This one?
QIDI Plus4 3D Printer
Masterful printing with full-auto calibration, upgraded toolhead, vast build space, and consistent 65℃ chamber heating.
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Bambu Labs to implement an authorization and authentication protection mechanism
- Thread starter David
- Start date
qidi3d.com
I see all this from the lens of what do you want to do? Do you want to just print stuff? Or do you want to work on your printer and use cutting edge plug ins, third party apps, and other such mods? These are quite different use cases. Anyone reading all this might think there is a massive problem - a lot of FUD. For most people who just want to print reliably and conveniently these major brands work great.
Bambu studio is good. The remote monitoring via my phone and apple watch is really convenient. And the initial setup was really simple, the AMS on my A1 mini is a pleasure to use as it is so simple to load etc. Use any filament you want, if it does not have a RFID tag just pick generic filaments in the setup. The bambu studio slicer is a derivative from Prusa slicer, which is a derivative from an open source slicer. Like how microsoft copied apple who copied xerox parc. Will bambu close off their products to using other tools - maybe - personally I don't really care. I just want to print stuff reliably. The point is making my projects. A lot of people on the forum are not in that category, they want to hack and use different solutions and approaches, make their printer better and do neat stuff. All the power to you. But perhaps major players for 3d printers are the wrong answer for this. I run Apple stuff - I want the walled garden - it just works. I accept vendor lock-in, obsolescence, & high-prices are downsides. I would never suggest Apple for people who want to hack their computer - those guys are Linux people. Similarly if you want the Linux experience on your printer - maybe buy a Voron or something like that.
I agree there is a risk there that the 3d printer makers want you to buy their filaments, use their stuff, lock you in. John Deere, or Apple, are great examples of this horrible behaviour. But I'm less worried as there are so many 3d printer manufacturers - people will just go somewhere else if it is onerous and that will keep the most egregious behaviour in check. /End of editorial.
Another reason to buy Prusa instead of Bambu - I don't think the many valid concerns in this thread are present with Prusa - or at least they are greatly reduced. To get your file on the printer, you can walk it over, send it over the local lan, use the cloud - whatever. Use any filament you want. The software source code is available, people hack the machine, specs are published. The machine price is not subsidized like it is with an HP, or canon, (or marked forged? possibly?) etc. printer where they make their money on the consumables not the hardware. Is bambu doing that? I don't know. I have both brands - they have their tradeoffs. So pay more, get it from an ethical organization, maybe? What are your expectations? - better products for free? 
I think I'm in the middle somewhere. While I want a machine that just works I'm not adverse to digging in and sorting stuff out when required.
I also like the walled garden approach when I know beforehand that's the environment I'm buying into.
It's a gamble I've taken with the Anycubic Kobra S1. Will it pan out? I hope so.
I also came very close to pressing buy on a Sovol SV08. Open sourced, Voron clone. In truth my Sovol SV06 has been dead reliable up until this December when it decided to lose its brain. But now it's working well again.
If Anycubic is watching the market at all they will see the outcry over Bambu's ham-handed approach and not make the same mistake. There may be a legitimate security issue (hard to actually tell because signal to noise ratio is pretty low) but my experience in crisis communications and corporate PR leads me to think they are not doing themselves any favours.
And as always the market will vote with its feet.
I also like the walled garden approach when I know beforehand that's the environment I'm buying into.
It's a gamble I've taken with the Anycubic Kobra S1. Will it pan out? I hope so.
I also came very close to pressing buy on a Sovol SV08. Open sourced, Voron clone. In truth my Sovol SV06 has been dead reliable up until this December when it decided to lose its brain. But now it's working well again.
If Anycubic is watching the market at all they will see the outcry over Bambu's ham-handed approach and not make the same mistake. There may be a legitimate security issue (hard to actually tell because signal to noise ratio is pretty low) but my experience in crisis communications and corporate PR leads me to think they are not doing themselves any favours.
And as always the market will vote with its feet.
Just some more information that I came across.
www.theverge.com
Here’s what Bambu will — and won’t — promise after its controversial 3D printer update
Users were pissed about Bambu Connect.
www.theverge.com
Personally, I hope you are right John. I think your description includes me buried in there somewhere.
Though I don't like the idea on principals alone, I accept a walled garden IF AND ONLY IF I can produce good 3D parts without major hassles or barriers.
Basically, I want true plug and play and I don't want gotchas. I don't want to have to debug a print to figure out what went wrong and I don't want to have to fine tune settings to get good prints. I just want it to work - first time, everytime!
I confess all this fiddling around that so many do, to get good results, scares the hell out of me.
I'd buy a walled garden to get problem free function. But, I'd be livid if I bought a walled garden that didn't work and couldnt be tuned so it did.
Many Bambu user are of this mentality. Many are not even on Reddit, sleeping soundly barely aware the uproar and what it actually means for them. I am betting that a lot of Bambu users will never open a 3D software and model anything on their own. They are just downloading free or paid models of drawer dividers or figid toys, feeling amazed, and won't touch the printer for another week. They don't print enough volume to care about third party spool savings.
For me, I want to spend time fiddling with my design (digital modeling) and with the printed part afterwards. I don't want to figure out why my printer is jammed and which hole should be pulling the sheet from.
Bambu should get a lot of credit for producing a objectively good product and bringing 3D printing to mainstream. The market is now ripe for anyone else to produce an equal quality open system product. I'll happy pay a premium for that when it comes. This isn't the last 3D printer we will ever own, or the only company that will make good printers.
I'm part of feeling this is so much FUD from something so innocuous. It's a 3D printer that costs less than most people's smartphones. It's a coffee machine.
Nothing wrong waiting for a better product either. But at $250 for the A1 Mini there is just so little to lose, especially new to the 3DP world. Just give it away or donate it. I've blown this money experimenting with less productive and exciting things. Upgrade later, like any consumable tech.
Bambu is just in a weird market situation where their product somehow awkwardly serves two traditional different user groups.
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All this 3Dprinting and market product discussion is making me think of my earlier days with 3D graphics.
I held on to my Diamond Monster 3D card with Voodoo 1 chipset bolstering whopping 4MB ram. One of the first 3Dfx cards to hit the consumer market. At the time, 3D graphics was only in much higher-end (expensive) professional CAD workstations. Costed my parents $300 bucks in 1997 after some begging. Voodoo Graphics brought exciting times.
I think 3D printing has now matured into some exciting times for a lot of folks. There will be bigger and better products in short time and Bambu may very well go the ways of Voodoo. I'm feeling many average folks will look back fondly at their Bambu.
Dabbler
ersatz engineer
I agree the 250$ A1 is a great value, all things considered.
Every ink jet and laser printer is also a walled garden, and we rely on general competition to keep printer manufacturers in line. For at least a few years of a new car, the manufacturer has a lock on spare parts, but that always gives way to market pressure and innovation depending on the customer experience with a part, but happens in time anyway.
My burning question is: Do I want to print the things that an A1 can print? or do I want a printer that prints things that Pro4, XIC, anycubic, etc can print? So far, the answer has been yes, the A1 would do. But I have been very selective having printed things that can be printed on printers available to me. To free myself from this constraint, I want to print PA16, ABS, and ASA - which place me in the 'bridgeport' class rather than in the RF35 level of market.
So I wait for a printer I can afford with all the features I want.
Every ink jet and laser printer is also a walled garden, and we rely on general competition to keep printer manufacturers in line. For at least a few years of a new car, the manufacturer has a lock on spare parts, but that always gives way to market pressure and innovation depending on the customer experience with a part, but happens in time anyway.
My burning question is: Do I want to print the things that an A1 can print? or do I want a printer that prints things that Pro4, XIC, anycubic, etc can print? So far, the answer has been yes, the A1 would do. But I have been very selective having printed things that can be printed on printers available to me. To free myself from this constraint, I want to print PA16, ABS, and ASA - which place me in the 'bridgeport' class rather than in the RF35 level of market.
So I wait for a printer I can afford with all the features I want.
I'm also waiting it out a bit longer for a PA and ABS printer and the A1 is a suitable stop-gap for me. With the price and capability of the A1 on the market, my buying decision factored in what I'm missing out on if I otherwise kept waiting. This is also because I've changed career and no longer have free access to the work printer.
But MakerWorld market is just so much more mature now (thanks to Bambu) that I find myself just wanting to print a bunch of things and play with some ideas more than before.I'm giving away the A1 to my nieces and nephews once I see something else. Maybe I'll even find a reason to keep and run two printers?
Doggggboy
Ultra Member
If all the rhetoric and hysteria about Bambu are to be believed, there should be a glut of used Carbon X1s on the market real soon real cheap.I'm also waiting it out a bit longer for a PA and ABS printer and the A1 is a suitable stop-gap for me. With the price and capability of the A1 on the market, my buying decision factored in what I'm missing out on if I otherwise kept waiting. This is also because I've changed career and no longer have free access to the work printer.
I'm giving away the A1 to my nieces and nephews once I see something else. Maybe I'll even find a reason to keep and run two printers?
I did look at Marketplace to see if Etsy farms were dumping. I'll still keep an eye out
But I have to admit that my A1 lives in nicer furnished basement with occupied rooms around instead of the garage. I would have to figure out ventilation if I move up to ABS. I've seen people DYI third party enclosures and ducting fan setup but seems a bit haphazardand eyesore and spooks the family. Open to ideas, suggestions and advice from anyone doing this properly but nicely in year-round set up.
It seems a lot of the fuss now is just content creators making clickbait FUD, for their own... profits. I stopped caring as soon as they said "I'm not a security expert but...".
I'm never a proponent of whataboutism but where's all the videos about Solidworks or Fusion authorizing online everytime it launches and that we no longer own the software we buy???
A few years ago when Amazon had a huge datacentre outtage, my entire office was shutdown for the day because Autodesk cloud where all our projects are hosted is through Amazon.
Fussy, fussy. I have yet to remove my reel of red PLA to try something crazy... like black PLA haha. Although at the rate I'm mucking about, it may be required sooner than later. You mean to say there are other filament types? LOL
I hope the Bambu drama stabilizes or at least (selfishly) I'm not adversely affected. Through some of the heated discussions & YouTubes I became aware of analogous tech related sins mentioned as comparison, which I had no idea were a thing. I've led a naïve & sheltered life. But apparently if Louis Rossman is talking about you, that's a bad thing (Bambu on his radar). Well, here's to hoping. TBC
I'm not even sure what to say about all this. For the pre-designed stuff I'm finding it amazing that I can just download the ".3mf" files that sometimes have 3 or 4 build plates for the entire project. That so many things I'd have to think about are taken care of. But then this is my 4th 3D printer.
Like Fusion360 or some other mainstream software programs I'm perplexed by the user interface. I just don't 'get' it. That's why I'm a fan of AlibreCAD. The port of AlibreCAM (MecSoft CAM now) also had a similar look/feel so I liked it and paid the extra four the 4th axis even if I've never used it yet. But Mecsoft CAD/CAM is crap IMHO. Again a user interface that doesn't resonate with me.
Octoprint was developed by a German girl who used Patreon to fund her work. I supported her for a couple of years until she decided to upgrade the software without regard to people using a Pi2B. Lost all my work and configuration. So she lost me.
The same will happen with Bambu Labs if they suddenly change to some sort of blackmail.
Like Fusion360 or some other mainstream software programs I'm perplexed by the user interface. I just don't 'get' it. That's why I'm a fan of AlibreCAD. The port of AlibreCAM (MecSoft CAM now) also had a similar look/feel so I liked it and paid the extra four the 4th axis even if I've never used it yet. But Mecsoft CAD/CAM is crap IMHO. Again a user interface that doesn't resonate with me.
Octoprint was developed by a German girl who used Patreon to fund her work. I supported her for a couple of years until she decided to upgrade the software without regard to people using a Pi2B. Lost all my work and configuration. So she lost me.
The same will happen with Bambu Labs if they suddenly change to some sort of blackmail.
To add some metal working content to this thread how about this for an interesting 3D printing project.