Basicly title.
I use Home Assistant to monitor and control my printers.
Will they keep working via Home Assistant in the future?
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Looks like home assistant would become a read only system.
That sucks!
I won’t be updating my machines than.
I will sell them when Bambulab decides to blacklist out of date machines.
This makes me sad.
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Everyone is saying they will sell, boycott, and so on. But is that really a promise you’ll keep, just because you can no longer do something that was never promised to begin with? Don’t get me wrong, but it’s like saying you’d sell your car just because the manufacturer updated the firmware to prevent unauthorized system access. Would you sell your car over a feature they never guaranteed in the first place?
For clarity, status messages from MQTT will remain unaffected, but you won’t be able to control the printer from systems like HomeAssistant anymore.
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Really? “Security update” both you and Bambu say. Well, guess what, someone knowledgeable enough has taken the time to go through Bambu Connect code and demonstrated (beyond any reasonable doubt) that it’s anything but that. Don’t ask you to trust me. Have a good look at the code yourself
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And i do controll my multiple printers via HomeAssistant because Bambulab Studio is nice if you have one printer, but multiple printers are a pain.
So yeah, if they take functionality away, i am away.
One the HA Integration Devs here. I’ve been testing an existing integration, and we can still read everything, as well as access the local RTSPS camera stream if it’s enabled.
The only control we have, is the ability to turn the light on/off. Everything else control wise no longer works
Still need to do more testing, bit read seems to be ok
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Did Bambu Lab ever state that their equipment is open source? If not, it seems the choice to purchase a closed-source product was made with the understanding of what you were buying.
As mentioned before, it’s comparable to purchasing a car and then holding the manufacturer accountable if they decide to restrict tuning capabilities. Unless it was explicitly promised at the time of purchase, there’s no guarantee that such features would be supported.
I currently have just one printer for spare parts and don’t foresee the need for multiple printers now or in the future, so I can’t fully speak to your specific requirements.
That said, are you certain there won’t be a solution to address your particular challenges?
It seems the 3D printing community can sometimes react quite strongly before having all the necessary information about a change.
This doesn’t have anything to do with Open Source. Bambu has, and always was Closed Source. This is about access rights.
Every big tech company in the world is mostly closed source, but they still provide access controls and keys to be able to control your own product
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Exactly as I’ve mentioned before—do we actually know for certain that there won’t be a way to communicate with the printer? I haven’t seen any concrete information confirming that no solution will be provided, yet it seems many are assuming there won’t be one.
Even as someone with only one printer, I can see the benefit of integrating control with platforms like HomeAssistant. However, since there’s no definitive word yet on whether an API or similar solution will be available, I’m simply choosing to wait and see.
OrcaSlicer isn’t getting any form of control, so I would doubt anything else will
even better I can demand a refund because they changed their policy on sided this goes against EU law especially the part that I might NEED to update else I cannot use my printer. This is against EU consumer law and gives any EU user the right to get a refund for their printer.
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Have they ever explicitly stated that using third-party slicers aligns with their intended use of the device?
Have they ever indicated that enabling control from third-party sources was part of their design intention?
Have they ever mentioned that the device is meant to be customizable by users?
If such statements were never explicitly made, it is unlikely that regional laws will provide you with any leverage in this matter.
That said, please keep us updated on your progress—anything is possible!
U.K. law as well using the The Consumer Rights Act 2015.
- There are now also new, clear rules for what should happen if a service is not provided with reasonable care and skill or as agreed. For example, the business that provided the service must bring it into line with what was agreed with the customer or, if this is not practical, must give some money back.
- Unfair contract terms*
* Means any terms that overly favour one party.
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Some will, most won’t, but should think it will impact future sales.
Actually it does. Bambu Lab is also located in Germany which means it also must abide by European Law.
And because core functionality is affected EG LAN-Mode isn’t really LAN-Mode anymore and we can put the printer offline unless you update a firmware (which is illegal to do in Europe). They still need to abide by laws. That they write stuff in their ToS doesn’t have to mean it’s legal and with this they are overstepping that line.
- The product must meet what was promised at the time of purchase:
According to the EU Sales of Goods Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/771), a product must meet the expectations set at the time of purchase, including functionality, performance, and usage that were either explicitly promised by the manufacturer or could reasonably be expected. If the use of third-party slicers or similar functionality was never promised, it will be difficult to claim that a policy change violates consumer rights.
- Updates and compatibility:
Under the same directive, manufacturers are required to provide necessary updates to maintain the functionality and security of the product. If the update is needed to address security vulnerabilities, it is generally considered legitimate for users to be required to accept the update to continue using the product.
- Warranty conditions and limitations:
If the manufacturer or seller has clearly stated that certain features or customizations are not supported by the device, the user has effectively agreed to these limitations at the time of purchase. If a specific feature only worked due to a software vulnerability and was not an intentional part of the product design, it is unlikely to be covered under warranty.
- Right to a refund under EU law:
Consumers are entitled to a refund if a product is defective, does not fulfill what was promised, or cannot be used for its intended purpose. However, if the manufacturer never promised specific features like compatibility with third-party slicers, and the product otherwise functions as described, a refund claim is unlikely to succeed.
It’s important to note that if the manufacturer never promised compatibility with third-party slicers or similar functionality, it could be challenging to invoke consumer rights. Especially in cases where the manufacturer is implementing updates for security reasons and commits to continuing to provide updates, such updates would likely be considered reasonable and lawful.
Only future can tell, we have to wait and see.
You are in theory correct, but factually incorrect - German law beats EU law for all EU customers.
And German law stipulates that for all online sales a 14d return period (which Bambu Lab already was playing difficult with) must be adhered so the customer has a chance to “see if the product suits their needs to a similar level they could if they bought the product in a store”.
The functions and features shown during this time period are what the seller is bound to - which include the side features. There are various cases that went up to the highest courts that customers won in similar cases.
Simply saying “we never said this or that would work” explicitly does not work and this has been ruled multiple times - even against VW and MB, with the former being one of my cases.
Additionally warranty does include features at the time of purchase which is also relevant here.
So in the end Bambu Lab will very likely loose the case.
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