I don’t know too much about Lidar other than the basic principle, and they are saying that there shouldn’t be functionality differences between them, but even in the article above on their Wiki, they class the dual-laser as Class 1 and the single-laser as Class 2.
In their explanation in the article, the dual laser has an extra laser line that forms a 90-degree angle with the other one.
My X1C has the Single Laser version - which I have a hint has a role to play in my high percentage of failed calibrations (especially after the latest Calibration changes made with the OrcaSlicer dev collaboration) even when using the Bambu high-temperature plate.
Going by the primitive line of thought “more = better”:
I’m not entirely sure if there were two models from the start as the article above is created 3 weeks ago on 25/09/2023 - but I suspect that the new dual laser model was added later.
I can’t help but feel punished for being one of the early adopters/customers. When did you order your printer and what model of lidar do you have?
I ordered my printer on the 12th of Dec 2022 and got it delivered on the 15th of January.
Don’t be confused by the nomenclature, it’s not “single laser” but “single red laser”. Earlier versions (like you and I have) use two lasers of different wavelengths, the pattern they produce is the same and camera sees both.
I doubt it makes any dfifference, in fact I would expect the early dual-wavelength version to be better. They probably thought so as well that two different wavelengths would be better but it didn’t make a difference in practice so they simplified it. That’s also (AFAIK) why those are different classes - in the single version (which is dual wavelength), one of the wavelengths is invisible to human eye and thus is classed differently.
The fact that production parts change over time might be because the new ones are better and solve a problem with the old parts, but it could just as well be just cheaper because the original part was overengineered. Or it might be none of the above and just use different components that are more readily available or simply cheaper with the same properties. I wouldn’t worry about this one at all as LiDAR does very little anyway…
TBH I also didn’t give too much importance to Lidar, but I find myself using it more lately due to the latest changes in filament calibration.
I just pop the filament in the AMS and run a quick auto calibration with the lidar. It’s much more convenient than running the manual one, with at least similar if not even better results than my manual picking (even if I try to respect all the indications lol).
I just hope it’s a neutral impact change and the functionality is truly the same in both models, as obviously having the better option as the early adopters would be unfair to others lol.