@Olias Not sure if it matters but my guess is it’s just Mass Storage Class (MSC) (0x08) if it’s just replacing the functions of the SD card.
Just a disk as far as the printer is concerned.
I think you’re envisioning something that works like a regular 2D printer. If we’re correct that the USB is just simple storage (like an SD card), then no you can’t wire it up to a PC.
I’m not sure that’d be objectively better either. In my case it’d be worse - I have the printer in a very different location of the house, which has a wired LAN connection to a locally located WIFI. Running a USB wire up there would be a real pain (although, possibly better than relying on WIFI) in my case. Also I suppose it’d need OS-specific support/drivers if it operated as a USB device from the PC’s perspective.
Not that I am in the market for this anyway. As I’ve stated before, trust is lost.
At first glance, maybe but do any of the current lineup have a USB port? And there is also mention of 8GB eMMC (onboard storage)… so that would make inability to do LAN mode printing quite odd. It is quite understandable that the mere mention of USB in relation to the H2D gets people’s hopes up (as a hardwired/direct connection option would be quite advantageous), but everything so far indicates it is host mode, not client mode, so is not for connecting to a PC, etc.
P1/X1 do have an USB port, but I’m not sure if the data pins connect to anything (I might take a peak later) - it’s primarily used to power 3rd party mods like the Panda Touch, added LED lighting, fume extractors etc. Maybe they just enabled a host mode on it for aux storage and saved a few pennies on dealing with SD cards…
Thanks for this comment, I have a P1S and have not looked at the panda screen or aux lights so wasn’t aware that this was actually there. Had to take a mirror and look on the back side of the area where the existing touch screen is.
And I personally am not a big fan of micro cards for storage, I’m a little rough on them. I use an extender so I lessen the chance of damaging the socket or flattening out the top of the card.
Thank you @lou that was the lucid explanation I was looking for.
What was confusing me was the reference of LAN mode versus USB mass storage. If Bambu decides to implement a true USB peripheral interface and treat the printer as a target peripheral like a regular inkjet or traditional desktop printer, it would be a move forward. This motion to “force” everyone on Wi-Fi feels like an “agenda”. There is no good reason not to implement a USB interface since just about every ESP32 or ARM class SOC has that baked into the chip. In fact, one has to not connect those pins.
I’ve stated it before and it’s worth stating over and over again. @BambuLab Why are you bullying your customers into connecting only one way? Why do you block us from options? We continue to beat that dead horse but that’s what has essentially soured me on Bambu as a company.
Plus, depending on the card socket, they also suffer from being flung across the room, never to be found again!
And not even options, what about simple reliability? You can’t beat at least one hardwired interface for reliability of connection, and with later ESP32s (if they are using similar system design) USB support is essentially “free”, so yes, why not?!
Yeah I don’t really get it - an RJ-45 port isn’t expensive, nor is a little bit of local disk storage.
But it does go right along with the “Apple” way of doing business - do it our way or not at all. “You didn’t really need that feature, did you? Because we’re removing it!”
Thanks… I just hadn’t bothered going back to see if there was any mention of the main processor… nice! Hm, even more reason to wonder why not populate USB client mode or Ethernet support…
There is a little more to that story though… ports on phones were also removed in the quest to make things thinner, lighter, water/dustproof… There comes a point at which a manufacturer has to determine whether the bulk of their target audience wants something like a headphones jack, or a removable battery… I know as time has gone on I prefer the convenience of Bluetooth audio even though my phone does have a jack, but I do appreciate the fact the jack is still there. Lack of removable battery is more annoying to me personally.
What? And miss out on the opportunity to spin completely invalid (or perhaps valid?) theories about what it may or may not have? Is this not still the Bambu Labs community forum, or am I hallucinating?
I was going to write a further rant about how their “quest” to make things as thin as possible has caused more problems and required more compromises than it solved, but it got too off topic. But yeah, I know there are some trade offs. It’s also annoying that we ended up with so many copycats, leaving little choice left.
But I’m past the point where I even care about anything mobile, I just avoid it as much as I can now. If that’s what people want - whatever.
Hm, I suppose I could add blue tooth to my Ipod classic but the jack works pretty good. I have hung a BT dongle from it on occasion. I doubt if I could transfer all 17,000 songs to my phone. and I don’t think my vuzix glasses would connect to it for watching movies I have ripped.
As I’ve stated before, trust is lost.
Hm, even more reason to wonder why not populate USB client mode or Ethernet support…