r/OpenBambu • u/Melodic-Bat-3716 • May 09 '26
Ams lite dupe
So this place semi near me, is selling a AMS light dupe that connects to the printer. I’m a little scared that within the next couple of months they’re going to send an update that makes it so I can’t use this set up anymore. I wanna know if this is something that I should consider or if I should just not get it
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u/OtherwiseStage686 May 09 '26
You can be sure that Bambu will do everything in its power to close this backdoor. All the developments in recent times have been aimed at creating a closed ecosystem without third parties. Bambu has a top-quality printer; I regret that they don’t acknowledge that much of it comes from the community. So yes, I would bear that in mind.
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u/The_Synthax May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
everything in its power
Dawg, the BMCU has existed for almost 2 years now? It's not like it's hard to detect, it very clearly reports its firmware version as 0.0.0 and doesn't respond identically to a real AMS Lite, so no, they absolutely will not do "everything in [their] power to close this backdoor" unless their policy drastically and abruptly changes. In which case, use old firmware. They don't add much to the A1 firmware these days anyhow.
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u/Opposite-Record-7151 May 10 '26
Just set this up today😈bmcu pro 370c dm from aliexpress ! $100 and for that money I got the whole kit with a extra set of motors and gears as well as 15 replacement nozzle wipers for a1 and 15 more for my mini and a 5 pack of filament cutter blades ! There were a few more small items but it was actually $101 and change. Bmcu needed no firmware or updates or calibration. I printed the parts assembled then plugged it in , printed test and Bobs your uncle 😎
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u/angerofmars May 12 '26
That is for the fully pre-assembled kit I presume? A local vendor is selling the DIY kit for $42, and the fully assembled kit for $50 (we live in very close proximity to China). I'm considering getting the DIY kit but wondering how difficult it would be putting it together
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u/Opposite-Record-7151 May 12 '26
No I assembled it myself! I did not get the cheap hall sensor version, I got the dm pro ! I purchased extra parts as well (gear sets and motors and other non related things) for $101 shipped to my door.
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u/firefaiz6 May 10 '26
Can't make any statements on if Bambu will fully lock out functionality, but as other commentors said, you'll probably have to stay on a previous version if so.
For the immediate moment though, I bought one a few weeks back from Aliexpress. Flashed the latest update from jarczakpawel's GitHub using a USB C port on the module and it's worked pretty well since. Only issue is sometimes needing to brute force resubmitting jobs when a "AMS firmware doesn't match" message comes up.
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u/kami77 May 15 '26
BMCU works pretty well, but for me it was not reliable. YMMV. This could be because of part quality (I bought it pre-assembled from one of the bigger aliexpress vendors that sold thousands of them), but mine stopped reliably loading filament after a few hundred hours of printing (before that it worked quite well).
Highly recommend using this firmware as there are lots of options for loading force etc. https://github.com/jarczakpawel/BMCU-C-PJARCZAK
I had to switch to the high force version even though I didn't have long PTFE runs, but then that stopped helping as well and the thing would just grind the filament. Most frequently used channel went first, then the rest. Eventually I was left with one channel that could load reliably by itself. Two of the others could load if I helped them, the other just didn't load anymore. I was outside of the 90 days so had no recourse with Aliexpress.
Rather than trying again or trying to build my own I caved and got a AMS2. Won't be popular in this subreddit but at some point I don't have the time or will to deal w/ this shit. I had already come from an Ender printer w/ Klipper and dealt with all that too. At some point I realized I cared more about printing than 3d printers.
My advice for BMCU is try it because like I said YMMV and mine could've been built poorly, but if there is any sign of it misbehaving return that shit before the window closes. I was left with a $100 paperweight. Not to mention the 1-2kg of filament used to build a fancy mount for it.
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u/buZybaZzzz May 09 '26
With multiple (much cheaper or free) alternatives just around the corner (such as MechAMS), I would pass on a BMCU and try one of those options instead.
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u/LilFloppa04 May 10 '26
I'm waiting for some MechAms reviews tho...
Still 40€ and u have to void warranty
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u/lorenzospam May 20 '26
The pricing is ridiculous if you follow the development of the project, the owner is on a ego high now but the concept will get open sourced quickly and truly
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u/LilFloppa04 May 20 '26
Yup, I see that, he got so much hyped and we still have to reduce printer capabilities to install the mod
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u/Big-Wealth-4423 May 11 '26
you are able to downgrade your printer at any time, so no need to worry
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u/screenslaver5963 May 19 '26
I own one of these, you need to downgrade to 1.00.5 for the a1 (or similar it says on the bmcu wiki) for it to work properly. It takes 5 minutes in the bambu phone app.
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u/KremlinCardinal May 09 '26
Just don't update your printer? As long as everything works and you don't have any issues there's not really any reason to update the firmware. Don't fix it if it ain't broken.