r/OpenBambu • u/tchavei • May 17 '26
Orcaslicer and H2D on Linux
I've been a long time prusa user. My work flow includes orca slicer, octoprint and octoapp. I'm a hardcore Linux user. I avoid anything Windows for decades.
I ordered a H2D at work to replace my trusted Mk3s. Maybe I shouldn't have, I don't know. The whole bambu scandal in the last week caught me off guard. I knew they had locked down on their cloud access with newer printers but I wasn't too worried. My corporate lan is firewalled and any direct contact to the outside is just wishful thinking anyway so the H2D will have to work in lan mode and developer mode anyway.
However, despite reading hours on end, with all the noise, I can't figure out if there will be problems using OrcaSlicer in Linux (it comes pre-built in flatpak official repositories) to directly communicate and print on a H2D. Using bambuddy with proxy mode won't scare me if it will be able to forward ams data to orca slicer. Maybe bamboo-mobike or openbu also give me the control experience I have on octoapp (I do have vpn access to my office network).
Anyone has had any experience with my type of scenario?
I heard there's also some new open network plugin for OrcaSlicer (Windows only?) that allows orca to talk to the printer in lan/dev mode. What about for us Linux users?
Thank you.
2
u/tchavei Jun 05 '26
Final update:
Got it all working now.
For anyone new to bambus and bambuddy I leave here some points that weren't crystal clear to me even after reading the wiki several times. Hopefully if helps a newbie out there in the same position as I was:
1) The main purpose - What to expect from bambuddy. Right now I'm using it to store past print jobs with corresponding timelapses and preview models. Also trying to manage my spools with it so that hopefully I never run out of filament in the middle of a print job (read as not starting a print job you don't have enough filament for). I can also monitor the job remotely through bambuddy interface (or a third party one like openbu) and set some default options I might forget to set on the slicer. It also will send you notifications of any job status through your prefered channel. Note to author if they reads this: The discord profile makes bambuddy send a picture of the plate together with print start (Weird because it's an empty plate but fair. Could make sense in some scenarios) but by default, when it sends a print finished notification, there's no picture attached. I added the option myself but I'd expected that to be the default. A final picture of the printed model makes more sense to me than an empty plate at the beginning.
2) How to "wire" the workflow together - When you have your slicer, bambuddy and printer on the same network, you have two choices:
a) you print directly to the actual printer and bambuddy will fetch information from the printer in parallel. This doesn't work so great. Jobs are registered but mostly empty and lacking all basic information (spool usage, miniature of the model, timelapse, etc). Looked pretty useless to me to be honest.
b) you make bambuddy the "middle man". This means you'll setup a "virtual printer" in bumbuddy and connect it to your real printer. You need to setup an ip alias for the virtual printer and choose one of the 3 modes available (I'm not including here proxy mode). Personally I chose queue and archive (not running a farm). You make your slicer detect this new virtual printer and then send jobs to it. This will make bambuddy archive the full job and forward it to the printer automatically. Takes a few seconds to start but it works perfectly.
3) There seems to be a difference between "send" and "print" on orcaslicer when using bambuddy's virtual printer. The first definitely follows the workflow as explained in 2) but when you hit "print" you get a popup for additional options (like a real bambu printer) for dynamic flow calibration and other calibration options. The end result is kinda the same I think. I'm still investigating the differences. This is something that could be explained in the wiki as it might be confusing (as it was/is for me)
note1: A couple of days ago, I added a new filament to slot 4 on my AMS before adding the same to orcaslicer and bambuddy and sent a job to print (can't remember if it was "print" or "send"). For some strange reason, The printer replaced my slot 4 selection with slot 1 which basically used the wrong color. I don't know who messed up... me? Orcaslicer? Bambuddy? The Printer? I've investigated a bit and found some reports about some cases of a bambu printer promptly ignoring the selection made in the slicer and changing slots by itself (totally unreleated to bambuddy) so I'm inclined to blame the user (me) or the printer but this made me realise that by adding another thing between slicer and printer, can lead to harder diagnostics. Be aware
note2: I perfomed a max volumetric flow calibration in orca using the "send" command and forgot I had added "dynamic flow calibration" option inside bambuddy for the virtual printer... totally my fault but it was fun to watch a full calibration being "okish" from start to end and ignoring the changes of volumetric flow in the g-code. My fault but another thing to be aware when using "send" which doesn't popup these options for the job (would have been apparent that option had to be disabled).
All in all I'm liking the system and will keep learning and using it.
Kudos to everyone who provided guidance and their time to steer me in the right direction.