory reset to be safe (I did not need the reset, but there are many reports of people who needed it)
Keep it safe for future use, since all previous releases have gone, this version 1.07 could have gone as well in the future
What concerns most is the bambu cloud which you are still using. Let say, they have two protocols of bambu cloud running at the same time, one for old fw like 1.07, and the other is for newer fw like 1.08. What can guarantee you they can keep the old protocol running in next month, or next year when they pushes new fw update and decides to enforce planned obsolescence.
You know, Google’s been doing that for years with new android versions and the new apps just refuse to run on old android version. Microsoft’s been doing the same with each windows update making old PC running so slow. And so many other companies. It’s just the norm nowadays.
I think the best way forward for you is to find a way running LAN only with panda touch. I’ve successed with xTouch with LAN only mode and I think you can do the same with panda touch.
To be honest, I don’t use Bambu Handy for anything at all, except to receive the alerts on my phone when a print is finished. And since I got my new phone (Galaxy A15) I’m not even getting those anymore. I have been considering going LAN mode from the beginning, but I live by the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and I’ve been so impressed with this machine that I don’t want to mess with it too much. I don’t want to lose the use of my Panda Touch, so if I can go LAN only mode and have it still working, then that is something I would like to pursue.