Bambu Lab recently announced a firmware security update for its printers that would introduce an official “authorization control” system for critical printer operations. The update is presented as a way to mitigate the “risk of remote hacks or printer exposure issues that have happened in the past, and also lower the risk of abnormal traffic or attacks.”
The new firmware will not allow Bambu Lab printers to interface with popular 3rd party software or hardware upgrades such as Orca Slicer or BigTreeTech’s Panda Touch screen. Now, users will need to download “Bambu Connect” to act as a one-way go-between.
They’re doing exactly what non-Bambu buyers have been warning about beat by beat. Nobody should be surprised or really shocked by any of this.
And yet it’s just depressing to see because despite all the red flags and foreshadowing, Bambu technically developed a next level printer and has at the very least put pressure on competitors to improve their products.
Now I wonder if we have to worry about other Manufacturers following lead about the bad things too. Because I suspect people who proudly and publicly trashed their entire printer fleet in favor of Bambu probably won’t make the switch back any time soon. If this doesn’t hit Bambu hard, it might become common practice and potentially get much worse until we got chipped filament spools for 3 to 4 times the price.
These lazy Pandas of the 3D-Printer community might proof both critics and the walled garden approach that already plagues home printing right by putting their head between their legs and let themselves get beaten up by Bambu. That’s my fear.
What’s Tue next best after Bambu. Glad I didnt pull the trigger on blacl friday now.
there isn’t a “best” really. Depends on your wants/needs.
for true Openness, I don’t think anything beats a Voron.
Prusa is great (good track record, good support, Hardware is not open anymore though, can work out of the box), but expensive.
plenty of others get you something largely decent for low prices (qidi, creality for example) but long term support seems likely to lack, and there are always reports of some issues for some and great results for others.