With the addition of the apparent future expansion ports on the H2D, Bambu really needs to come out with an ethernet port expansion. individuals that would love to get this for a workplace will be held off from purchasing this printer purely due to reliance on wireless communication. Are there already plans for future Ethernet adapters?
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They likely don’t want to cannibalize their enterprise market by including this on the consumer version. I would expect an “H2E” in the future with Ethernet and network security functionality
Imagine that the presence of Ethernet port considered as “Enterprise” feature by some companies…
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I don’t think anyone would consider an Ethernet port to be enterprise. Almost every household uses Ethernet.
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Hah! I seriously doubt it! Bambu is anti-direct connection to computer. The reason the X1E has one is just to be able to market it to companies so Bambu got their foot in the door.
I personally think it is crazy that you can’t connect via USB or ethernet port. Creality’s dual nozzle series allows it.
Meanwhile people could just use their imagination and ask for more creative upgrades instead of boring old things. Apart from random DC’s and the need to rebind my P1P once or twice over the last year, i never had an issue with wifi, and im in a heavily radio poluted area, just on my P1 I can see about 50 SSIDs around. On my phone/computer its around 80.
What other usefull addons you ask ?
Well…
- Automated Bed Clearing System
Goal: Unload completed prints automatically for batch printing.
- Method 1: Sweeper Arm or Wiper with Servo or Stepper
- Method 2: Tilting Bed or Ejector Pad (hinge, linear actuator, etc.)
- Method 3: Conveyor Belt (like Creality CR-30, but modular add-on version)
Why it’s useful: Batch production, small farms, saves hands-on time
- Print Farm Manager (Raspberry Pi / ESP32 Based)
Goal: Monitor, log, and optionally reboot/disable failed prints or report stats.
- RFID/tag-based filament usage tracking
- Networked camera AI fail detection
- Centralized error reporting + job queue
Why it’s useful: Keeps track of multiple printers without OctoPrint overhead, control all machines from one nice screen (like the Panda Touch) , and can work in conjuction with 1)
- INDX implementation or Bambus own design of the sort. No need to say more.
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If Bambulab intended for the H2D to ever have ethernet, they would have put it in from the get-go. Why? The cost of doing it then would have been close to trivial, as ethernet chips are widely available and quite inexpensive.
Let’s be real: they added a laser, a cutter, and a pen plotter. You don’t think they gave at least equal consideration to adding ethernet? No, they considered it, and they rejected it because they can use it to skim the market. It’s a near requirement at a lot of companies, schools, and institutions, and they have bigger budgets, as X1E proved.
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Tbh I don’t know what they can sell for an H2E. Except for… Ethernet hahahaha
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Idex that can do all filaments in both toolheads + have the standby toolhead purging while the other prints, true 350mm, higher temps for true engineering materials etc. Or anything that hasnt already been done by another brand.
Yo sooo… what if… just hear me out, i know youll hang me for this 
, but what IF, like the laser, they release another snap-on addon. A THIRD NOZZLE , together with extruder and all. I mean techically its doable, youll loose about 4cm of Y but…
Ok ill show myself out… bahbyeeee
I’ve never seen Bambulab offer any hardware upgrades before. They tepidly allowed e3d to do a high flow nozzle. Maybe a few other nozzle makers. That’s it. That’s all I’m aware of. In that sense, they are even tighter than creality regarding upgrades. Creality would rather sell you an entire new printer to fix the problems with the printer they sold you last week, but, at least on occasion, they offer, for some models and maybe not others, a tangible bit of upgrade. At the other extreme, Prusa is good at offering upgrade paths for pretty much all their printers. Unfortunately, Prusa has become increasingly irrelevant for a lot of people, because they fell behind in a lot of ways.
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I’m quite surprised that they also allowed Mako from Slice Engineering to join the party. Also ObXidians are now on the Bambu store directly. For me I feel it’s a good thing. The X1 Plus team was also working with BBL to a degree.
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They rejected because they want all your data to go through their cloud. It became quite obvious with that FW debacle at the end of the last year.
Force users to use cloud by making local and direct connection as PITA as possible.
And X1E is a flop IMO. I don’t think H2E would ever be released. Bambu learned that enterprise customers don’t like headaches when it has to come with service and repairs.
I saw on a teardown there was a footprint for what looked like an RJ45 connector on one of the PCB’s. RJ45 doesn’t necessarily mean ethernet though. It was the PCB with the AMS connectors, which seems an odd place to put ethernet. I’d expect it to be near the power connector.
RJ45 was also commonly used for serial (RS-232, RS-485, etc.) and a few other things.
Are reddit links allowed? https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1jzb7lg/unpopulated_ethernet_on_the_h2d_removed_feature/
given the waiting slot in there, I will now bet an H2E will be available, and if not, another enterprise model which will use said pcb.
Also I dunno, the location makes sense for me, put the power stuff in one corner, and external connections of any kind on the other corner.