To all X1C users waiting for “Drying While Printing

Bambu Lab X Series Bambu Lab X1C
1

I know that many Bambu Lab X1 Carbon owners have been hoping that the “Drying While Printing” feature for the AMS 2 Pro and AMS HT would eventually become available on the X1C as well.

I therefore asked Bambu Lab Support directly whether there is any hope that this feature could be added to the X1C through a future firmware update.

I have now received a written response from Bambu Lab Support. Unfortunately, their answer seems quite clear:

According to Bambu Lab, “Drying While Printing” requires specific hardware integration within the printer architecture. This hardware capability is apparently not present in the current X1 Carbon. Therefore, according to Bambu Lab, this feature cannot be implemented through a firmware update alone.

Here is the full original response from Bambu Lab Support:

Dear Bambu Lab Customer,

Thank you for your continued patience and for sharing your technical insights. Your proactive engagement with the firmware verification process is highly valued, and our R&D team is actively analyzing the data you provided to ensure a stable future release for the X1 Carbon.

Regarding your inquiry about the Drying While Printing functionality for the X1 Carbon, we would like to clarify that this specific feature requires specialized hardware integration within the printer architecture to operate effectively and safely. Because it relies on hardware capabilities that are not present in the current X1 Carbon design, this function cannot be implemented through a firmware update alone.

We truly understand how beneficial this feature would be for managing moisture sensitive filaments in your workflow, and we sincerely appreciate your forward thinking interest in our technological evolution. Please be assured that we are fully committed to protecting your interests and ensuring your current system continues to provide a premium printing experience through our ongoing support. Thank you for your exceptional support and for being such a professional user of our technology.

Please feel free to contact us at any time and we will be happy to provide you with assistance and support

Best regards,
Bambu Lab Customer Support

So unfortunately, it looks like X1C owners should probably no longer expect “Drying While Printing” to simply be enabled through a future firmware update.

However, there is one part of this explanation that I still don’t fully understand:

What specific hardware is actually missing from the X1C?

After all, the actual heating and drying hardware is located inside the AMS 2 Pro / AMS HT, not inside the X1C itself.

Perhaps someone with more technical knowledge of the X1C and AMS communication can explain exactly what additional hardware would be required on the printer side.

Has anyone else contacted Bambu Lab about this and received a different or more detailed explanation?

2

I wonder how practical drying while printing actually is. How many would wait for some hopefully significant amount of drying to take place before starting a print? Or would the SOP be to take a spool out of packing, put it in, start drying and start the print?

Moisture changes filament properties so changing moisture content during a print could even change the printed part throughout a print.

It seems to me the best results would come from drying first to some significant amount and then starting the print. Water content changes will be biggest at the start of a dry but get smaller as the dry progresses so drying while printing won’t have as big an effect if printing is started later in the dry.

I certainly see the desired result but wonder how people would use the capability and if any effects would be strong enough to cause issues in prints.

3

The X1 has a more basic version of the Vertical Product Differentiation chip. This chip is required to enable H-series features.

4

What is very frustrating is that it also won’t allow you just dry without unloading the filament. That makes no sense since it obviously let’s you do that when it is connected to the H2.

5

Why does it work fine on the P1P?

6

THIS. I care less about drying while printing. Starting a drying cycle from my phone on newer machines has spoiled me.

Not to mention in its current implementation - you have a nice dry atmosphere when the drying cycle finishes and the first thing you have to do is open it up to refeed all the lines, allowing all the ambient humidity back in

7

Calculate the amount of water in the air volume in the AMS if it was full of air at your typical ambient humidity. You don’t even need to remove spool air displacement volume. It’s a tiny, tiny fraction of the water typically removed from a spool of filament when drying.

Yep, it does introduce water but it’s inconsequential.

Also, something else to keep in mind - water vapor doesn’t immediate saturate filament. It’s a process that takes time. If you have ever re-dried filament, the second time typically goes much quicker because the moisture content doesn’t go back up that fast.

8

Yeah, you’re probably right. Just feels wrong is all

9

so , they just lie to us in their documentation / wiki.

Drying Workflow on Bambu Studio

Minimum firmware:

  • H2D: v01.03.00.00 and above
  • H2S： 01.02.00.00 and above
  • P2S: 01.02.00.00 and above
  • X2D: 01.01.00.00 and above
  • A2L: 01.01.00.00 and above
  • Other printers will receive the feature in future updates

and

Introduction to Simultaneous Drying and Printing Function

The simultaneous drying and printing feature of AMS refers to using the automatic loading and unloading function of AMS while the drying function is enabled.

Minimum Supported Firmware Version:

  • H2D: Version 01.03.00.00 and above
  • H2S: Version 01.02.00.00 and above
  • P2S: Version 01.02.00.00 and above
  • X2D: Version 01.01.00.00 and above
  • A2L：Version 01.01.00.00 and above
  • P1S/P1P/X1C/A1/A1mini are not supported yet