It has apparently been ( according to the internet ) two years now since the Bamboo X1 Carbon has been released.
I have seen in various places that 67% of people have cast votes to have and Ethernet connector added to the printer and also to have the printer run entirely in offline ( as in not internet connected ) mode ; however I have seen no progress on this, have seen it mentioned several times but that is about it.
Where is the solution to this problem?
While I just received my new printer yesterday - I am more than happy if a solution is not forthcoming to return it for a refund under out law stating it is not fit for purpose.
Ethernet has never been an advertised feature of the X1C, you knew what you were buying. The fact people are asking about it won’t do anything but potentially make Bambu consider adding it to future models.
X1E has it.
Everything I saw online only mentioned network connectivity, the one search that was returned by AI when I asked was incorrect. I asked does the Bambu X1C have Ethernet. The response was yes followed by the usual AI over explanation on how to connect it… the problem being is it was talking about the X1E not the X1C…
I have since paid out a full kit on the X1 Ex pander to get around a problem which should never have occurred in the first place. Not everyone uses or likes wireless. I for one refuse to use it after my wpa3 wireless with 30 second rolling encryption was hacked twice. It turned out that the router it self was not at fault it was the google Chrome cast which was attached to the network and was acting without my knowledge as an Access Point, apparently without having their firmware updated they are open to exploitation - but no one ever mentions this. This is when my entire network went to Ethernet cables and fixed IP with allowed Mac Addresses stored in the router. Needless to say the Chrome cast has been removed pending firmware update and will now have a fire walled connection back through the Ethernet.
In that case you probably shouldn’t have bought the printer in the first place, because it doesn’t fulfil one of your mandatory requirements.
I don’t believe the 67% wanting ethernet are even slightly representative.
And the offline mode has been added and vastly improved since release. Is it possible, that you are referring to outdated information?
What exactly is it missing?
BambuLab has developed their printers to a price point and the more points I see, where they had to find a compromise between cost, performance and quality, the more impressed I’m with their decisions. They really put a lot of thought into creating reliable high performance machines that are very cheap for what they do.
If one of those decisions is a nogo for you, that is unfortunate. I’m sure that they considered it and decided not to implement ethernet due to probably cost or other reasons we don’t know.
Note what you are referring to is Wireless LAN mode, and as mentioned above I will not use wireless under any circumstances as it is insecure.
The X1 Expander solves my problem but again its a problem that shouldn’t be a problem, the magnetic and components for a wired connection would set you back about $16 USD.
As an example people with early Commodore Amigas have built a parallel port Ethernet device called a Plipbox, early versions you could build yourself for around the price I mentioned, now people are producing them themselves and charging a premium they have shot up to in some cases 70USD…
Adding Ethernet is not an expensive thing and yet the Ethernet enabled X1 seems to be several hundreds of dollars if not a $1000 or more costly.
I don’t know if that is the only difference between the X1E and the X1C but being that the maker of the X1Plus ex-pander has completely crowd funded the device in 24 hours should tell you something.
I honestly can’t believe that Bambu can be that short sighted - they could be doing this themselves and making their printer better and still making money…
Yet a great percentage of people are happily using the wifi without tinfoil hats. Why spend money on a port and extra space it takes up for next to noone to use it. This is a consumer product for people who don’t want the hassle of finding another cable that’s long enough and/or a hole in the wall to plug it.
It’s not wearing a tinfoil hat when you’ve already had your network hacked once.
This is just one of many and how many other exploits do wireless open you up to, I constantly have people trying to break into my wireless speaker via Bluetooth and Wireless, I’ve watched the traffic while they have attempted it - I just don’t know who is attempting it - the guy next door is nearly 90 years old and wouldn’t have a clue and the next nearest location is a Doctors Surgery.
The only thing I can think of is someone is war driving.
It is far less than 16$, rather 3$. But have you ever designed a product for mass production to get the price down? Every improvement that reduces the price by 1$ is an achievement! Of course you have a few big decisions, that make a big junk, but from that you start to improve things again and again and again with diminishing returns and with hundreds of improvements at some point the price has dropped from 2500$ to 1500$. In such a product, you don’t put in a feature costing you 3$ that isn’t absolutely necessary.
And I’m very happy that they took this route so I can buy the printer for 1500$ instead of 2500$.
Again: if this a core feature for you, you can buy an X1E or a differernt brand or find an aftermarket solution. For me and I think for many others, the printer is fine as it is. If at all, there are different things, that I would like to be changed first.
Well to each their own, my main priority is keeping my network secure, I am developing a new compression Algorithm for a very specific purpose and it’s not the sort of thing you want nicked because of a security issue with insecure wireless devices.
Hey VaultDweller, I completely get your point. Could you run your printer on a separate Wlan connected to a firewall behind a firewall? The more devices you have the more difficult is to keep track on everything.
War driving? Unless you are a target, otherwise it might be your neighbour running an old system that got hacked? Same password never changed, possibly someone came in to do maintenance and they took the WiFi,router passowrd? If it is still happening, depends on your router, you could lower the wifi power so less range, run a scan to see the wifi around you. Create a WiFi honeypot and take from there.
I am exactly the same as you, the web information does not specify the absence of the Ethernet connector. A few months have passed since this thread and there is no one who has given him solve except the X1Plus that offers many unnecessary benefits. I also have all the devices with wired Ethernet, only mobile devices and all of them have much better connection to the router than the X1C, than by the way in my case it is not close and the only thing that always fails is the $ 1200 printer. Neither external antenna or Ethernet connector. Is
Much easier to have an Ethernet connector than to add a PCB with the management software for an obsolete 2.4GHz Wi -Fi, not only have an external antenna connection predisposed, although the absence of Ethernet by Bambu does not cease to be amazed. 7 Merse with her, and there is not a single week that has no connection problems, it is desperate.
Which solution should anyone provide? If you don’t like the X1plus extension, I think the community is out of options.
It is very unlikely that Bambu will change their current printers. Maybe they add ethernet in the next release, maybe not.
As of now, there are a few competitors with similar printers. If ethernet is mandatory for you, I would suggest to look into their lineup.
The Prusa Core One has it. Creality K2 plus has it. Qidi plus 4 has it.
So just don’t buy a Bambu other than X1E if you want ethernet.
Curious why the SD card isn’t a good enough solution for those wanted ethernet. So far every 3d printer I have owned has worked that way and now we are up to 11 X1C and we send everything to the SD cards for offline repetitive printing. Extremely simple.