can we create our own NFC tags and just stick them to the (non bambulab) spools for our own materials?
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If we can’t make our own, can we buy tags with most of the basic colors already encoded?
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You cannot make your own tags without knowing the data format/architecture bambu are using,
It’s unlikley the tag stores any filament parameters, only a filament ID which printer checks the C-Code against.
If the printer or the phone app could write to them, it would be a cool feature and product line for Bambu to sell blank tags. You could then store parameters in for custom filaments, The printer could store linear advance and extrusion multipliers in the spool, and even how much of the spool has been used. It could check how much is left at the start of each print and warn if there is not enough.
Alternatively, this could be a cloud service. Using the spool ID to Store these parameters on the cloud against.
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We should at least be able to create / buy tags so that our main filaments are recognized directly by the AMS/Bambu Studio.
I think this would be a really big advantage for Bambu Lab because I don’t know of any other printer like that.
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But not much of an advantage when it comes to Bambu selling their filament. Compared to paper printers from the likes of Epson, HP, Canon etc we are lucky the AMS lets us load 3rd party filament at all.
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It’s fairly easy to read and write data from an NFC tag, I think I’ll look into this over the weekend. The tags must contain some info on remaining capacity because only the tagged spools will display capacity. I’ll have to see just what data is on those bad bois
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please keep us informed
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It’s encrypted.
Here is some documentation on how to decrypt:
Bambu Lab has said they are considering releasing it and making it open source.
“The RFID is for use with Bambu Lab filament only at this time. Opening it might cause other issues at the moment. We are considering the possibility of opening this system.”
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That’s so dramatic lol. Not sure why encryption is needed for something like this but I guess 
Thank you for the heads up and the article. I suppose the easiest route will be to wait and see if they open it up. You can’t even buy certain materials from them, some things are out of stock, and pricing is a little premium. my $16 spools have been running just fine, but it would be really cool to have the weight information and to store the flow rate and such in the spool. Maybe one day. For now I’m happy enough with just the printers performance.
I feel like they could make a decent profit if they sold a tag reader/writer and had an input form right in bambu studio for writing base data to empty tags.
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good post like it very much
My two points regarding that topic are:
- I hope they don’t pull a Dymo kind of thing where the device only works with their filaments.
- It would be extremely awesome to have a feature in the mobile app to select filament color, type, temperatures, and how much is left on the spool. Then, we could write this information to an inexpensive NFC tag with the phone’s built-in NFC capability, allowing us to attach them to regular spools.
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It would be great to change from a Mifare encrypted tag to an unencrypted T2T tag, which is widely available and cheap. It is also a type A tag and should be easy addable to the existing reader.
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It doesn’t, the spool capacity is determined through the measurement of the circumference of the filament on the spool (distance of filament per rotation).
Yes you can reuse tags.
So it can be use, later, for all other spool juste for that
Do you have information on this? I am curious; because what it seems like to me that it does not do any kind of measurement or detection. Instead it stores the UUID for the roll, associated with a remaining capacity which starts at 1kg, 0.5kg, etc…, and then when you print with it, it subtracts that amount from the stored total.
You can test this with certainty by using half the roll on one printer, and then trying it on another (especially one not connected to the network) and see if it sees a half-roll or a full roll. (I have coworkers that have tried this, and they have said that it thinks its a full roll)
You might be able to test this by turning off the feature, using half a roll, and then turning it back on. Assuming it doesn’t still store that data when not using the feature.
Just checked if a firmware update hade made any moves like that, and i can confirm my observation once again.
What i did (for the ones that are interested)
I still got the Tags from the three provided filaments spools on a X1C-Combo, took apart a refill spool with random filament (eSun PETG cold white) and slid the BBL PLA-Orange Tag (i almost emtyed the origin spool, but not enough to not be accepted by the ams) between refill Spool ( - adapter) and carbord core, like on the BBL spools.
and it does its neat little dance with the lights and retracting like always when you insert the spools with nfc-tags, and shows this.
Interesting, if that is indeed the case, they could simply allow us to select a spool core diameter, and non-Bambu filament would be able to be calculated.
In a nutshell yes, but they most likely won’t unlock it for non bbl nfc-tag spools.
Why would you buy the steeper priced filaments from them, when not for the “throw in, get filament promted” experience.
True, and its one of the reasons I buy Bambu filament; but to be fair, while their filament is more expensive than a lot of the lower cost competition, its far, far cheaper than what the other printer/filament manufacturers charge for their tagged filament, to which I am grateful. (For example: Ultimaker charges $50 for 750g roll of PLA, and their filament isn’t any better than the $25-$25/kg brands).
It would be nice if there were a standard though, its just so convenient.