Understanding limitations of LAN Mode & getting away from BBL cloud

Hi,

So I’ve had my X1C for just over a year. I’ve never liked the fact that prints go via the cloud, but for the amount and type of printing I do, I’ve just swallowed it. Following the recent announcements my concerns around BBL’s level of control and visibility of what I do with my printer have grown, and thoughts around what they may or may not, or could potentially do in the future have made me consider what options I have.

Now I really like my X1C, I don’t want to stop using it or really even change the way that I use it too much. I also don’t want BBL to change the way I use it or limit my options as to how I use it in the future (should I decide that I want to use a different slicer or some other third party software etc).

So this left me wondering what my options could be to - 1) Get away from dependencies on BBL’s cloud - at the very least eliminate it from the Slicer > Printer process, 2) Ensure I remain fully in control of what updates my device receives, 3) Retain as much of my current workflow and capability as possible.

There seem to be a few tools and approaches I could use to try and achieve these goals, either individually or in combination.

  1. Take the printer fully offline, keep my existing software and workflow except use an SD card to transfer print jobs from my devices to the printer.

  2. Consider LAN only mode to remove dependence on BBL’s cloud. Attempt to keep my existing software and workflow.

  3. Deploy X1+ in the hope that it will provide me with a firebreak should BBL decide in the future that they want to force a firmware update which includes this new ‘security’ lockdown. If also going to LAN only mode it could open up the possibility of replacing some lost functionality from BBL cloud.

Looking at these options number 2 & 3 seem like the way to go either together or in isolation. I understand that currently if I go to X1+ (I’m not interested in warranty issues) that I could continue to use BBL Studio & Handy, and would not lose any functionality of my printer. I also believe it would cut out the possibility of ever having a firmware update pushed. It could be that I could not use Handy in the future, or update Studio to a newer version should BBL decide to require a certain level of firmware to continue using those apps.

LAN mode seems like more of an unknown. Based on the BBL wiki the only functionality I should lose would be:

  • Cannot start prints remotely from outside the local network
  • Bambu Handy app is not available when using LAN Mode.
  • Print History feature is not available

I have no hesitation to say I can live with these limitations, and if I were to switch to X1+ firmware too then the first two items could be replaced with alternate solutions. What concerns me is that there are plenty of YouTube videos and forum posts suggesting far more than this will break in LAN mode. During a discord conversation on this topic yesterday, it was suggested that my ability to add custom filaments in BBL Studio and then sync them to the AMS for selection and assignment of calibration profiles would be lost. This would be a big deal and significantly change my workflow. If I were to lose the ones I already have that would be even worse and is one reason I’m somewhat reluctant to just give LAN mode a try without fully understanding what the undocumented consequences could be.

So what do people think? I’d be really interested to hear from anyone who’s recently switched to LAN only mode (still using BBL Studio) and what the impact was with regards to sync of custom filament profiles to AMS. Also if you’ve gone to both LAN mode and X1+ how has it gone? Were there any unexpected consequences?

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Bambu, more or less, uses three different approaches.
X1E - pay a lot of extra money to have an Ethernet port on your printer.
Studio/Handy in full cloud mode.
Printing in LAN only mode.

Thing is that with the exception of the Ethernet port all limitations imposed are created by Bambu with full intend.
Let’s start with how this cloud stuff works…
Water evaporates and in cooler layers of the atmosphere it starts to condense - no that’s for tomorrows class and the little kids…
You send the print job to the cloud service, the service contacts your printer and initiates the download-upload, however you wanna call it.
All this of course requires authentication, security tokens, keys,…
The big benefit is that you can get into the cloud wherever you are in the world - or building…
Since your printer is there as well you can communicate just fine…
How much or little goes over the cloud depends on whether or not you are in the same network as your printer.
If in doubt all goes over the cloud.

LAN only means the printer is ‘offline’ and SUPPOSED to neither be available from the Bambu cloud nor able to contact the cloud if said Wifi network offers internet access.
Outside your network Studio and Handy are basically useless as they can’t contact your printer(s).
But WHY ???

We can control our washing machine, toaster, aircon, even our EV from anywhere in the world these days.
Some can’t live without checking their security cameras every few minutes while on holiday…
Our printers though are locked out from all this while operating in Lan only mode.
Not just that though…
Good luck getting one working if there is no internet available.
No internet, no setup possible.
No account - no setup possible…
You get the picture…
It is no problem to access our printers in LAN only mode from outside our own network.
At least it wouldn’t if Bambu would let us.
Their claim is these security measures are for US - until they change this lie I won’t trust them LOL

How to cheat…
Use a good VPN and set it up on a spare computer, Raspberry, or media server.
The key is to configure to allow remote access to specified devices in your network - the printer.
While on the other end of town you then connect to your server with the installed VPN and open a tunnel to the printer that is linked to Studio/Handy.
Whatever you do now is seen by the printer as coming from the home network as the server changes you outside IP traffic to local traffic.
But I bet Bambu will close this backdoor one day as well somehow.
Handy could work just fine in LAN only mode, only a few lines of code need changing…

2 Likes

I know all of this, I’m a Technical Architect with 25+ years of experience.

What I’m asking is for peoples experience with things that don’t work when going into LAN mode. Things that aren’t documented in that very short list of ‘stuff that won’t work’ which Bambu provides. Things like the AMS filament profile sync - or perhaps that will work and I’ve just heard from one person who has a specific/unique problem with theirs.

I am in LAN only mode and AMS sync works fine.
Same for everything else I need and that Studio does.
No SD card access for video downloads and such, same for the camera settings.
But if I am not mistaken I can still start the timeplapse if I activate it for a print, just means getting the SD out or using a WiFi enabled SD card.
Makerworld and such still works just means downloading things and then printing…
I turned the suggestions and such off though…

I have my P1S since last November and have it in the basement of my house. I created a VLAN only for my printer so it is not in the same network than my Computer and Laptop. That means I need to use the Cloud Features and send prints to it.
I understand Bambulab because I am working in IT, if you implement a Security Feature it is first of all confusing for the users and it restricts the workflow of them. At first, all of them complain and ask why this changes were made…
Security first but I am sure Bambu finds a way to satisfy most of their customers.
But I have to say it would be a shame if you need to put the printer completely offline… Other cloud services work fine too…

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Thanks, that’s good to hear regards AMS sync. So you can create a new custom filament in Studio and it turns up on the AMS/Printer for selection when you load a new spool?

I doubt that. Afaik custom filament profiles need to be synced to the printer via cloud. Otherwise they’ll be lost when you power cycle the printer.

Problem being what BBL propose is not just about security of your devices, it mostly improves is their control over your device and what you can/can’t do with it.

There are much more secure means of allowing you to ensure only authorised devices can connect to your printer, methods which don’t require middleware bloat, that would put you in control and not shut out third parties you decide to trust. And how about by default not sending print jobs via the cloud when you can easily detect the printer is locally accessible? Why make the cloud a dependency in that instance, and incur all of costs of cloud data transfer, processing etc? They must be getting something out of it - I’ll let you ponder on what that might be.

I considered a new vlan for the printer but I do t think it’s required. I’ll simply give it a static IP and implement a policy to block any Internet bound traffic that I don’t approve from that device (ntp is ‘ok’ for example).

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Their document stating what won’t work in LAN mode doesn’t say this.

There’s no technical reason this can’t be made to work via the LAN other than poor design. It shouldn’t have to depend on the cloud. Really disappointing if this is the case.

There’s a monetary reason. Filament profiles provide valuable data, giving them insights which filaments they might want to add to their line-up…

Combined with details of all prints passing the cloud (including how much filament you’re using) they could forecast how much money they will make if they lock people down to BBL filaments only.

Still, there’s no reason this cannot be made to work in LAN mode. Given that the documentation on LAN mode does not state that this will stop working it should work so I’d suggest if it does not that it’s a bug.

Thanks for the reply. I understand that and I also think there are other ways for BL to ensure that only autorised devices can connect to the printer.
At the moment I think for everyone the situation is a bit confusing, nobody really knows what BL is up to but I think they are a good company and find something to fix that, only time will tell. But BL can not do everything with their product, there are some rules and if they are not met they are maybe not allowed to sell their products in europe… With that said, it is like every other company Apple, Samsung or Garmin can track your Heartrate, fitness level and so on with the watch → you can also say based on your fitness level they can forcast how much supplements you need or something like that. This is not allowed.

I agree you can use your printer and put it into the same network at home as your PC or Laptop but coming from IT, i find it more secure to make VLANS and put my devices into different ones. Even better if you have a Firewall and can set some policies for it. I blocked the internet traffic for example in my VLAN for the printer…
But not every user does that.

I also use the App from BL very often. For example starting a print when I am not at home (I always text someone who is at home first when I want to start a print for safety reasons and to take a look at it every few hours…). And i also like monitoring of the print over the built in camera which is also pretty helpful for me. This are some reasons why i bought the BL and I am going to sell it and buy a Creality or Anycubic if I can´t use those features anymore :sweat_smile: But I am sure there are solutions for it.

I think this is drifting off to be very similar to other threads.

I should have kept the ask simple - have you gone to LAN mode, if so what doesn’t work in addition to the things BBL state won’t work in the official wiki.

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I can create new filament profiles, k-factor profiles and all syncs just fine in LAN only mode.
The AMS settings survive a power cycle of the printer.
All is stored locally and/or the printer.
Only times the AMS settings get lost in Studio is when I load different 3MF files but a sync still restores what I have loaded in the AMS, including the k-kfactor.

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From the wiki:

There are currently two issues with the creation of Custom Filament in Studio version 1.8.2.56.

### 1.1 LAN mode not supported

Currently, Studio and printer only support cloud mode for the newly created custom Filament feature.

So if you want to apply this feature, please switch the printer to cloud mode connection and ensure that Studio’s cloud synchronization is enabled.

Note the version number - 1.10.1 is the current “stable” release… so does that still apply? As the above user is saying it does work.

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It works but probably not using outdated firmware and Studio versions…
And we all know how far behind the Bambu Wiki is…

This is really interesting. Do you mind sharing which firmware version your printer is running, AMS firmware version and Studio version?

Hopefully this isn’t in an old version of firmware/software and they’ve somehow removed this functionality from LAN mode in newer versions.

I actually have an issue with k-factor being lost when I power cycle the printer. It’s not totally lost, but when I power back on, the filament manufacturer/type in each AMS slot is preserved (we’re talking 3rd party) but it drops the k-factor setting and uses the default 0.020. They are still stored but I have to go back in to each slot and re-select the desired stored k-factor setting for that filament.

And here is how I totally abuse this AMS feature >

I create a custom filament.
And I do so in the most generic way, no colour or such set.
The I load the roll into the AMS, calibrate it and save the K-factor in the same generic form, E.g. Siddament PLA 015.
The number being the k-factor to make identifying easier.
This way I apply k-factors for dedicated print profiles in other layer heights ‘on the fly’.
It also allows me to just change from one empty AMS slot to another - even if the filament has a different colour.
Quite nice to run down those leftovers on some rolls for meaningless prints.

I can set the filament colour in the AMS settings to my liking and it syncs just fine with Studio, no need to also set filament colours in Studio.
Double checked and I can do timelapse videos just fine.
No easy access to the SD card files though unless you have a WiFi enabled or use programs like WinSCP to access the SD card through secure FTP or such.

All up I am quite happy with LAN only mode.
Rarely need a timelapse, have no need for the cloud or remote access.
And if I ever feel the need to keep an eye on a very long print while away from home I can still route the camera feed through my media server and grab it from there.
Too much hassle though and so far my prints all completed unless there was a really bad filament involved.

Firmware for the P1S is the current 1.0.7 and Studio the latest official 1.10.1.50.