Bambu Labs impose cloud connection for their printers.

[Lucas Ayde]

Just saw this:

https://youtu.be/aIyaDD8onIE

.. Bambu are forcing people to use their cloud services even for 'local' printing which was previously possible directly over your Wifi LAN. It also looks like it's going to stop many 'unapproved' Third Party applications from using them to print.

Note that the printers have been on sale for quite some time with no cloud connection requirements. This is now being rolled out using the usual excuse of 'security'. Looks like an attempt to grab user information and control, possibly with the goal of monetisation down the line. Maybe 3D printers are likely to go the same way as inkjet printers when it comes to nickel and diming the users.

This sort of 'cloud requirement' for anything which isn't specifically a cloud-oriented service really annoys me and it's becoming all too common. Aside from privacy and monetisation concerns, it also raises the prospect that the equipment could effectively be bricked at some random point in the future should the manufacturer either go out of business or decide not to support it any more.

[FWIW]

Buggers.

[dudleybloke]

Hopefully the 3d printing community can make their own firmware for it that will do the job without needing the manufacturer.

[.:ian:.]

Someone has already extracted the x509 keys for bambu connect

https://hackaday.com/2025/01/19/bambu-connects-aut...

Edited by .:ian:. on Monday 20th January 07:58

[Chimune]

Don't know much about 3d printing but site says

"LAN mode can also be used on Bambu Lab printers to allow the printer to function without the need for Cloud communication. The control of the printer is made through a local deployment of the control protocol and the MQTT server deployed inside the printer."

Also they allow WPA wireless authentication so security not that high on their agenda !

[.:ian:.]

Update from Bambu, https://blog.bambulab.com/updates-and-third-party-...
Potentially there was a lot of nonsense on the interwebs, especially Reddit (I know, right!)

I`m still not sure why they are enforcing Bambu connect and another intermediary process in LAN mode, but you will apparently be able to disable this an leave it as-is (if I`m reading that page correctly..)

[jesusbuiltmycar]

.:ian:. said:

Update from Bambu, https://blog.bambulab.com/updates-and-third-party-...
Potentially there was a lot of nonsense on the interwebs, especially Reddit (I know, right!)

I`m still not sure why they are enforcing Bambu connect and another intermediary process in LAN mode, but you will apparently be able to disable this an leave it as-is (if I`m reading that page correctly..)

Looks like they are now trying to gaslight people

https://youtu.be/W6MybDJfmmY