Open letter to Bambu Lab about supporting user wants and needs

Bambu Lab Software Feature Requests
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As a tiny lion said above me, one can use the sd card and all that. I see this argument made often enough, but the printer is capable of being operated like every printer I’ve owned before it for the past 10 years. When my internet went down during the snow storms, I just used the SD card. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. The point is, the printer doesn’t magically stop functioning because the internet takes a nap.

I don’t think Bambu is ignoring their customers. They are obviously doing things to appease their customers, like making sure there’s still a path for custom firmware, as people want. Or working to make sure there’s the API to still SECURELY access the printer’s systems. They aren’t going to change course because a smaller minority is yelling their head off, but they do still listen and make smaller changes based on what people are yelling about, while still going full steam ahead to their apparent goals as a company. Some may not like that, but they are still consumer focused, very apparently.

From my point of view, the problem with this environment is security

I think this is true of most cloud based systems, or systems that just connect to the internet in general. I’m pretty sure it’s an ongoing issue with IOT devices having really bad security. Part of the adjustments Bambu is making, is working to further secure the system. Stuff like fixing the exploit that was used to put that customer firmware on the printer, or the streams people were tapping into for like those screens or home assistant. They said they were going to secure that, but still provide an API, so.

The thing with the firmware really got me because like, why do you expect a company to leave an unpatched vulnerability in such an internet connected device? People yell at Bambu about wanting them to be more secure, but then also yell at them when they actually take steps to fix security holes.

Still, regardless. If you want to be paranoid, you can still operate the machine without connecting it to the internet. You can isolate the thing and it’ll still function. Let’s just stop with this myth that the printer needs to be connected to the cloud to function.

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There have been a lot of bugs and crashes in Bambu Studio on the Mac with the last firmware and studio updates. Seems to happen most as the print file has been uploaded and is being downloaded to the printer. I have not figured out what the exact cause is yet.

Likewise, I’ve had more print failures on projects using the creators print profile. I suspect it’s print profiles made on an earlier version of studio or earlier version of firmware, but no proof other than it’s happening now when it wasn’t before.

Same with instances where the pre-print calibration sequence tries to go lower than the lower limit and doesn’t stop until the left side bearing gets pulled up out of it’s socket by a good 1/4 inch.

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Maybe my comment has been misinterpreted.
Any bambulab user knows that they can use the printer without the need for the Internet, losing the remote control capabilities that the cloud system allows offcorse.

But in any case, every time the firmware needs to be updated you need to connect the printer not only to the internet but also to the cloud. For this reason i said 100% isolated functionality without internet.

And it is not a question of paranoia, it is a question that since it is a closed system where it cannot be analyzed what data is or is not shared with the cloud server, you never know for sure if the confidentiality of the models is protected or not.

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@JonRaymond Thanks for the tip. It was not that way back when I got my P1P.

What do you mean about the initial pairing? Are you saying that for a new printer the config file on the SD card will not work?

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@3dEd I was considering firmware part of the hardware. I realize that the firmware is what controls the hardware and makes it work so well.

In contrast you can read some of the old articles posted shortly after the printer was released and see how bad the networking was and Bambu lab admitting that they did not know enough about network security.

I also listed how well the printer works out of the box for a new to printing customer.

However, Bambu Studio is full of partially implemented features. Locking down network communication in proprietary code and similar choices prevent users from growing the ecosystem to work better for their needs.

As for hacking G-code, you might not need to do it, but many of the experienced 3D printer users want to customize the gcode for various reasons. Adding certain types of filament calibration tests require writing custom G-code, such as what was originally added to Orca Slicer. For me personally, I do not have an AMS and I do not want every print to start with purging a lot of filament. There is no need when filament is changed manually, which does the required purge. I wrote modified the machine start code to work for my needs. That is made available to change in Bambu Studio. I just think the g-code should be documented. There are codes in the stock machine start code that are not standard Marlin codes and without documentation it is hard to tell what they do or if they are necessary for a given situation.

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@lkraus Thanks for the positive comment. You are correct that I had been very busy with another project for several months and was not working on the printer much. It also gets hard to keep up with multiple forums that are very active.

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@3DSAT When you say “Any bambulab user knows that they can use the printer without the need for the Internet” I am not sure that is actually true. But more to the point is that when the first BBL printer was released using it without the cloud was impossible. That was the only way to communicate to the printer. LAN mode was added later and is still not perfect.

If you read some of the oldest threads in the forum you will see post after post of the cloud being down and users not being able to print. (Yes they could use the SD card, but normal functionality did not work.)

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Thanks @Omthetortoise for mentioning the profile update issue. There is no notification about various profiles being updated in Bambu Studio. In addition, the g-code is not stored in the project, but must be regenerated each time the project is opened.

This is a major flaw, because I can print an object perfectly one day and then a month later, after profiles have silently updated, try to print the same object again and have it turn out differently.

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I agree with everything the OP said about the networking. There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to print locally AND use the camera remotely.

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Hear, hear!

I manage the Bambu Lab printer in my club. Many users, one machine. Given the printer farms people report, we should also have many to many and the ability to easily switch between multiple sites such as home and club.

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@msmith18 - I think you should read or watch an instructional on how to use the SD card to print your designs without the cloud. It is literally the same process as using the SD cards on the Prusas. I save my designs to the SD card from my X1C and P1S all the time. No cloud needed…

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You could setup a VPN to connect your phone into your local network, so you can access it remotely from anywhere. Or maybe use any number of remote desktop services. Or I imagine there’s a way to direct the printer’s camera feed, so it’s accessible outside of the network. It is an rtsps feed afterall.

I have home assistant setup, and have it setup so I can access it remotely. On there I have a dashboard for my printers, and video feeds.

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Ah, another person complaining about the “walled garden”. You knew about this before you purchased. Stop crying about it. This is their whole business model and strategy. Have you ever tried running a company? You can’t just throw your long-term strategy in the toilet, flush it down and start over. People like you are so goddamn clueless and negative. If BL planned to make this a closed system, obviously the user has the choice to accept or not. If you want an open ecosystem build yourself a Voron or buy something from Creality.

I, for one, am extremely happy with my X1C. The only thing I am unhappy about is the Customer Service. But this will get MUCH WORSE if BL allows people to tinker and break the printer by doing uncontrolled things to it. Imagine some dude fitting a third party hotend and altering the firmware (as can be done in Klipper), then messing up the parameters, the printer then stops producing nice models, and the dude then opens a support ticket and whines about how awful the printer is printing “after an update”. Conveniently hiding the fact that he altered something that was quality controlled and built specifically for the parameters tested by BL over the last 2 years. And then he goes on forums and YouTube and whatnot to whine about how awful BL support is that they don’t even know about their own product as they can’t seem able to fix the problem (that the user created by modding the device).

This is what you want? Go build a Voron and take responsibility for the support.

I want BL to stay on their current course and spend their energy on building their ecosystem to the best it can be and to achieve their vision as a business.

When they have everything stable, it will reduce the load on user support teams internally and then when people have easily reproduced problems the solution will be easy to implement.

It’s becoming extremely frustrating to watch “open source warriors” come on this forum take away resources and energy from BL employees who should be serving the customers that are happy with their way of doing business. Yet BL is focusing on whining and “community” demands of tinkerers and it’s just maddening that they’re letting it happen.

It’s at a point where they should have a clear rule in the forum: IF YOU TALK ABOUT OPEN SOURCING OUR PRODUCTS, YOUR POST WILL BE DELETED.

Bambu Lab makes it very clear that their system is a walled garden. If you don’t like it, buy something else. They have been extremely responsive in giving users including myself stuff that we asked for in consideration of their business model. We asked for LAN mode, they gave us that. We asked for RTSP feed, they gave us that. We asked for being able to cancel individual parts during a print, they gave us that.

And so help me God if another person mentions that fat Prusa loser and his lame stuck-in-the-past products again I might have a stroke.

There’s NOTHING wrong with creating a repository. I like MakerWorld’s integration with Bambu Studio. If you don’t like it, don’t use it.

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On another note, making the Bambu Studio keyboard shortcuts and mouse movement parameters editable . . . like almost every decent piece of software does, would be a small but much more user friendly change, as people can make slicer shortcuts match whatever CAD or 3D software they are using.

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I’m pretty sure you can revert to prior firmware on all but one release (the one closing a security issue).

Bambu is actually going to allow 3rd party firmware. This is unheard of in the industry. It can simply 100% break the entire machine, which Bambu could be held accountable for. But they are still going to allow it.

The only one stating Panda Touch might be blocked is… Panda Touch. And correctly so. But keep in mind, Bambu has made no statement that they will be blocking the Panda Touch. Bambu may very well make changes to the msq calls that create issues for the Panda Touch but that is really something that both companies need to work out. Certainly Bambu has shown that they are 100% open to working with companies. Heck, they will even work with a group of people who are circumventing Bambu’s firmware.

Bambu printers are working the same as they did when you were recommending them to people.

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Thanks for the effort, it is a great start, lets hope it gets appropriate consideration.

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Well it seems to be the case with multi-nationals and why a huge swathe of US and probably European infrastructure is riddled with intrusions, some quite long term and not all access has been gained by social engineered attacks.
It’s not what is patched as that will be the glaringly obvious, it’s what is not patched that no one knows about. The so called zero day vulnerability listings keep popping up major issues to OS and infrastructure devices with some being present and unpatched for months or even years.
Apple even now openly but quietly confirm that they have vulnerabilities. Closed systems do not mean safe systems.
By this token you will probably find an increasing push against any hardware that has closed and uninspected or uninspectable software, do you know what goes in and out of that printer that is sitting on your network. If it is an unknown then it represents a risk as the printers systems run on a small computer with storage and would easily be able to execute other code.

The range of printers is meant as a fire and forget system, very plug and play and with little user interaction other than feeding it filament and parts.
I don’t mind that as I’ve spent years with other printers that did need to have a lot of intervention so it is a positive, but I can also see the side of people who do want to intervene.

On using SD’s as a sneaker net method of file transfer, how quaint it is stepping back to something we used to do 30 years ago. What is the point of my printer sitting on the end of a fibre link (I know, overkill but it was just so cheap a deal I couldn’t resist) between my home and shed networks, why would I want to trot up and down my garden when I have gigs of bandwidth available?

I’ve already got an E3D hot end made collaboratively with BL so ‘imagine away’. It isn’t light years better BUT it is better. That’s only because E3D have more experience making high flow hot ends, there won’t be massive differences but it will be the small difference that make a bigger difference.

They are good printers and the company is still settling into leaping from a startup to a major player.
The price points are good, the features are good and improving steadily.

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That’s a really invalid argument. The whole point I’m clearly making is that BL has control. As you said, BL was involved in creating the E3D hotend, so it’s quality checked to ensure proper operation, and BL can support it if something goes wrong because they have details of the engineering that went into it and it’s obvious that they tested it before giving their “blessing” in public. I’m talking about dudes buying random hotends or other parts from no-name Chinese brands and hacking them and then complaining that it doesn’t work. Well duh, if BL didn’t design or approve obviously it’s not their fault, but that won’t stop some ass from saying it is.

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I worked as a service specialist for a high tech scientific company for many years. In defence of Bambu. They provide the closest there is to a COTS product (complete off the shelf solution)at a cost that many can afford, why should they share their source code with customers, how can they provide tech support if customers are modifying code here there and everywhere, the company I worked for didn’t and customers didn’t expect them to. If you want an open source product why buy a proprietary product? Error codes are the same, no point in publishing codes if they have don’t any user relevance.
Ethernet connection I have no issues connecting wirelessly to P1S and X1C. Just can’t use Handy.
If you want enhancements/ upgrades/ new features then they will almost certainly be prioritised by the number of requests, feasibility including cost and commercial advantage.
At least Bambu have tech support, whatever you think of it, never really had any from other manufacturer.
I have installed all firmware upgrades including beta versions and never had to roll back, most tech firms have rolled out online firmware updates, when did you last download phone firmware onto a PC or Mac and transfer to another device?
Submitting a wish list is a good idea mine would include a formal route to submit enhancement requests.
Bambu have invested a considerable amount of money and time in developing products which just work out of the box, most of the time, they have every reason to protect their investment.
I do sympathise with the A1 users caught up in the cable recall, it does flag the risk of being an early adopter.

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A nice, well-reasoned comment, finally.

But about the “early adopter”, no, BL has to be held entirely responsible for this. I think BL made a huge mistake building a bed-slinger. It’s 2024. Leave that garbage to Prusa. Cartesian needs to die. It’s a garbage tech. The inertia of the Y axis is automatically a physical constraint. Can’t change the laws of physics… The taller the part gets, the worse the quality gets at the same speed, because of wobbling… so speed has to be lowered to achieve the same quality. CoreXY is the gold standard.

Can’t really enclose a Cartesian printer properly considering the Y axis extends past the gantry, so the enclosure has to be considerably larger for no benefit in build volume. And of course, now we see that exposed wiring that’s constantly moving is a bad idea. Duh… BL wasted money developing this. They should’ve developed a retrofit print head for the X1C with a quick-released hotend. God, I would’ve jumped at that so quickly.

Instead, they will build the X2C with the quick-swap technology, but I won’t be investing. No way I’ll spend to replace the X1C that works flawlessly for me now just because of a new hotend tech. If they make retrofit kit I’ll be all over it!

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