Well they vastly improved the lighting. Gone is the single light on the camera. They’ve tried getting that horrible bend out of the tube feeding the print head but it’s not quite right yet. Still very hard to push filament into, probably also why their are feed inconsistency.
UI patch fixed some of the lockup issues and works pretty good. I’m still digging into the rest of it.
I’m designing a better spool holder I really don’t care for what they have. There is a cool mod that is being developed to turn the filament sensor into a into a motion sensing style sensor. Looking into that
Seeya
M1
Therein lies the rub: Bambu Lab built its reputation on printing a Benchy at record speed - yet it takes nearly a third of that time just to upload the file. Add in the unnecessary purge cycle when not using multi-filament, and it all points to one thing: “Chabuduo” (差不多).
Case in point: how many people missed the fine print that X1 and P1 series support ends in 2027 and 2028? That might sound far off, but what if you bought a P1 in 2025, you got only 3 years. The fact is, many of us including me still use 10-year-old laser printers. Why should we be forced into obsolescence, spend more money, and generate needless e-waste?
They shook up the industry two and a half years ago with aggressive pricing and strong features. But what have they done since? The X1E, the H2D? Really? They’ve focused entirely on pushing new products while abandoning their so-called “DIY-minded” customer base.
I wouldn’t mind the pivot if they were honest about it, but it’s clear they’ve reversed course more than once. The P1P launched without panels, inviting creativity and customization. Now, they’ve gone out of their way to lock down and restrict the very community that helped build their brand via their Bambu Connect. All this occurred after you bought the product.
I don’t know anything about the firmware on the Centauri Carbon, but on all the Elegoo Neptunes people have always installed Octoprint or Klipper on a Raspberry Pi. Then connected the Pi to the printer using the USB and connected the Pi to the nerwork with eithernet or Wifi. If that’s possible on the CC the possibilities are endless… and if it’s not possible currently I’m sure someone will put out a custom firmware to allow it.
That’s what my hope is. I want to be assured by Elegoo’s deeds, not their PR Marketing hype, that they will continue the Maker Ethos and support modding, rather than follow the Bambu way. Only time will tell. The Centauri just came out of early access two weeks ago and Elegoo is still out of inventory on spare parts. Yet another giveaway of yet another Chinese vendor who went to market prematurely before they had their supply chain in order. If I receive a damaged printer, how long will I have to wait for repairs? This hotend kit as an example should never be out of stock… PERIOD!!!
I’m still undecided whether to go the $300 route with their product once it’s matured - which, from this thread, sounds like it still needs more time on the vine - or go the other direction and get the QIDI Plus4. It looks like after a full year, that QIDI Plus4 is finally maturing. It took them 18 months and a couple of fires before they got their act together. This is why I don’t trust these Chinese manufacturers, the hype and fact that they overpromise and underdeliver.
There’s an unwritten rule in the computer industry: let the other guys get ■■■■■■ on version 1.0 and wait for 2.0 before adopting. With my P1P, I didn’t wait, and now I’m paying the price - not to mention I spent nearly 50% more on upgrades that would have been included if I’d waited just one month for the P1S but even then, it took Bambu as long as three months to get caught up with the first P1S orders. I didn’t trust Chinese sellers before Bambu, and now I trust them even less. Never again will I put my faith in them to commit to their promises. Both Elegoo and Bambu Lab are Chinese companies as is Qidi, but I’m hoping Elegoo charts a different path.
Not likely. On FB someone reported their used for 20 hours printhead shorted, melted, and very probably nearly caused a fire. Elegoo reply: “Sorry, out of warranty.”
Thanks for that feedback. Even if it’s only one anecdotal customer, how hard is it to make one customer happy? This tells us a lot. One happy customer tells their closest friends just how great the company was but one unhappy customer tells EVERYONE how bad the company was. This is why I see this as trading one devil for another. It’s a race to see who can provide the least suckiest service and product. While I’m no friend of Apple, they know this to be true and although their products are way overpriced, the one thing one cannot take away from them is that when you have a product that failed, they stand behind their warranty and then some.
Day 3 with the Centuri Carbon. Yesterday I was getting ready to print some PETG which since it was a brand new spool, I didn’t think I needed to dry it. But instead I was printing with WETG. So that ended that test.
It’s been an incredibly wet and humid summer here, normally I don’t have to change desiccant for months, but lately it’s been weeks. So I should have known better.
That being said, I’ve still been printing PLA. I’m really pleasantly surprised at the result. While the web interface is not as robust as it could be it is still VERY functional. The Elegoo slicer feels a bit basic but it works! Very fast transfers and best of all NO Cloud, Guard Dog Program and no phone!! Going to be moving the printer over to the air gaped network tomorrow to test it there.
I did find the filament tube to still be bent at too great an angle, so taking it out of the cable chain seems to really help. There is however a noticeable catch just before the filament gets to the extruder. That is where some of these fail to feed issues are coming from I’m sure. The bend seems to try and force the filament to one side, so it exits the tube and is probably hitting one of the gears instead of center, that in turn is not allowing a smooth entrance into the extruder. I also think the tube might be a bit to short, when it’s fully forward and in the corner it looks to be really bent over.
So I guess I’m going to have to print a top extension to prevent rubbing and a new longer tube to over bending. No big deal I did the same on the P1S. That in turn allowed me to build a extra nice lighting setup with full dimmer control over the lights.
Well more to follow
Seeya
M1
“Overpriced” is subjective. Apple products are overpriced for the same reason Prusa is overpriced – because they spend phenomenal amounts of money on customer support, R&D, and employing people who live in the most expensive countries in the world. Compare the retail price to the bill of materials that go into the products and it’s outrageous. But factor in that I can walk into an Apple store unannounced and get tech support on any Apple product I own, from a human, in realtime… suddenly it ceases being overpriced. At least, to me. That free service is expensive as heck to provide… but it’s built into the price I paid for my phone four years ago.
So let’s get back to Bambu. I think they are kind of stuck in the middle. They do spend on R&D, but not on customer support, at least, not at the relative level that Apple and Prusa spend. The Bambu wiki is a great resource, but (in my opinion) if they want to play in the high-margin Prusa and Apple space, they need to crank up the customer support, because with their R&D costs they cannot win the race-to-the-bottom vs Elegoo and other companies that Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the product.
I wish them luck. I’m super happy with my Bambu P1S, which I bought despite their self-inflicted wounds this year, knowing what I am going into. For big, complex products, I’d generally rather buy from a company that does the R&D than one that does a copy and paste job. My power tools are mostly Bosch and Metabo, not Harbor Freight. My phone is Apple, not Samsung. But since I couldn’t afford a Prusa’s CoreXY, I went with Bambu as the next-best thing. Hopefully that won’t backfire on me too badly
Anyway, I’m enjoying reading this thread, and look forward to more updates from @user_219516602 !
Well I used to be a fan of Apple but that was the pre Steve Jobs era. I was building my own Apple II’s back in the day. What I don’t like is their constant your hardware is obsolete so you’ll need a new (place product here). So much e waist when that hardware is still very viable.
Your tool analogy is slightly flawed. Bosch makes great tools but a drill is a drill. It’s doesn’t need firmware, software or an App or the Cloud, so yes that tool can last you a lifetime. and so spending extra money on a lifetime purchase is well worth it. And I’ve done so in the past.
I’ve dealt with Apples so called customer service, believe me the genius bar is anything but. Their main goal is to up sell you a new product. Not repair it. (Louis Rossmann proves that every day). I had a small problem with a solider joint on a laptop, they said I needed a new motherboard as this one could not be repaired, and it would cost almost 1500.00 to get a new board. But they offered to sell me another laptop! (No thanks) I took it to the local computer shop and they fixed it for 100.00 and it still working! And it’s running Linux now to boot!!
Bambu lab is a great product, but my fear for them is they are growing too fast and they don’t have the staff for proper customer service. Their parts are somewhat available with a pretty quick turn around.
I’m hoping much like the X1 plus firmware someone that will be able to jailbreak these machines to give them a longer life. I find it extremely funny that a company from China is so worried about someone steeling their intellectual property when that’s what China has done it for decades.
Elegoo is somewhat the same at the moment however a bit of a proprietary system. I’ve owned a Neptune 3 Pro and so I’m not unfamiliar with the Elegoo eco system. It’s sort of ironic when a Chinese based company clones another Chinese company and comes in with a similar product at 1/2 the price! Oh the irony.
If Elegoo want’s to truly dominate the market they need to get other product developers on board and fast. Upgraded nozzles etc. Get BQ involved or someone similar if need be. Stay away from the App and Cloud based functions. Keep the machine open and with an upgrade path and you’ll soon have a dominant spot in the market.
I’d love to see Bigtree Tech come up with a remote screen for the carbon like they did for the Bambu series of printers. In face I have several running my printers now. I refuse to upgrade the firmware on any of my BBL printers to the newest version, why would I do so only to give BBL an ever tightening grip over what I can do with my own machine that I bought and paid for.
Have a great day
M1
I recently saw something that shifted my perspective on China, by Naomi Wu:
[growing up] Here in Shenzhen, young women of my age and background had two options. Sex work for the arrogant Hong Kong businessman who came over the border and treated Shenzhen like their own private brothel, or work on the factory line for a pittance making things for Americans to slap their labels on and resell for massive profits. We’d make a 1 dollar for every 10 they did off of what we made. No choice; we didn’t know how to design what the West wanted or market it to them if we did.
They knew things we did not, and we were told if we knew those things, and used that knowledge- well, that was stealing. They owned ideas and had pieces of paper we never agreed to saying no one but them was allowed to have those ideas.
But late at night, we took those things apart, we figured out how they worked, and how to make our own. We studied English and translated videos for each other, learned culture, learned what people wanted and would buy, and English just barely good enough we could sell it to them ourselves. A few of us even got good enough to improve on those things- to innovate.
I see little girls in Shenzhen now, and they’ve got all the options in the world, they’ve got their own ideas, and I see how enraged that makes some who think we should stay beneath them forever.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. How much of “intellectual property” is just a system that justifies exploitation by the wealthy and powerful who control that “property”. I guess that’s pretty off topic but…
(For anyone unaware, Naomi Wu did a lot of work with Creality to get them to open source their 3d printers some years back. She’s a pretty amazing person, and not just for the, uh, “obvious” reasons. )
"How much of “intellectual property” is just a system that justifies exploitation by the wealthy and powerful who control that “property”
I would respectfully disagree, not all intellectual property is owned by the wealthy. For example I am a composer, I spend days sometimes weeks to write music for a Television show. That is my intellectual property. I don’t get paid a fortune but I do get paid for working hard at a skill I’ve done for 25 years. I maintain my rights on all the works, If someone wants to use my music they can if they have paid for the rights to do so. If someone else who would just use it to make money without my permission or knowledge then that is stealing period. They would make their money using my stolen music and I’d never see a cent of it. Fortunately BMI and ASCAP keep tabs on all forms of media. They will alert me if someone tries to use my copyrighted material without proper license. So these “pieces of paper” are in place to protect everyone who as any form of intellectual property. Naomi was making good money from her YouTube channel, Problem is she stepped on the toes of the CCCP who threatened her. So she shut down her channel. Her content is her intellectual property, I wouldn’t want anyone re posting it to make money that rightfully belongs to her. That’s what’s fair.
The companies that China was ripping off spent millions in development on CPU’s etc only to have all that hard work stolen. Some of those companies were owned by small business people. So in that regard I say Naomi’s gripe shouldn’t be against the western companies who are also trying to survive innovate and survive in a very competitive market, but against the Communist system that keeps individuals from prospering. You can see it in just why they threatened her and shut her down on YouTube.
Thanks for your post.
Regards
M1
Update:
Today I used Orca Slicer to prep a file for the Centuri Carbon. Low and behold I was able to transmit said file to the printer over Wifi and it was fast! The Plugin that works with the Centuri Carbon needs a small fix, I noticed I was not able to select which plate I was using. No a deal breaker by any stretch.
So now I have all my printers Bambu and Elegoo running on the same network and running the same slicer. That’s a huge win.
I printed a top extension and moved the filament tube completely out of the cable chain. That really seemed to help with the drag in the filament path. I’m going to mod the riser to include a on/off dimmer circuit.
I run all my printer lighting off an external power supply. It has major advantages by doing so, like being able to work on the printer with power off but still have lights inside the chamber. Here is another tip, don’t buy the cheap LED strips, purchase automotive style LED lighting strips for interior lighting. Here is the reason, Automotive strips use a heavier duty higher temp adhesive tape, a cars interior car reach some very high temps and can remain hot for long periods of time. If properly installed they don’t sag or come loose. Second if you buy the higher end LED’s they have a thin aluminum heat sink built into the back of the strip. That keeps the LED’s cooler and less prone to hot spots which can cause a LED to fail and burn out. They also usually come in 3 or 4 independent 12 to 14 inch strips. Those are perfect to wire around the riser.
Well so far I’m enjoying this unit it’s a great tool for my setup.
Happy Printing
M1
I think the A1 is a better printer than the ECC in important ways that will not let it get “crushed” by the ECC. It’s like the apex predator bedslinger from the factory IMO.
ECC was used to do some prototypes this weekend and the workflow felt nice and quick. I do wish it had an AMS system, not for multicolor but I am spoiled for easy filament selection, jumping between CFPETG and PLA.
@ user_219516602 have you found a way to “cancel” a print from the “Elegoo link” slicer interface? Im using orcaslicer, havent tried the vendor one to see.
A1 can handle low layer heights and scarf seams, look good, and be repeatable. At the sub500 price point I don’t think anything exists that gets as good quality. The extruder and filament spring hub are very well thought out. And if you prefer to crank it, it can still run fast. The automation framework is very enticing. I also strongly prefer the experience of working on an open frame and some of the workflows. Like having the cutter and tensioner available for hands to use, instead of having to sit there poking menus waiting for stuff to home and heat up.
Idk it vibes. Hate to see what’s happening to the firmware.
@BullocksThe Elegoo’s print head seems to handle clogs more intelligently. How about TPU and clogs? Just in case I need quickly something…
Not really important anymore:
I also find the lack of an AMS inconvenient. The S1 is also missing some smaller quality-of-life features, such as automatically moving the print head during printing pause e.g. when the ejection chute is clogged — something the X1C can do. But the Plastic door of the S1 is a hugh step forward…
For me, printing TPU on the S1 is an absolute no-go and will use a other printer. On the other hand, AMS or ACE -equipped printers aren’t exactly workhorses to me; they’re more like “just in case you ever need one” machines. There the M5 is still the way I actual go. Everthing almoste just accessible as on a bed slinger - something happen, just screw a new print head on and lets print again - but for sure, the quality is on a Industrial “it just need to Work” an “nobody ever will look at” level.
That free service is expensive as heck to provide… but it’s built into the price I paid for my phone four years ago.
