Hello, I’m new to 3D printing and I have a few questions.
I’d like to know if I can use my spools with RFID chips of Bambu basic PLA and fill them with Geeetech basic PLA?
What are the risks?
Is there a huge difference between these two brands?
Has anyone tried this before?
Since there’s no Geeetech profile, I thought it might be possible, and since the color recognition and temperature control system is very convenient, I’d like to reuse them, especially considering the spools cost less than €10.
The only real risk is Bambu seeing this post and marking you as an insurgent. Then within an hour you’ll hear a loud pop inside your printer and see a small puff of smoke rising out of it. That’s the micro charge of C4 that’s behind every AP board and is part of the self destruct routine.
In all seriousness the only risk is the prints won’t be flawless if the filament is different enough from Bambu that it makes a difference. I’ve never used Geeetech but there’s a good chance you won’t be able to tell the difference.
When I got my first Bambu I planned to do the same thing but decided it was going to be a headache to keep up with. I can barely find two socks that match.
In general what you propose absolutely works. There are even RFID tag holders on MakerWorld for various other kinds of spools to help do it but some just tape the tags on other spools - works great too. I’ve got a stack of tags all labeled for the filament spools they came off of ready to go should I ever need them.
Can’t speak to Geetech filament in particular though. All filaments of a given type (PLA or whatever) will probably be close to the Bambu parameters for similar filament but there could be differences. So far it’s worked great for me but my experience is limited.
With RFID encrypted and closed, attaching used Bambu tags to other spools is about the only way we have to get type/color recognition with other brand filament.
Caveat - the tags have serial numbers. The patent they operate under also lists blacklisting tags it knows have had their spools emptied to be able to block refills and using the tags like you propose. So far I haven’t heard Bambu is considering that but they could.
I don’t plan on counterfeiting spools, but simply buying Basic filament at half the price and refilling my empty spools with Geeetech, Sunlu, or eSUN filament. (Geeetech doesn’t have a profile for Bambu printers.)
I hadn’t considered that each RFID chip had a unique ID (I thought they only indicated the filament type and color).
I really hope that one day they won’t restrict each chip to a single scan in the AMS. And I doubt Bambu will have Black Friday deals every month.
Can’t speak for them but I don’t see them doing it either. Bambu has had some major missteps on filament and forced users to go elsewhere at times. See the threads here on issues with Bambu filaments, attachments to the spools, and color/property inconsistencies.
They might generate a lot of bad press too at a time when others are bringing similar capabilities to market.
I wonder if they won’t allow just filament info, but not profiles to load with it. That way they’re not giving away anything they (must have something) that they feel is proprietary. Just have the tag say this is XYZcolorsize.
Who knows, miracles have happened. It’s close to that time of year.
Does this mean the printer never writes to the chips on its rolls because they are read-only? That’s good to know. It means it can’t tell which roll has already been printed and that the roll blacklist is a list of chips that have been printed thousands of times.
I am probably wrong but I think some of the issues with the Bambu RFID system being so proprietary compared to others is that from what I have seen is that Bambu were basically the first to come out with the RFID/Filament spool/AMS reading system when there was no thought of standards or cross brand use out there and what other vendors have come out with since that seem more open would basically force Bambu to re-tool that portion of their manufacturing process and possibly firmware and software tweaks. I’m sure that is not the only reason but it is a potential cost point consideration.
It describes the Bambu system so well it must be being licensed and the patent discusses all the ways different identification systems can be used to lock people into a particular vendor’s supplies. That was the original intent - with serial numbers on the spools and the odometer, they can see when a spool has emptied and blacklist the serial number. Thankfully Bambu didn’t implement that.
But it was dual use - make setting machine parameters for each kind of filament automatic and make it where customers had no choice in where they buy supplies - basically just like how inkjet printer manufacturers try to control their supplies market.
There is a serial number in there too. It’s not difficult to keep a list of spool/RFID serials that have been emptied and refuse to load any filament from them. Very anti-consumer and would likely cause a huge backlash. Thankfully not implemented.
I hope the open tag system is adopted by everyone.
