Yes, but my last case for a battery made of LiPos also drives around in the rain and in the summer. It has also fallen off the bike once and has already suffered some little damage from transport in the luggage basket. The 3D housing doesn’t mind much, but the coating of the basket suffers a lot.
I have backed the Sunlu S4 which I am going to sit the AMS lite on to keep the filament dry as the AMS lite is an open unit
Hi IslandBill,
You got a lot of good advice, that’s good.
My AMS serves in 90% of all cases as a material storage facility (and I love it), in 9% for the addition of labels and notes or numbers and a maximum of 1% for favors and birthday gifts - but you have high humidity since you are in a tropical zone.
Fortunately, cheap beginner printers are currently springing up like mushrooms and even with the X1C, I still use the cheaper printers, e.g. with TPU very often (by TPU there are not hugh adhesion problems on the printing plate). I currently use the cheaper ones even more than the X1C.
May you will buy twice anyway. I’m also looking at a pair of printers in the 200 to 350 euro segment, but I’m not so sure yet - Network suitability would be very sexy and I have time. They all come up with their specialties… and with PLA color change - what should I do with that? I don’t even know what to do with PLA - even PETG getting quick critical due to the requirements for the components in use… and you need experience for the first time. P1P and P1S are also good machines (but I do not own a P1P or a P1S).
You have to decide everything yourself. But I think each of us has already paid $500 in tuition…
I see you and I are on the same wavelength. Many years ago, a very intelligent guy told me to ‘believe half of what you see and none of what you hear’ and that was and still is good advice.
I was hoping the PLA is best argument was real, but my training kept saying BS; it can’t be that simple or else nothing else but PLA would sell. More and more the A1 just isn’t going to cut it. FOMO (fear of missing out) also enters the picture. I can’t stand the thought of buying a machine and then discovering it won’t do what I need because I purchased the inferior product.
Thanks again
Part of what I promised myself was that I was not going to look for a hobby machine, which led me to Bambulab. As a Linux software developer for years, I was first attracted to PRUSA.
The next part was looking for a machine that I could use to build gadgets for metal fabrication and welding jobs. I’ve been trying to make them out of steel with limited success because welding without machined fixtures always, absolutely always involves warping. Pulling a critical part out of line ruins the part and once it’s welded, it’s done; trying to fix it just adds more warp. I’ve literally spent days remaking parts anticipating where and how much warp would be induced to have the warp end up where I want the part. I’m sick of that.
The A1 isn’t looking too good after getting a slap upside the head from another poster. PLA isn’t likely to do what I need in an environment with lots of heat, humidity, friction, metal filings, dirt, etc. Once I have a design and build out a part with bearings, magnets, steel facings to take the real punishment, I’d have something that would last for a few years and the ability to print the basics of another one.
I’ve noted that the P1S isn’t much below the X1C in capabilities. I’ll research the differences.
It always depends on what kind of filament you buy. You can be lucky or unlucky. PLA is probably still the best-selling filament of all. Even for prototypes or small series it is usually sufficient. There are, however, many beautiful materials (also expensive) that conjure up an even better surface and are actually even more stable. But even PLA-CF is a PLA. I have now also ordered PAHT-CF, will I need it? Everyone has to find their favourite filaments. There is also very good PLA for under 10€, I bought about 6 rolls last time, because it is very good for control prints, which I throw away afterwards and for the one or other final application it is still enough. If I need really stable PLA, I order that separately. PLA doesn’t have to break if you drop it, PLA doesn’t have to break if you bend it … it can be stable too … though I’m sure that depends on the mix.
In any case, have fun printing in the future! 
I assumed using PLA for prototyping was the way to go to get the holes in the right places, the slots at the right height, etc. Then bring on the other materials to deal with their idiosyncrasies but have the basic geometry worked out.
This forum looks to be a great way to get advice from people with knowledge of the various materials and their real world issues.
My printer is in my small furnace room, never dried nor keept it in bags.
Yes & no… For me, PETG is often good enough for the final piece and the price of PETG is very close to PLA. If I need a whole test piece I use PETG 'cause as long as I “measure twice, print once” there’s a good chance I may not need a second print. I mostly need test pieces when it comes to tolerances, like hole sizes, and there I can’t use PLA 'cause it prints differently from the final material. Better to print just a fragment to test the fit. But everyone has slightly different ways of doing this…
You use a steel table and attatch the ground to it.
Does the software in any way correct for particular filament to produce a print that matches what was intended? I mean shrinkage, elongation in any given direction, holes that don’t close up as layers are added, that type of thing.
If I print in some cheap filament type, like PLA, what are the odds that if I like that print for where the holes are, their size, etc that I’ll get what I want if I change over to PC, or other uncommon materials just by changing the filament type?
Roughly speaking you can say, that the best additional material can have better values after the merger than the best additional material - if you did something wrong. There are a few other factors too, such as:
Manual skill or operator ability, machine values, parameters used in the company, final geometry, environment (humidity, air flow, ambient temperature and so on), properties of the additive, change of the additive by temperature (keyword overheating or cold welding), other errors such as layers or flank binding errors (this list is damn long), change of the base material by applying the additional material and so on and so forth - example of a closed process, process 511 Electron beam welding in vacuum (in a closed environment)… I couldn’t find a higher number in the closed housing.
But the values of additional material certainly don’t get better after using - so the worst material cannot reach the values of the best if it was implemented correctly. And I never go below the machanical values of PETG - but is may a broadly personal story
The candidate gets 100 points, at least we’re now walking around with SD cards and not with printing plates or hammers/chisels and stone slabs - but it’s been quite a while since we ran to the printers… At some point, someone does invented the local network. Bambulab did this really well…
In Bambu Studio you set all the parameters for the print, regarding the object production as such, like number of walls, filling and all that. Bambu Studio doesn’t care what filament you use. Cura as well. That is why all platforms on which print models are exchanged work. However, the 3MF format has a lot of advantages, because not only the model, but all settings are saved as well. But when I download a file from MakerWorld, for example, I often don’t have the filament that someone else had for the design. So I exchange the filament for the filament I have available. When you have received the filament new and unpacked it, you will first calibrate it in Bambu Studio and with the printer. For example, the flow dynamics will be determined and you will determine a flow ratio to this filament so that you do not have any over- or under-extrusion. You also set the correct printing temperature for the filament and the conditions for cooling the component during printing. You set all this for a specific filament. You set it for another filament, you set it for a third filament, and so on. In this way, filaments can be easily exchanged. Because for each filament its processing parameters are determined and stored. In principle, this works in every slicer, including Cura, for example. You can print a model in PLA and then decide to use TPU. You then select TPU and print the model in TPU. Or you want the model to be a bit stronger and stiffer? Then use PLA-CF. Pick out PLA-CF from the list in the slicer, which you have calibrated and saved beforehand, and then print the model with PLA-CF. You want PETG? Then choose PETG or ABS or ASA or … It is important that you have calibrated the filaments correctly and accurately beforehand and that they are dry when used, i.e. that they have not drawn moisture, which can ruin the print.
Someone could design a spool that wraps all the way around the outer rim of the spool. The 2 halves would have a small gap between it where 2 tpu strips could seal them together using the perssure of the 2 halves being screwed together. Run the filament out between the 2 tpu strips. Would only accept refills but you could reuse a cardboard inner ring and zipties to make your own refill.
Dont be jealous of my awesome screen drawing skills.
This is why I want to buy a machine that purports to ‘just work’. I don’t want a new hobby right now but I realize that nothing ‘just works’ in practice. I expect a learning curve and that’s what experimentation is for.
The X1C is probably the closest you will get to a machine that “Just works” in the consumer printer category. This was my experience with the the X1C. Take it out of the box and print stuff with it. It was a pleasant surprise from what I was used to. I would suspect the P1S is very similar.
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I hope your realize I had to read what you wrote 6 times because much of what you said is Greek to me. 
Thank you for your efforts, I need all the help I can get.
I understand why the modeling app doesn’t care about filament since it has nothing to do with the physical world. The AMS holds spools with an RFID tag that tells the printer what’s loaded (assuming Bambu filament). I expect the printer to then apply the known rules about temperature, pressure, speed, with french fries, extra ketchup, etc to at least get into the ballpark on settings. Further, I expect that I’m responsible for all the settings if I buy an OEM product but I expect the manufacturer to provide the necessary specs to allow me to do that. Up front, I’ll stick with Bambu filament.
I’ve seen screen shots of the control interface on the various models and I understand there are lots of setting to adjust manually to dial in parameters but I’m hoping that I can at least do my first print with minimum hassle.
Is there an instruction manual that explains all the settings and what they do or am I supposed to know all this? Is there a book to buy? How about a video course that’s worth the time to look at it? Everything I’ve seen so far is short on details, mostly marketing hype.
Absolutely! That’s the experience I had with my X1C. As Jon says, the P1S should be very similar in that respect.
In terms of transferring designs from one filament to another: it’s generally not an issue except for details that you learn about. Say you have two holes 100mm apart then it doesn’t matter which filament you use. If one of them shrinks 1% you will know (after it hits you in the face the first time 
) and make the adjustment in the slicer if it’s going to matter.
But if you have a hole for a screw and expect the screw to cut threads or have a press-fit insert you will put in then 0.1mm or even 0.05mm for that screw hole may matter and depending on filament and how you have tuned it you may have to tweak the model or some slicer settings.
I’m frequently switching between PETG and ASA. PETG is cheaper. I like ASA better in a couple of dimensions. I hate gluing PETG pieces together while ASA welds nicely with an acetone based cement. So sometimes I start in PETG and then decide to split the part (e.g. doesn’t fit onto the build plate or due to filament orientation reasons) and then I switch to ASA.
Anyway, in the big picture you can definitely get started with little knowledge and have success. Each new project will surface some surprises: you look them up and learn. It’s a pretty gradual and forgiving learning curve.
Or you can just download Bambulab Studio for free and see if you can slice a model (You can also install it without purchasing a printer)… Sending this to the printer, which then inserted the Bambulab material, will be the smaller problem… 
But in the end is also your own financial responsibility…