No way! I went to WPI and still live close. Glad to hear they have been using the Bambu Printers.
I do really want a LAN port as well. My wifi network is loaded with way too many devices.
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Oh my gosh – I FINALLY got the printer hooked up via WiFi to the school’s network. Took some finagling with the network (with the help of others), and now I’m printing, watching the camera and everything.
What a project!
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Hi Monkeyman! Now that I can actually use the printer (see my other message), I’m going to lobby the school to replace a bunch of slow dinosaurs. Glad to hear you’re an Alum. What department (off subject, sorry).
Mechanical Engineering. My works the same way now…only have old dino’s onsite.
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Do you still have to use the cloud or do you have a direct Wi-Fi connection?
I am using the cloud. That way I can access the printer from about anywhere, plus I can monitor it on my cell phone. Working pretty well now, but I am (like others) a bit nervous about the cloud connection. Time will tell.
Bambu, please listen carefully to this. It’s important! People want control over their machines and they want that control now, on cable. For some out there, this is a must, meaning you won’t be able to sell your printer to them just because you omitted the ethernet and usb ports. I guess you even have an usb port in there somewhere, just not populated. Get on with it. Give us access!
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I too, as a hobbyist have locked down my wifi. It’s just too easy to offer a backdoor into my network. This is security 101. Wifi is INSECURE! Has always been. Every security upgrade to the protocol has been eventually broken. Everyone knows it. Hardwired ethernet or a USB where I can use something like OctoPrint is my vote. I just wish there was some easy way to retrofit my existing X1C to allow ethernet.
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Thus far firmware updates is the only technical reason given for having Wifi. This was posted by someone in Bambu Lab. But for me I am not seeing a Bambu Lab to this forum connection. Could it be that unless someone finds a hard failure mode bug the forum is a free customer support arm?
My support ticket is four weeks old. I haven’t received more than a welcome and standby message.
At least they have spare parts in the US. There are lots of positive things to say about Bambu Lab. For me they are better than the other two brands I have had. Perhaps if a blogger would take this issue and publish a video more would get done.
That USB port is a 5V port only. There are no data wires connected.
BryanJ, do you mean the port on the AP board or the camera?
Thanks,
The USB port for the camera has both data and power. It has been successfully tested with a USB hub.
This suggests that Bambu may only have to drop an open source Ethernet driver into the printer’s firmware to allow support of standard USB Ethernet dongles.
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Just adding my support behind this idea.
Not being able to use Octoprint on a 3D printer is a massive oversight
You could do that with Octoprint as well without the need for a cloud
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Universities wifi will block your IP address. I have the same issue at my university. My way around is to use a travel router and to use my phone data using the usb connection (my plan only allows one tether at a time). The other issue is that my desktop computer does not have wifi… so, I have to use my field laptop that has a built in wifi adapter (can also add a usb wifi dongle to the PC).
I find shocking that this neat printer does not have a usb or a bluetooth connection (or even a wifi connection to connect to it via ip, like my other equipment and some drones).
How about try a hotspot from your cell phone to gateway the BBL printer to the internet.
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I would much prefer to hardware all of my “infrastucrure” devices in my network, I would be open to paying for and upgraded board to replace the current one if it had Ethernet.
BambuLabs - if you are not working on this, you should seriously consider it as a costed option for those users who either can’t use WiFi or like myself prefer to hardwire.
I’d also like to know if BambuLabs use WiFi in their printer farm / test labs, as I don’t believe that you can run a significant printer farm using 2.4ghz WiFi.
My Unifi setup with more than 60 client devices works well with no issues, except for this printer, which has intermittent connectivity issues.
Have you set the printer to LAN mode? IF still cant see the printer. You then should check what ports BL printers uses in LAN and then see if you can have those ports opened off for that IP address only. Ive been wanting to check with them on the ports myself for a port forwarding reason, but that is another story ;). You could always run this on a linux os computer and set up a WIFI adapter connection that is one to connect to like a hot spot but its just LAN from it to the printer. Then set the printer to connect to that computer. I am not sure if windows has a setting that way out of the box I don’t think it does. If need help on the latter one if you think it will work. Send me a PM (if cant pm reply and ill get way to get in touch.) and I will internally test what I am thinking here before I give you detailed instructions.
Edit I agree though I hope add an option later for a USB and Eth would be great for reasons for many when WIFI don’t reach, but not sure eth would correct your issue other then fact could use a cross cable and connect it directly to a computer which is similar to the wireless bridge I am mentioning there.
I don’t know if it solves the connection issue, but Windows can provide a hotspot.
Activate it at Settings>Network & Internet>Mobile Hotspot