OrcaSlicer supports Bambu printers already. Does anyone have any better sources for what this other fork supposedly did?

EDIT: I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video, but from what I can see someone tried to make a branch of OrcaSlicer that interacted directly with Bambu’s private cloud APIs to impersonate Bambu Studio. I don’t agree with the legal threats but this case is about connecting to their non-public cloud APIs, not connecting to the printer directly.

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RobotToaster 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Bambu's proprietary networking plugin uses the agpl libraries from slic3r/prusaslicer, by not releasing the source code they're violating the AGPL.

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dspillett 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video

Try https://youtu.be/0tdZ5Z7nRDY?si=vjnJ90p6ba_Xik9B for a less emotive take on this specific case, and the closely related matter of Bambu's attempt to circumvent some of AGPL's protections.

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Aurornis 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Since you’re familiar with the topic, any sources that are not YouTube videos?

	▲	dspillett 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not that contain any information not covered in the above, or aren't LLM summaries of summaries of the matter, unfortunately. At least not that I've seen thus far. Such is the current timeline, where everything has to be a monetizable video, slop, or both…

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exitb 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Some time ago the printers were able to communicate over both cloud and local protocols. Then, in a firmware update, they created distinct modes for those. You can still use the printers with OrcaSlicer, but in a mode that prevents being controlled by cloud too.

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ben-schaaf 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Note that at least for now you can also downgrade the firmware and use the "legacy" plugin with OrcaSlicer to fully restore functionality.

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hamdingers 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is a feature. When I enable LAN mode I do not want Bambu to be able to control my printer.

It remains astonishing to me that this is controversial. Not everyone has the knowhow to block internet access to their printer, so having a toggle in firmware is terrific. I've verified after turning it on that it never phones home. Couldn't be happier.

	▲	exitb 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It’s fully understandable to want that and exactly what I use too. It still sucks for people that did want to start their prints locally and control them over the app.

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xattt 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Although local LAN control is still unhindered, browsing the filesystem on the printer from the slicer is locked behind cloud mode.

Getting cloud mode means using Bambu Studio. Getting Bambu Studio means one more notch in slowly getting locked into the walled Bambu garden.

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jonpurdy 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Very useful comment. I’ve had an A1 Mini for a year now and it has been my favourite purchase in years. Like when I got my first mobile phone, I feel like I’ll have some sort of 3d printer for the rest of my life. Bambu made it super easy and inexpensive for this to happen.

I’m completely against bullying and attempts to lock out open source software from using 3d printers directly; if they locked out OrcaSlicer from direct control I’d have a big problem with that.

But trying to interact directly with Bambu’s private infrastructure/APis seems reasonable for Bambu to block. I think a cease and desist might backfire on Bambu but i don’t think it’s unreadable. (Didn’t watch the video. Just getting context from parent comment. )

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dspillett 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> But trying to interact directly with Bambu’s private infrastructure/APis seems reasonable for Bambu to block.

Even if they have taken away other routes that used to exist so that this is the only way?

I've also been very happy with my A1 (bought ~18 months go), and have since bought a U1 (which has networking problems of its own, but is otherwise a great upgrade) alongside it. Unless Bambu changes its tack significantly I'll not be buying another of their machines or more of their materials¹.

--------

[1] well, maybe the light grey PLA as I've not yet found anything similar enough easily available in the UK, and it is perfect for prints that I want to look neutral or for some scifi ships & similar…

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stavros 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's not like you have a choice, the printer doesn't work locally unless you enable LAN mode, and then it only works locally. Bambu make you pick either "closed servers" or "the mobile app doesn't work" for no reason.

I'll chip in to this developer's legal defense fund because I want to be able to do whatever I want with my printer, and "I can't do what I want with my printer" is a bigger problem for me right now than "the developer made a TCP connection on my behalf to a server he didn't own".

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switchbak 4 hours ago | parent [-]

But we’re geeks, we can run tailscale on the local lan and access it anywhere, no? Obviously that’s not for everyone, but that’s workable for savvy users, no?

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hamdingers 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There's a wonderful Home Assistant integration that has all the monitoring features one could want.

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stavros 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah man I don't know, if the argument is "it's fine for Bambu not to make a trivial change to allow openness because I can set up a home Linux server that runs 24/7 with OpenVPN and iptables", I'll say this is the reason everything's closed now, because geeks like us didn't shout about it until the last of our hacked-together spit-and-duct-tape solution stopped working, by which point it was too late.

I don't accept any "it's fine because you can hack around it". If it needs me to choose between their phone app working or privacy, it's not fucking open enough.

	▲	haswell an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		On the one hand, I agree with a lot of what you’re saying here. With that said, I don’t think it’s reasonable to describe setting up Tailscale as similar to “Linux server that runs 24/7 with OpenVPN and iptables”. Sure, you could go that route, but a Tailscale setup is extremely simple and lightweight. A raspberry pi is plenty if there isn’t already a system running 24/7. I personally have this set up on my router. I point this out while still sharing the general sentiment of negativity towards Bambu here.
	▲	hacker161 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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