this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Thinking about getting my first printer to print some organization stuff around the house, some nerf parts, as well as some small toys and fidget for friends/kids. The Bambu Lab A1 seems to be notable for being beginner friendly without a lot of fiddling.

Read recently about the lawsuit and I'm wondering if I should wait until that's resolved before pulling the trigger. I'm worried that some outcome there will eliminate important features or worst case make it obsolete entirely. Any thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That lawsuit is going to go on for years, so uh, I wouldn't wait.

And, frankly, those kind of suits settle out of court and end up in a licensing deal anyways so there's very little chance that anything important will change tech-wise.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I haven’t seen the light of day for a few months now, what lawsuit?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Stratasys is suing Bambu over things like having a heated bed and using purge towers. Basically stuff that every decent printer does.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Yes, but a better time was last month during the sale

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

@RacerX For $339 for an A1, I wouldn't consider it a major risk at all. I have an X1C and I love it. If they lose a lawsuit and have to remove features, I figure I just won't update the firmware and hope that does the trick. And if so, that potentially another reason to pull the trigger now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is a good point. Like someone else said here, it'll probably take a while to resolve the lawsuit and if I get as much use as I think I will between now and then, then the money spent will be worth it. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

@RacerX Good luck and enjoy!... I imagine it will be like my X1C, in that firmware updates are strictly a manual thing that the user has to trigger, so if they do have to cripple something in the future, hopefully you can just keep your printer working as it had before.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just make sure it never connects to the Internet ever

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I thought it needed to be connected to the internet in order to send prints to it? Does it work fine if never connected?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Isn't there a group working on open source firmware? https://hackaday.com/2024/01/09/x1plus-open-source-bambu-lab-x1-firmware/

So if they are forced to remove something, it can be re-added

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

With bambu Lab, however, you are supporting a Chinese closed source manufacturer that makes use of the open source community and has no development costs. This only supports the fact that open source alternatives have to become closed source in the long term and thus destroys the market in the long term. But greed is good, right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

You make a good point, and it's really the reason I have and like Prusa printers. But I do look with some envy at the bang for the buck you get with Bambu

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

In case anyone stumbles across this post in the future, I got the A1 with the AMS. It's amazing and I've been really happy with everything I've printed so far. Been using Bambu Lab matte filament and Polyterra as well. Both work great.