I bought an Ender 3-V2 three years ago for $400 CDN then dumped another $200+ into it trying to get it to produce better prints.
Got fed up with it and bought a cheap Prusa clone (Sovol SV06) which is far superior to my old Ender.
I then bought the SV06 Plus and retired the Ender.
I bought both Sovol printers on sale and spent around the same money as my initial investment on the Ender.
All said, I have purchased 3 printers that combined, are still cheaper than a single Prusa.
Been fighting the urge to buy a 3d printer for many years now but finally decided to pick up a Bambu X1C recently and have been furiously printing almost non stop since it was plugged in ~3 weeks ago.
I am actually using a random integration I found in these forums to connect the X1C to Hubitat and have it sending me push notifications via the Hubitat app whenever a new print initiates with the estimated print time as well as a 10 minute, 5 minute and 0 minute (print complete) update, so I can run over and check out the results right away.
Bambu is following Anker's lead. IMO, Anker intends to force the great bulk of their users to use their cloud so they can collect (sell?) info. The M5 is relatively new but there is a group pursuing a jailbreak. Note that on my 2nd M5 I ...ummm... missed the opportunity to connect it to wifi.
Not so random if you mean below - that was created by our own @FriedCheese2006, one of the integrations he created when he was primarily using HE (has moved mostly to Home Assistant).
Same, but I have recommended them to others prior to Bambu Labs coming on the scene. They are very reliable which is why they are popular in print farms.
However I do think Prusa have utterly failed to adapt and innovate for a long time now. Heck even before BL came on the scene, you could build a big Voron Core XY printer for the same money as a basic Prusa.
Based on the info gleaned from the X1 Plus firmware, apparently there is very little metadata being sent back to HQ. The dev who cracked it says he hasn’t found anything nefarious at all so far.
Agreed. Ever since the MK3S, there really hasn't been much innovation from them in the filament printer category. The MK4 really seemed like a rushed product just to get their name back out there since other companies were releasing newer models of printers with more advanced features.
They are great printers, it’s just that since Bambu released the X1C, $1,099 USD is astonishingly poor value for money when all you get is a basic bedslinger.
PS, to make things worse, you can buy a Mk3s+ clone from Fystec for $350 USD. Sure the quality isn’t going to be quite as good as a genuine Prusa, but the point is to show just how overpriced genuine Prusa printers are. There just isn’t $750 of extra value there, IMO.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Prusa printers are bad printers. At my old workplace, we had 3 MK3S machines, and they ran nearly constantly during the week, and usually long prints overnight / weekends, and they performed very well. Only 1 of the 3 was semi-problematic, but the other two were very reliable machines. I'm sure anyone who gets a MK4 printer will really enjoy its capabilities, and it is an improvement over the MK3S machines.
Though, in today's market, it is definitely not the best value for the money. And if you want multi-material printing, Bambu is really the most affordable and reliable option on the market. I know Prusa has a MMU system, but from what I have heard, it is not nearly as reliable as the AMS.
Its just for the price of a single MK4 printer, you could get a P1S with AMS and a few spools of filament. You would then have multicolor printing available, a fully enclosed printer, liveview camera, and slightly larger build area (though this could be debated due to the optional calibration lines it prints). Keep in mind I am only discussing the fully assembled prices. Sure you could get a MK4 kit cheaper, but its on backorder, and not quite as accurate of a comparison as fully assembled.
If the MK4 was priced lower, I could definitely see it being a better value than the P1S/AMS combo. Then again, everyone has their own reasons for the things they want to buy, so it really comes down to personal preference in the end. There are many more solid options out there as well, and its good to see so much competition in the marketplace. The more competition between companies, the better off the consumer is really to get more value for the money
$799 for the kit. And some things are worth more in value than just a printer. I’m playing the long game and know that Prusa will win out and still be printing years from now when Bambu will likely fail and be replaced due to the high cost to ship the entire unit back to China. I dont begrudge anyone what they like in these hobbies, you do you and more printing power to us all! As long as you’re happy with what you have, does it really matter?
I would very much like Prusa to continue to do well, but they need to get their costs and retail prices down or they just won’t have a market left.
Just look at the XL fiasco, that sort of thing has done a lot of damage to their brand.
I even know of one case where an XL customer was accused by support of damaging his printer by over torquing a fastener, that the factory installed. He had to escalate the issue to Joseph to get it resolved. He’d spent 20k over many years and was pretty upset.
Yes, the kit is cheaper, but also 5-6 weeks on backorder. I personally wouldn't mind building a printer on arrival, but I know many look at that to be a daunting task and would rather opt for the fully assembled kit, as it saves them time and possible headaches. Though, if you could get it fully assembled for the price of the kit, there would be a much larger argument for that being a better value to the customer. Hopefully things change for them and they are able to lower the prices, I definitely like seeing the competition.
With the release of X1C custom firmware, even if Bambu closed business tomorrow I'm sure there is enough of a community to not let the hardware completely die. I'm not sure how LAN mode would work if Bambu completely shut down their servers, but I'm sure there would be a community led push to get the things working again completely offline, if not already possible. Personally, I don't know how well financially Bambu is doing as a company, but I am assuming with the amount of interest behind their printers, they won't be closing shop anytime soon.
I agree, as long as you are happy with what you have, and it works, then keep using it until it dies!
I've been following the debate for the last few days, and have learnt a lot - thanks all!
I think I've concluded, that if I wanted a largely plug and play 3D printer and had about £1k to spend, the Bambu X1C (Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D Printer | Bambu Lab UK) would not be a terrible shout?
Correct. Although I still say if you aren't interested in hard to print materials, the P1P or P1S is a fine option too. Especially if you are brand new to printing, and don't even know how often/extensively you will use it.
I find zero reason to print ABS or PC for my needs, especially with CF laced PETG or PLA these days. So an X1 would be a waste for me.
