Last night Bambo dropped a blog update bombshell that says Bambo printers, starting with the X1, will have to update their firmware to a version that DEMANDS that you have a cloud account and anything you print wirelessly WILL have to go through it. They also said that you have to use there slicer software and Orca is bye bye, third party parts like displays will not work etc. Failure to update your firmware will cause your printer to stop working or cause print restrictions.
Their excuse is that it is a security thing but there is speculation that it will eventually become a subscription to print thing?
There are several You Tube posts about this if you wish to get the full picture about this, I only hit the highlights. The link is to one of them but there are many pissed off people out there.
P.S. Iâm glad I went for the K1 MAX.
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There is a lot of guesswork going on. One firmware killed the panda touch (24/06/11) on the p1s and Biqu came up with a patch. I donât always print with the cloud but the handful of users I know with a Bambu do. Its not that big a deal. Orca on the Bambu in my experience is often flakey anyway I use Orca with the FLsun.
I donât see the firmware change so far as a huge issue. There is still the same warnings however. Walled gardens are bad, they allow the gate to be closed at any moment. It is the same as it was at inception. They have the ability to lock the printers and force their filaments, their things. So far they have not, yet.
Anyone buying a Bambu should have known this. There is a TON on it. Bambu also have failed to respond to issues and correct them. The problem of a injection moulded body, you can just change it, the moulds are far too expensive. Bambu certainly suffers that, it is still crazy that a wear part cannot be removed without a unique tool they didnât design or provide. It is reminiscent or Makerbot. They too went walled garden and cut off consumers.
It is a predictable response. Once we flood the market how do we keep making money? Make every consumer buy our consumablesâŚ
Does anyone really think it a coincidence that just about 2 months ago Bambu had the RFID hacked and published? Oh, now there is a âsecurityâ update that looks like it will close the third party RFID or users coding chips themselves. I donât think so. I was wondering when this was going to happen. I wonder how big the backlash is going to be?
I think the main response to this is âitâs my printer so keep your hands offâ. People are seeing restrictions being put in place and it might only be the beginning and they donât like it. How long will it be before âyou bought the car but the software that runs it is ours so pay us every month to drive your carâ. As far as backlash it seems to be very negative so far, just as it has been with other companies like Honda when they tried something like this. You have the opportunity to protest with the wallet. If people stop buying these printers over this then the rest of the 3d printer companies may take note of it. It works.
All of this is true. Bambu has at this point made an announcement, we are updating firmware. We want to increase security. 3D party applications / products may not work with new firmware. You can keep using the old firmware but it may or not work fully with the new system.
It sounds like every update I have ever seen. I choose not to react until something actually happens.
I donât love mine I donât hate it either. It just is. I knew buying it that it was always going this way. It is inevitable. It is why I bought Prusas.
I also saw the new posting claiming a lot of âliesâ by various you tube posters BUT I donât agree with that. It is a matter of interpretation and they are trying to recant some of what they posted before. Along with the statement that they will change, in the future, the way people can set up a lan without using Bambuâs server. There were some other bits that sounded fishy too. Straight up damage control for a grievous mistake on their part. This is the kind of corruption that we will see in all consumer products in the future. Squeeze 'em for all they have.
I guess it will play out the way it does. I think they are grabbing money before the end. I think stratisis has a good chance of winning and a cease all us operations may result. Last grab, it comes close on the heels of cracking the filament rfid a grasp to close the possibility of someone publishing how to make our own.
I undid my ams to a python. It feeds everything I tried. It made the Bambu far more reliable, add the x nozzle and the top riser and it is what they should have done in the first place.
Knowing they are so good at copying not as good as Creality but still I can imagine. A better and much like the python some kind of variable venting bigger and locked in.
I am not going to guess what the fireware will look like. I donât expect much. I am a tad disappointed that my Bambu finally is a decent printer and it might be made worse by Bambu.
Failed prints on Bambu printers will now come from them shutting off your printer mid print because you didnât pay your monthly subscription for a printer youâve already bought.
Be ready to pay to use these and ONLY be able to use Bambu parts and filament.
Such a shame to the world of 3d printing, it all stated with open source and these guys are trying to ruin that!
One You Tube presenter (no names) had kept screen shots of the original Bambu notice concerning this. Since they have had so much backlash over these things, some how, the notice Bambo originally put out has miraculous changed. All the original points about how they where going to screw over printer owners are gone and they now claim that these were lies (according to the new version) by Social media folks and not true. Anyway time will tell.
