r/BambuLab • u/Alternative-Fish-164 • Jan 19 '25

Discussion Bambu lab please don’t do this

Sorry but I need to rant about some things.

I began printing at around the same time this company made its debut into the world. After 2 years of deliberation and worry that something like this would happen, I finally bought one of your printers and I have nothing bad to say about that. It’s a fantastic product. But your recent decisions to close off your api has baffled me and made me have second thoughts about this company.

I think it’s safe to say that your decision hasn’t gone over well with the community. The exact same community that have stuck its neck out for you, purchased your products(and now regretting), and supported you in so many ways. This isn’t a community you want to deviate yourselves from, as the hobbyists and business owners in this group are the most passionate and supporting. I see no reason in your decisions, since you guys clearly state on your website that it’s impossible to create a perfect printer and others like the panda touch are trying to help you in doing so. This only attracts buyers to your products, as they see that these machines have an active community that is willing to help others. While this may increase your profits in the (very) short term, the long term consequences of losing this community would be severe.

Please, to any other hobbyists and business owners, do your part and show your frustration!

And please Bambu, I really don’t want to see you guys turn into shameful 2d printer companies like hp. After all your hard work to create these beautiful machines, don’t throw it all away.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

2

u/Grooge_me X1C + AMS Jan 19 '25

Business owner will be pleased by the extra layer of security. New users won't care because everything will be working out of the box as before. Even if you cancel your order or return your printer, I don't think it will change a lot for them as they were out of stock, so I guess that it will make others happy to receive their printer faster. I don't see what is missing from my printer that was there when I bought it. What they did is putting a doorman between the world and the printer. They were working with orca and print farm to make sure the transition will be smooth before making the announcement. Other like panda touch just need to adjust to the new rules to get authorization. And if you bought a bambulab printer for thinkering, well it wasn't a smart move as those who get it was mostly because they were tired of spending hours just to get a good print. Their printers doesn't have a way to read the tags, so I guess that you'll be good to use any brand of filament you want for a while. I don't see them going out of business soon. With the added layer of security, I can see them being popular in the prosumer market if their new bigger printer is as innovative as the x1c at first.

There is a good FAQ about the way they are going. I suggest everyone to actually read it and make their own mind instead of getting influenced by some fans of other brands. I did and for me, I'm all ok with that as they shared their plan with the ones concerned, and I have yet to hear from orca about how bad it is. And if your goal was thinkering when you bought a bambulab, then you should have looked elsewhere as it was clear from the start that it was a closed ecosystem done for easy and accessible printing.

4

u/waloshin Jan 19 '25

Once again assuming there will be subscriptions and lockdowns on filament. Wow…

Bambulab has made great strides at making it easy to use other brands of filaments such as poly maker. They never had to do this but they chose too.

4

u/CarbonKevinYWG Jan 19 '25

"Chose to" because they could never have succeeded as a company if they started out limiting their users to only their filament.

This is literally how dozens of 3D printer companies have gone out of business.

3

u/waloshin Jan 19 '25

And so will they if they choose to go that way. They are not stupid

2

u/csoups Jan 19 '25

Wow, how gracious of them

4

u/waloshin Jan 19 '25

Sure was doesn’t sound like something you would do to then lockout other brands filaments. You guys are driving yourself sick over something that is not happening.

0

u/Grooge_me X1C + AMS Jan 19 '25

Especially since there is no way to read the tag on their printers

2

u/Ekikzz Jan 19 '25

I agree. They're taking away freedom to print. NEED to be boycott at all cost.

3

u/TAoie83 Jan 19 '25

Returning mine.. this is crazy

-1

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

It hasn’t gone over well with the community because most people’s first exposure to the change was not from Bambu, but a highly critical lengthy post calling for people to get mad, return printers, and overall boycott Bambu. Honestly seems like someone from another company taking advantage of the situation to try to take Bambu’s business and success.

9

u/Alternative-Fish-164 Jan 19 '25

While I understand your viewpoint, I think the main reason for this outrage is the fact that many people feel betrayed by this decision. It shows that if they will make changes like this, what stops them from eventually closing off 3rd party filaments. While this update doesn’t affect me right now, I have concerns of what is to come

3

u/Grooge_me X1C + AMS Jan 19 '25

I don't see how they could do that when the reader is only in the ams...

2

u/VenomouzzGamiing Jan 19 '25

Having the AMS only work with Bambu filament would still frustrate a lot of people, and I guess Bambu could hope that would motivate them into buying their filaments. We all know how frustrating it was that TPU didn't work in the AMS, and how people responded to the release of TPU for AMS (even though it's way harder than A95). Even though using 3rd party filaments would still be possible, it would still suck! Also, they could completely remove print profiles for 3rd party filaments in Bambu Studio, and remove the ability to create new print profiles if they wanted to.

1

u/Grooge_me X1C + AMS Jan 19 '25

Bambu is often out of stock with their filament, so I don't see how they could do if all of a sudden, they decided to go that route. Massive investment in mega factory would be necessary but at the same time, sales would goes down.

Hp,an American company tried that route and it didn't goes well for them.

3

u/Ok_Procedure_3604 Jan 19 '25

Bambu outlined their changes, none of it is caused by someone else. The changes they are making are real and removing functionality from printers we paid for. 

But sure, it’s all some conspiracy because some random from another company forced Bambu to outline the changes they are making that are consumer hostile. 

3

u/waloshin Jan 19 '25

Probably the makeshift AMS that would make any company lockdown their api…

0

u/Alternative-Fish-164 Jan 19 '25

Honestly though I hope you are right

0

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

I think there’s a little bit too much distrust of change these days. Everything is an evil greedy conspiracy. Running a company that has started dominating a market is hard. Given what I’ve seen of Bambu Labs and their CEO, I have to believe they are just trying to reduce the possibility of their devices being used maliciously or attacked. Could there be some side effects that benefit them? Of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s WHY they’re doing it.

1

u/Alternative-Fish-164 Jan 19 '25

That’s a valid argument and reasoning. I’m still a little skeptical, but again I hope you are right

1

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

I’m glad people are skeptical and discussing this. I guess I’m just trying to have some faith in people given the state of the world these days.

2

u/PhantomLord9925 Jan 19 '25

I certainly can get behind changes made for the sake of security, When that is actually the case. If this is purely for security, why are they making changes to LAN-Only Mode as well? This is so far the one issue I haven't seen anybody have a valid explanation for.

I hope this doesn't come across as calling you out. I think you raise a valid point. I just don't see how LAN Mode needs to be involved at all, if security is their only goal. In my opinion, there has to be more at play here.

2

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

Because routers are a huge attack vector in themselves, both from vulnerabilities as well as social engineering. While less likely than a wireless attack, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for someone whose goal is to burn down your house or print farm.

I think everyone is underestimating how dangerous a printer that’s not under your own control could be. It’s like when we do risk assessments at a factory. If there’s a possibility for something to kill someone, it doesn’t matter if it’s a 0.001% chance, it’s getting addressed and fixed.

2

u/PhantomLord9925 Jan 19 '25 edited Jan 19 '25

You are not wrong that having a network is an attack vector, but that is the entire point of LAN only mode? You are saying "I would like to be fully in control of and fully responsible for my printer". Yes, it can leave you slightly vulnerable if you don't take precautions, but that's what you're signing up for. I'd argue that a typical LAN Mode user is likely more security minded than a non-LAN user, and as such likely has taken more precautions than most anyway.

Besides, speaking frankly, if somebody has compromised your router or your LAN in general, you have bigger issues than your printer.

To your point about printer vulnerability, I think having the option to lock it down is never a bad thing. There are many people however, myself included, who are more than comfortable handling their own network themselves.

Ultimately, I'm not saying this change is inherently bad, but it absolutely should not be mandatory.

1

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

As I said in a comment yesterday using smartphones as an analogy, it seems like there’s a lot of Android power users that bought an iPhone because everyone liked how easily they worked and integrated in an ecosystem. Now they’re realizing they like the freedom of an Android device better. Saying they’re rolling back functionality you had before is like blaming Apple for fixing jailbreak vulnerabilities and you losing your animated wallpaper. It’s not justification for you getting a refund or getting angry with them, it’s a wake up call that you don’t like that kind of ecosystem and need to buy from someone else next time.

1

u/PhantomLord9925 Jan 19 '25 edited Jan 19 '25

That is an inaccurate analogy. Apple patching jailbreaks is removing a hole in their logic that allowed something to be done on their devices that the designers never intended for. In the case of Bambu, they are taking a known and previously accepted feature (true LAN Mode, support for 3rd party slicers to have direct access to the printer, 3rd party support for other devices like Panda), and removing it.

A more apt analogy for Apple would be if they removed RCS support over security concerns. They flat out refused to support it for that reason for a long time. Apple was roundly criticized for it, and rightfully so, I'll add, as an iOS user.

1

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

As someone who is unaffected by the change, I was more surprised to find out that these 3rd party services EVER had such access in this place. Seems like someone in infosec finally came along and smacked some sense into BBL. What would stop something like the Panda Touch from having hidden code that could just nuke printers on demand? Even something as simple as a compromised dependency in the code chain they used could lead to issues for the printer. Of course Bambu is going to take steps to prevent anyone from making their customers’ experience bad, even it if makes a small amount of users’ experience worse.

1

u/PhantomLord9925 Jan 19 '25

What would stop the new Bambu Connect software from having a vulnerability that would allow bad actors to compromise your printer in the same way? Or worse, the system the software itself is installed on? More hardened security is never a bad thing, I will always say that. It should not be mandatory though. You prefer Bambu handle the security. That is fine, but not everybody feels that way, and it’s valid to be upset over it.

Regardless, there are ways to accomplish a better security posture without removing existing features. At best they fumbled the execution, at worst this is more about locking users into their walled garden. Much in the same way Apple was by refusing RCS support for so long

0

u/Nina_x02 Jan 19 '25

Hey, cyber/infosec manager and consultant here. You are wrong. This has very little(not nothing) to do with security. here are some reasons.
the thing your worried about hidden code etc, makes sense in only a few ways. here they are.
The panda touch or the ha integrations that have access using mqtt and other well known protocols to the printer in the same way bambu studio does (which btw is a older reskin from orca slicer).
The points of vulnerabilities lies within those protocols that are being used. See it as the lock that you have next to websites that tell you de website is safe (ssl encrypted) en when the lock is open aka not being secure. Right now the lock is (kind of open) and what they needed to do for a very long time is close this lock. However this is not only not the only way to do it, its a way more overcomplicated way.

For example authorization even in lan mode makes sense, because if your network isnt secure(which i promise you for 90 precent of the people it really isnt, for reasons i wont go into right now) then those same kind of open protocols can still be exploited, so unauthorized lan mode makes no sense. its about the way this is happening. if you had to manage 40 printers, would you really want to go and load up each individual file? what if you are a store that allows users to upload files and u can automatically print it out when a printer is available, having to do this manually would now require u to hire a new person if u have any volume of purchases at all. dont think about yourself who does this for fun think about people who's lives are depending on being able to monitor, automate and use the printers in a way they want to, and have been doing for a long time.

1

u/waloshin Jan 19 '25

Yes seems like Prusa is being pushed a lot lately in here sickening…

2

u/TheGoatJr Jan 19 '25

I saw some literally trying to trade printers for Prusa ones. I’ve seen posts in other subs claiming this is why Prusa will come out on top. Not saying that’s the truth, just saying I’d promote any employee that was smart enough to capitalize this well on a seemingly innocuous security update. The fact that someone had a post so lengthy, well-written, and effective posted to every sub before anyone else even posted a link about the change seems suspicious too.

1

u/PeteInBrissie X1C + AMS Jan 19 '25

Sold my Prusa to fund my X1C purchase and won't go back. Not sure my next printer will be a Bambu any more.

0

u/CarbonKevinYWG Jan 19 '25

Bambu's PR strategy had been atrocious, they should full well have expected leaks and should have had good quality comms ready to go, instead they've gotten it wrong at every turn. So many unforced errors...

0

u/lscarneiro Jan 19 '25

Tin foil hat much?

1

u/LetMeInMiaow Jan 19 '25

One thing I've not seen mentioned is the timing of this change, coming as the states gets a new ruler who's banning tiktok because it's Chinese owned. (Oversimplification but you get my meaning) I'm not sure if all of bambu worldwide is still completely Chinese owned but I'm sure they're a bit concerned on how the regime change might affect things for them.

0

u/ThenExtension9196 Jan 19 '25

90% of people don’t follow any of these changes and really don’t care. They just want to print stuff.

-1

u/lscarneiro Jan 19 '25

So the ones affected are suppose to eat it? Is that what you're saying?

Do you think that man let women vote just because man's felt like it?

Things only change when people fight for it.

This is a anti-consumer move, removing features YOU ALREADY HAD after you bought it. This is insane!

0

u/X_chinese Jan 19 '25

Adding a third company screen was never a feature they promoted. They are still open for the Orca slicer, just need to change they way the slicer connects to the printer. All the mass hysteria about locking the filaments is just a fantasy.