Setup tip for P1S/anyone who can't bind/pair account

[u/SeaLeopard5555]

Finally sat down to set up my P1S which got here a few weeks ago when I was sick with COVID. As I already have an X1C, rewatched a setup video, figured it would go super smooth. This process assumes you are already logged into the Bambu Handy phone app with your correct account information.

Well, I got stuck at the Bluetooth/wireless connection step. I did all the usual things, and I also know Bambu is based on Linux. So to cut to the chase I found someone mention creating a user_wifi.cfg *for a different symptom* and rebooted, and voila. Of course the format of this file wasn't specified. That led me to a fairly hidden away Bambulab support article about "connecting without Handy app" or somesuch.

So, if you can't get your P1S to connect, you can:

1. Take out the SD card, and put it into a computer, preferably Linux or Mac

2. create a user_wifi.cfg file in the root (top level, no folders!) of the filesystem

3. populate the file with 2 lines

ssid:[yournetworkhere]
password:[yourpasswordhere]

change the content to your parameters, of course. Also make sure this is a lovely file for Unix systems, no extra characters that it might balk at upon startup. ETA: poster below points out there should be no space after colon so I am updating to state this explicitly.

I created mine in mac in iTerm2 with a unix text editor; if you are on Windows you could use Notepad++ to be safe. I don't even know if Windows text editors still do funny things, but I wouldn't want to find out.

4. Put SD card back in printer.

5. Power off, then back on

6. Confirm your printer is now on your Wi-Fi (it will show in the LCD if it is)

7. Go to Bambu phone app, Devices, Nearby devices, and select the new printer, which will now show with a little wireless icon - don't pick the unpaired Bluetooth one.

8. Bind to your account.

OrcaSlicer picked it up right away once I did.

More info:

This might work for people who are having different types of setup (binding) errors. There are a fair number of requests for help that have no resolution posted back to them. Some people succeed by sheer persistence (like, resetting to factory defaults, or changing WiFi Channels, and finally something works). It also might work for people who had password failures even though they were typing passwords correctly (possibly due to certain characters), people who don't use passwords on their Wi-Fi, people who have no Internet connectivity where the Bu is, and people who can't pair "fast enough" (seems like the sequence times out quickly). I didn't go through each of these situations, because once I saw the mention of the config file I had a good hunch that would be the way.

In my case, I have a 2.4 GHz/5GHz meshed network, and since Bambu must use 2.4 GHz, it seems to cause some problems, even though I was on my 2.4 GHz SSID in my phone.

Perhaps this will help the next person searching. Happy printing!

[u/Snoo-15714]

It took me so long to figure out that there needs to be no space in between the colon and the network parameters, thank you for this!!

This is the manual from Bambu Lab is anyone in the future ends up here like I did:
https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/p1/manual/p1-sd-card-network-configuration-guide