4 ms·

Too bad everyone jumped shipped to Bambuu Labs. If only we still had open source hardware.

dns_snek 8mo ago
We do still have open source hardware but that's the last line of defense against actions like this, not the first. They'll target distribution which will affect open source and proprietary hardware equally. You need to kill this sort of legislation in its crib.
- bradfa 8mo ago
  Just print the code to do what ever is disallowed on a t-shirt, ala DVDCSS. Is that not a legitimate way around things like this?
- Brian_K_White 8mo ago
  You need both, because there really is no such thing as kill it in it's crib. The people that want this will continue to want it forever, and will continue to propose it forever. And eventually it works.
  - kiba 8mo ago
    Nothing is forever. This whole thing rose in the first place because a novel technology was used to make weapons. To give another example, the whole modern anti-vaxxer movement was started by a doctor to sell bogus tests.
  - no_wizard 8mo ago
    The missing the third ingredient which is passing rollback resistant legislation in its place that protects these freedoms. That makes efforts far more durable. Than it’s a matter of showing up in court to defend attacks against the law(s) that protect it. In this way, we can have durable change, but it’s a high cost road. By design I am sure.
  - dns_snek 8mo ago
    How would this situation be any different if BBL printers were open source? The law doesn't care about licensing, there are just 2 groups of printers - those that follow the law and implement effective blocking technology and those that don't. If BBL sells an open source printer that allows someone to trivially bypass proposed mandatory blocking technology, they'll be fined and held liable for any crimes that result from guns printed using their 3D printers. So BBL, as open source as they might want to be, is not allowed to sell such a product.
    - cindyllm 8mo ago
      [dead]
vincnetas 8mo ago
Prusa is still kicking... if open source hardware is your priority.
- crote 8mo ago
  Prusa had been moving towards proprietary licensing (if they release files at all) for a while now, due to their open source design files being used to undercut the original with cheaper clones.
  - pocksuppet 8mo ago
    This is why we can't have nice things
  - regularfry 8mo ago
    I seriously doubt it's the undercutting that's the problem here. When they release a new model they can't keep up with demand anyway, they max out production capacity on legitimate orders. I think, if anything, the problem is when people buy a cheap clone and blame Prusa when it fails.
0xedd 8mo ago
None I know did. If you do your research, all the hype around Bambu is paid. Influencers pushed it. Tech deep dives show it is sub standard. Posted on HN. Prusa is king. High quality. Open source. EU made and engineered. Slicer is a market leader (Bambu's a fork of it).
- bluescrn 8mo ago
  Prusa may still be king if you're using printers commercially, running them hard 24/7 in a print farm, wanting to be sure your investment has a decent lifespan with readily-available spare parts and upgrade options. But it's a premium brand now. For lighter use by hobbyists, Bambu is the clear winner on price/performance. The 'less open' downside is not a factor to most people, and the printers generally work so well out-of-the-box that repairability isn't as much of a concern as it was on printers of the past. Personally I went from a Prusa MK3s to a Bambu P1P (after looking long+hard at Prusa options), and so far, no regrets. (Although I've kept the old Prusa as a 2nd printer and upgraded it to a MK3.5, but mostly just because I do enjoy a bit of tinkering with them)
  - luma 8mo ago
    If your goal is to buy the cheapest machine you can find in the world, chances are good everything you buy is going to come from China. That Prusa Mk3 you bought ages ago can be upgraded to the latest model, which means you have the option of turning that device into a lifetime machine, something ONLY Prusa offers. Yes, the initial purchase price is higher, the lifetime price might not be.
    - bluescrn 8mo ago
      Last time I looked, the MK3->MK4 upgrade kit is basically the same price as a complete MK4 kit (very little can be reused. New electronics, motors, extruder) The upgrade kits are definitely a good thing, going from MK3 to MK3S to MK3.5S was a worthwhile upgrade path and has prolonged the useful life of the printer. But they have their limits. (And with 3D printing going more mainstream, there's a large segment of the market that has no interest in building printers from kits or stripping down printer to install upgrades - even though some of us find that quite enjoyable)
bluescrn 8mo ago
3D printer hardware is pretty simple. All the magic happens in software, and there's plenty of open-source options.
ddtaylor 8mo ago
AnyCubic AMS is great
- gambiting 8mo ago
  I had the Kobra S1 with the ACE Pro and I couldn't get rid of the thing fast enough, probably the worst electronic device I have ever owned in my entire life. In 8 months with it I completed one multi-colour print, and that was only with ~30 filament changes - to be fair to Anycubic, their support has been excellent and they kept shipping me more and more parts to replace, none of which would solve the fundamental issue of the ACE being generally unfit for the job. In the end if was just a fancy £300 filament dryer, and I decided that you know what, even my Ender 5 was giving me fewer issues than this whole thing. I got an H2D with 2 AMSes and yes, they cost a fortune but they just work. I finished a 9 colour print with 800 filament changes the other day and it just worked fine, not a single problem. I will always admit that maybe I was just unlucky with my S1 but both the printer and the ACE was horrendous experiences and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone based on my problems with them.
  - ddtaylor 8mo ago
    I have a friend that runs a small print farm and he had similar issues, but I didn't know if it was a one off. Thanks for sharing.
qmr 8mo ago
Sovol open source hardware and software.
sharperguy 8mo ago
This bill would effectively make prusa illegal, which is my main issue with it. I refuse to buy anything else if it is not open in the same way.
MegaDeKay 8mo ago
We still have open source hardware in Voron. High performance and almost infinitely moddable. Pair it with the open source Klipper firmware and open source slicer OrcaSlicer and you're there.
alnwlsn 8mo ago
All the open source designs from 10 years ago still work, not like they went away.
hamdingers 8mo ago
My Bambu printer is working great in LAN mode on a vlan with no internet access. Never even complains about it. I'm not concerned. You can still make an open source printer with some extrusion and stepper motors, same as always.
hedora 8mo ago
I’m new to 3d printing. I saw bambu pushed a firmware update that bricked offline mode, so didn’t really consider them when shopping around. I’m really liking my (better specs for less money) elegoo centauri. I compiled the slicer from source because there weren’t Linux binaries. All problems solved. It even happily prints exotic stuff like TPU, which I guess bambu has been cracking down on for unclear reasons. Maybe I don’t know what I’m missing, but I’ve had zero issues downloading files (even from bambu-centric websites) and running them through the slicer. I can’t imagine wanting to use their cloud whatever thing, or it providing any value beyond the open source stacks.
- kanwisher 8mo ago
  Bambu is leagues better than other printers. Also its super convienant to queue up a job from your phone and then watch it live video feed.

We do still have open source hardware but that's the last line of defense against actions like this, not the first. They'll target distribution which will affect open source and proprietary hardware equally. You need to kill this sort of legislation in its crib.

bradfa 8mo ago
Just print the code to do what ever is disallowed on a t-shirt, ala DVDCSS. Is that not a legitimate way around things like this?
Brian_K_White 8mo ago
You need both, because there really is no such thing as kill it in it's crib. The people that want this will continue to want it forever, and will continue to propose it forever. And eventually it works.
- kiba 8mo ago
  Nothing is forever. This whole thing rose in the first place because a novel technology was used to make weapons. To give another example, the whole modern anti-vaxxer movement was started by a doctor to sell bogus tests.
- no_wizard 8mo ago
  The missing the third ingredient which is passing rollback resistant legislation in its place that protects these freedoms. That makes efforts far more durable. Than it’s a matter of showing up in court to defend attacks against the law(s) that protect it. In this way, we can have durable change, but it’s a high cost road. By design I am sure.
- dns_snek 8mo ago
  How would this situation be any different if BBL printers were open source? The law doesn't care about licensing, there are just 2 groups of printers - those that follow the law and implement effective blocking technology and those that don't. If BBL sells an open source printer that allows someone to trivially bypass proposed mandatory blocking technology, they'll be fined and held liable for any crimes that result from guns printed using their 3D printers. So BBL, as open source as they might want to be, is not allowed to sell such a product.
  - cindyllm 8mo ago
    [dead]

vincnetas 8mo ago

Prusa is still kicking... if open source hardware is your priority.

crote 8mo ago
Prusa had been moving towards proprietary licensing (if they release files at all) for a while now, due to their open source design files being used to undercut the original with cheaper clones.
- pocksuppet 8mo ago
  This is why we can't have nice things
- regularfry 8mo ago
  I seriously doubt it's the undercutting that's the problem here. When they release a new model they can't keep up with demand anyway, they max out production capacity on legitimate orders. I think, if anything, the problem is when people buy a cheap clone and blame Prusa when it fails.

0xedd 8mo ago

None I know did. If you do your research, all the hype around Bambu is paid. Influencers pushed it. Tech deep dives show it is sub standard. Posted on HN. Prusa is king. High quality. Open source. EU made and engineered. Slicer is a market leader (Bambu's a fork of it).

bluescrn 8mo ago
Prusa may still be king if you're using printers commercially, running them hard 24/7 in a print farm, wanting to be sure your investment has a decent lifespan with readily-available spare parts and upgrade options. But it's a premium brand now. For lighter use by hobbyists, Bambu is the clear winner on price/performance. The 'less open' downside is not a factor to most people, and the printers generally work so well out-of-the-box that repairability isn't as much of a concern as it was on printers of the past. Personally I went from a Prusa MK3s to a Bambu P1P (after looking long+hard at Prusa options), and so far, no regrets. (Although I've kept the old Prusa as a 2nd printer and upgraded it to a MK3.5, but mostly just because I do enjoy a bit of tinkering with them)
- luma 8mo ago
  If your goal is to buy the cheapest machine you can find in the world, chances are good everything you buy is going to come from China. That Prusa Mk3 you bought ages ago can be upgraded to the latest model, which means you have the option of turning that device into a lifetime machine, something ONLY Prusa offers. Yes, the initial purchase price is higher, the lifetime price might not be.
  - bluescrn 8mo ago
    Last time I looked, the MK3->MK4 upgrade kit is basically the same price as a complete MK4 kit (very little can be reused. New electronics, motors, extruder) The upgrade kits are definitely a good thing, going from MK3 to MK3S to MK3.5S was a worthwhile upgrade path and has prolonged the useful life of the printer. But they have their limits. (And with 3D printing going more mainstream, there's a large segment of the market that has no interest in building printers from kits or stripping down printer to install upgrades - even though some of us find that quite enjoyable)

bluescrn 8mo ago

3D printer hardware is pretty simple. All the magic happens in software, and there's plenty of open-source options.

ddtaylor 8mo ago

AnyCubic AMS is great

gambiting 8mo ago
I had the Kobra S1 with the ACE Pro and I couldn't get rid of the thing fast enough, probably the worst electronic device I have ever owned in my entire life. In 8 months with it I completed one multi-colour print, and that was only with ~30 filament changes - to be fair to Anycubic, their support has been excellent and they kept shipping me more and more parts to replace, none of which would solve the fundamental issue of the ACE being generally unfit for the job. In the end if was just a fancy £300 filament dryer, and I decided that you know what, even my Ender 5 was giving me fewer issues than this whole thing. I got an H2D with 2 AMSes and yes, they cost a fortune but they just work. I finished a 9 colour print with 800 filament changes the other day and it just worked fine, not a single problem. I will always admit that maybe I was just unlucky with my S1 but both the printer and the ACE was horrendous experiences and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone based on my problems with them.
- ddtaylor 8mo ago
  I have a friend that runs a small print farm and he had similar issues, but I didn't know if it was a one off. Thanks for sharing.

qmr 8mo ago

Sovol open source hardware and software.

sharperguy 8mo ago

This bill would effectively make prusa illegal, which is my main issue with it. I refuse to buy anything else if it is not open in the same way.

MegaDeKay 8mo ago

We still have open source hardware in Voron. High performance and almost infinitely moddable. Pair it with the open source Klipper firmware and open source slicer OrcaSlicer and you're there.

alnwlsn 8mo ago

All the open source designs from 10 years ago still work, not like they went away.

hamdingers 8mo ago

My Bambu printer is working great in LAN mode on a vlan with no internet access. Never even complains about it. I'm not concerned. You can still make an open source printer with some extrusion and stepper motors, same as always.

hedora 8mo ago

I’m new to 3d printing. I saw bambu pushed a firmware update that bricked offline mode, so didn’t really consider them when shopping around. I’m really liking my (better specs for less money) elegoo centauri. I compiled the slicer from source because there weren’t Linux binaries. All problems solved. It even happily prints exotic stuff like TPU, which I guess bambu has been cracking down on for unclear reasons. Maybe I don’t know what I’m missing, but I’ve had zero issues downloading files (even from bambu-centric websites) and running them through the slicer. I can’t imagine wanting to use their cloud whatever thing, or it providing any value beyond the open source stacks.

kanwisher 8mo ago
Bambu is leagues better than other printers. Also its super convienant to queue up a job from your phone and then watch it live video feed.