It currently takes 7 steps to get to the change the filament menu.
When I go to load and unload filament I find it easiest to simply use the dinky LCD controller panel. So why do I have to navigate sub menus to get to what one might argue is the most common task needed to be performed while standing at the printer. Imagine if you had to change the paper in your printer but before you could do that, you had to navigate a series of poorly worded menus to find and then actuate the function?
What I would think would be an obvious design feature would be to make filament loading top choice in the first menu right underneath the printer status. Even better yet, tie that function into the Pause button. Perhaps do something like hold the Pause button down for 3 seconds to actuate the filament load/unload menu.
So you if I understand you correctly, you would suggest that I walk to my desk and then click the menus from there. Then walk back to the printer room across the building. Then if it doesn’t take the command or I forgot to click something, then walk back to my office again and rinse and repeat? Yeah… that sounds much easier.
I do know about the Handy app and it raised deep cyber security concerns in our lab. We have it blocked on our network and all the printers in the print farm are connected Lan-Only mode to a closed WiFi network that is firewalled from the Internet. Truth be told, no matter how good the Bambu printers might be, we would never consider them if it weren’t for LAN-Only mode.
Thanks for letting me know. I originally posted it during a beta test. Here it is reprinted.
Problem Description:
It was wonderful when BBL added controls to load and unload filament without having to manually go through individual steps. This is the kind of improvement that really helps users new to 3D printing. They should not have to understand that loading filament requires heating the hot-end to the correct temp and jogging the extruder.
There is still room for improvement.
I would imagine that the most common uses of the P1P controller are to
check status - mostly to see when the print will finish
pause the printer or abort a print
change filament
2. Managing Filament
Disconnecting load and unload from direct extruder control was a very good idea, but it is still hard to find, and there are too many steps involved. The displayed messages are confusing and made more so by the scrolling of them.
Possible Improvements
Move load/unload to the Home screen. This puts the one operation that the user cannot do remotely right where they need it to be. It becomes a one-click operation.
a. The icon below WiFi signal can be moved up next to WiFi signal to make room for the “Load” button.
Use the filament run-out sensor to switch the function of the button, and the text shown, to either “load” or “unload” as appropriate. This fixes a current - when going to the filament control page the button with focus is the last one used which is always wrong. It is applicable regardless where the load button is placed.
Change the actual process used by load and unload to use a dedicated screen just for filament management, which allows more screen space for messages and buttons. Get rid of the scrolling text.
simplify the process for loading and unloading with fewer prompts and actions for the user.
Suggested process
Load
the user selects load
message: waiting for nozzle to heat up (unload when finished jumps here)
message: insert filament
when filament detector senses filament, the extruder starts running, which grabs the filament and starts pulling it in and purging the old filament
the length of filament from the extruder to the nozzle tip is a known quantity, so after extruding that length of filament,
a. message: select done if the new filament is being extruded or retry to extrude more
b. user selects “done” and display returns to home page
Unload
user selects “unload”
message displayed is waiting for nozzle to heat
when nozzle is hot, message changes to remove filament
filament detector detects removable of filament and the screen changes to the load filament screen
Thanks for reposting. It is an interesting read and well thought out. I like the depth of your suggestions and it also points out how clumsy the current interface is. Now if they would only heed your suggestions. Item number 1 would address the issue I described above.
Personally I still would prefer the function be tied to a physical button press. One oddity I could never wrap my mind around is the presence of a Pause button but no start button. Puzzling to say the least.
I have to empathize with the developers on one point. Designing a UI can be a tiresome and unforgiving process. It’s also subject to vast personal preferences. Combine that with the fact that one cannot overlook cultural differences between their culture and the West and you have a perfect Witches brew of chaotic and competing preferences.
That said, Bambu has demonstrated the ability to do something rare and that is… listening to their customers. Although there is much room for improvement, they have adopted user suggestions at a surprising pace. That is unheard of in today’s western tech world and definitely goes against he grain of the Chinese business philosophy of “差不多” (chà bù duō) which loosely translated means “just good enough” or “sufficient to get the job done”. It actually translates to the word “Almost” but that loses the meaning in the way that it is used in Chinese business. In the west, Venture Capitalists use the term “Minimum Viable Product” which means, “just enough to get some shmuck to buy it and no more”.
I struggle with the pause button. I feel that I should be able to push it again to un-pause. I find it awkward to always have to navigate around to get to the play icon.
