Updates and Third-Party Integration with Bambu Connect

Full details and DEMO in our blog post:

Since announcing our security enhancement for X-series printers, we’ve seen a mix of valuable feedback and unfortunate misinformation circulating online. We value the constructive input from our community, especially from print farm owners whose businesses rely on our technology.

Under the updated LAN mode:

  • Standard Mode (Default): By default, LAN mode will include an authorization process that ensures robust security. This option is ideal for the majority of users who prioritize security and ease of use. Despite claims to the contrary, LAN mode through Bambu Connect will require neither internet access nor a user account. This hasn’t changed and won’t change.

  • Developer Mode (Optional): For advanced users of the X1, P1, A1, and A1 Mini who prefer full control over their network security, an option will be available to leave the MQTT channel, live stream, and FTP open. This feature must be manually enabled on the printer, and users who select this option will assume full responsibility for securing their local network environment. Please note that Bambu Lab will not be able to provide customer support for this mode, as the communication protocols are not officially supported.

At the same time, some false claims accuse us of blocking third-party integrations or forcing users into closed ecosystems. Let’s be clear about what this update actually means and stop the spread of misinformation:

  1. This is NOT about limiting third-party software. We’re creating Bambu Connect specifically to ensure continued third-party integration while enhancing security. We’re actively working with developers like Orca Slicer to implement this integration.

  2. This is beta testing, not a forced update. The choice is yours. You can participate in the beta program to help us refine these features, or continue using your current firmware.

  3. About Panda Touch. We reached out to BTT as soon as we became aware of their product. We warned them that using exploited MQTT protocols was unsustainable and would place customers in an awkward situation once we updated the system. All of this communication occurred before the mass shipment of Panda Touch; however, they chose to ignore our warnings. Unfortunately, the truth is now being presented in a misleading manner. The same concerns apply to other products they manufacture that rely on these MQTT protocols.

  4. Camera feeds concerns. Our Live View service uses P2P (Peer-to-Peer) connection, which means video streams directly between your device and printer. Only when a direct P2P connection isn’t possible does it use server forwarding, and even then, no video is ever stored on any server.

:eyes: Watch a DEMO of our approach to integrating Orca Slicer with Bambu Connect. The workflow remains familiar, with added security to protect your printer and data. The functionality has been implemented, and is now awaiting integration into Orca Slicer.

31 Likes

I beg to differ:

in your own tos:

7.4 Your Bambu Lab product will automatically search for and download new update packages to provide you with timely update services. These updates are designed to resolve cyber security loopholes and prevent new threats, and it is important to accept and install security related system updates in a timely manner. Due to the importance of these updates, your product may block new print job before the updates is installed, and will immediately provide update notifications to help you understand the related information.

77 Likes

Well how about you work with Biqu so these products continue to work

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Well, according to SoftFever you kinda didn’t. The Connect is unnecessary bloat, you rejected plea for normal access and to top it off, from horse’s mouth:

SoftFever also told their side, where they requested the access to make OrcaSlicer work seamlessly with your security but instead you went with that piece of electron that’s NOT seamless. The demo opens up totally separate app that then has to be used to do same thing if far more clicks than previously.

Separate app, multiple click, the app is electron, there’s not yet Linux version, there’s no info whether AMS sync works so that filament profiles work correctly… Not familiar at all.

OK, seeing the response I sincerly hope you ditch the Bambu Connect idea, hire some decent cloud security expert(s) and implement safety features in ways that do not mess with functionality people actually use and rely on.

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Heard a rumour btt is going to make a main board to replace the bambu one… will sell like hotcakes

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Will a Bambu Lab printer owner be able to use third party software to connect to their own printers without requiring a connection to Bambu Labs Cloud Servers?

At present I use Bambu Studio, but if I chose not to use Bambu Studio but instead used a third party piece of software, then I would not want Bambu Labs enforcing third party software to have to require connections to Bambu Servers. Offline networks at someones premises can be secure and a big plus if a company goes bust. Take for instance my TiVo box that was rendered useless when TiVo Australia left the Australian Market because it required access to TiVo Cloud Servers.

In otherwords, Bambu Lab printer owners should have the choice to use Bambu Cloud Servers or not and in the case of “not”, this should not lead to a degraded workflow. Requiring connections to Bambu Cloud Servers stifles innovations by third parties.

For the record while I use Bambu Studio, I am not happy with my print requests having to go through Bambu Labs cloud rather than locally over my network.

30 Likes

This is either untrue or the Beta has serious flaw.

When I disconnect my internet at the router Bambu Connect will not start up, and will not see my LAN-only X1C. Reconnect the internet and it pops right up. So, no internet, no printing.

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Looks like the offer is there from Bambu Lab but BIQU is gonna need to put some work in.

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They turned down SoftFever/OrcaSlicer, so I do not think Biqu has much of a chance.

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I feel the largest lesson learned these past 4 days by Bambu lab was to never release something in early beta that’s part of critical importance moving forward.

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“Here’s a list of things nobody was suggesting and they’re all false!”

This blog post is an intentional misreading of the community’s concerns and doesn’t solve the problem Bambu’s themselves creating. They dropped a steamer of a “security” product, it was compromised immediately, and that left–and, to be honest, still leaves–few options to read their behavior, even through a generous lens. And now they’re rending their shirts because they’ve been “misunderstood” by the community. “We won’t remotely brick your printer!” Yeah, but will you force-update it? Will you in the future try again to jam printers into the upsell funnel?

Even assuming the best of attentions, I haven’t seen enough to be reassured that the Bambu print platform is one I want to keep my business on. Even with these changes, Bambu is taking away my ability to remotely monitor prints and to configure my printers through the interface I typically use (an old phone that only has the mobile app on it) because I don’t want to use Bambu Connect, and to me that is a change of the terms under which I bought these printers.

My local Micro Center didn’t have a K2 Plus up yet to play with, so I haven’t bought replacements for my Bambu printers yet, but I like what I’m seeing and I fully expect to divest from Bambu unless the mobile app and OrcaSlicer and my own home-rolled automations continue to work exactly as they do right now.

BTW: is this “enhanced” LAN mode going to let you browse models on the SD card? We’ve been waiting on that quite a long time.

EDIT: oh, and maybe stop trying to hold the OrcaSlicer guy up as a shield.

29 Likes

As i said here:

I, for one, can’t wait to see everything answered. This is always the case with Bambu. Do first, check later.

Hint: Did anyone went and checked their profile page on Makerworld already? Did anyone saw any announcement of changes? No? It should come later… As always, do first, announce later, even if the community doesn’t like it. Deal with it.

Edited to add this bit also. Remember this that is being requested since january 2023?

2 years and still no resolution for such a simple and yet important function. But take a look at their new “farm manager” software and multi account is there… for a farm… where most of the time only one account is needed. Go on, check their wiki and take a look because it’s right there, multi account!

2 Likes

I’ll be voting with my wallet. I will no longer give BL any more of my hard earned cash until they reverse course. Further I will instruct all family and friends who were “dazzled” by my new P1S to not buy one but seek alternatives from BL’s competitors.

After only 1.5 months I’m sad with this bait-and-switch. I’m old enough and worked in tech long enough to know what road BL is on and how this will invariably line their pockets and fleece the consumers’.

Have posted my 1-star feedback to Trust Pilot for what its worth. I will update/change it if/when BL reverses course.

I encourge everyone to withhold using MakerWorld or buying anything from BL until they see what they’re doing is not in a customer’s best interest or at the least a fair compromise for both company and consumer.

41 Likes

I think we both know how to read this: Bambu doesn’t see Connect as limiting, whereas we all know it is. They’re just framing the story and trying to manage expectations.

14 Likes

Workflow demonstrated with OrcaSlicer and Bambu Connect and a claim “difference in users experience is not much” seems like a joke of some kind, there is a big difference and it’s not convenient workflow at all.

24 Likes

Please adjust the design of Bambu Connect so that the user experience can actually be seamless. This is already so close, but you don’t seem to understand how magnified the act of switching between two windows becomes in UX annoyance - the sort of people who do deep automation will spend weeks of effort and hundreds of dollars combining two light switches together that they use once a month (and they are the people driving this hobby).

The application needs to be able to be configured for programmatic input and output. There can be no possible security concern here, because this is already entirely possible using a screen scraper and fake user input, it’s just annoying to have to do. The user shouldn’t even know that Bambu Connect is running at all - it should act utterly internal, like any good service. The information about what is in the AMS, the state of the printer, the camera stream, everything should be locally exposed on the device running Bambu Connect, ready to be consumed by Orca, or Home Assistant, or whatever (and you REALLY need to prioritise a *nix version for HA integration, and be sure that it is lightweight enough to run easily on a Pi). Same for the executable commands - expose everything on the local machine, because again, this can already be done with some annoying faux-user libraries.

Do that, i.e. make Bambu Connect act like a local API, and essentially 100% of the potential issues disappear. Then make a solid commitment for that seamless service behaviour to be held as a Bambu Lab Principle or something to try and sort out the burned trust from the half-donkeyed comms so far.

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Will the Octoprint be afected by this?

I am thinking of bloking all internet traffic to my Bambu A1 and use Octoprint to work with it.

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“and users who select this option will assume full responsibility for securing their local network environment. Please note that Bambu Lab will not be able to provide customer support for this mode”

Is this the normal mode that all the machines wre sold with? Imagine if this same message was advertised on the sales page of the printer

something like “If you buy this printer, users who make this purchase will assume full responsibility for securing their local network environment from this device. Please note that Bambu Lab will not be able to provide customer support for this purchase, if you use it as originally intended.”

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I’m not a lawyer, but these changes could potentially violate EU laws. They may breach the Sale of Goods Directive, Digital Content Directive, Unfair Practices Directive, and Product Safety Directive, which protect consumers’ rights to products that work as promised.

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This is a very telling line. What you did not explicitly say is that the update itself is entirely optional – but only while in beta mode. The implication is that once out of beta that this will be a forced update.

I only recently acquired my X1C and is loving it. I was looking forward to the new model slated for release in 2025 – but no more. I am seriously looking at the Prusa Core One.

17 Likes