The most important thing is what you want to print? It sounds like you are planning to just print PLA and TPU. For PLA, pretty much any printer will do. For TPU, it recommends that you get a direct drive over Bowen tube.

That being said, if I was new and not going to get into exotic printing material, these are the things that is important to me.

- Metal hotend with direct drive
- Heated print bed
- Removal flex plate
- Auto-level
- Klipper firmware, even though there is nothing wrong with Marlin
- 32-bit controller board
- Silent stepper drivers
- I personally want a large print bed
- Wireless monitor and file upload (standard with Klipper)

Bambu A1 Mini pre-ordered
Just the printer, no AMS.
Here we go …

Congrats on getting your printer, hoping ET does not want to phone home... too much.

You don't need much accuracy for drones. I got a printer for ~500$ and it's fine. I work as a 3d artist and just use my software to print the parts I need. For example you can use Blender for this, no need to use engineering software.

ET phone home ?

I have Rhino3D version 7, so I'll be using that. I've been using Rhino since it was born in 1996-97. It has been an awesome Swiss-Army-Knife supplement to every PCB design tool set I've used through 4 different employers. And I'm able to download STLs and modify them with Rhino. Great tool. $200 full license if you're a student ....

Phone home = only way to receive update/upgrades... it's a trust thing. If you trust them fine, if not... what's plan B?

(03-Nov-2023, 07:17 PM)skywanderer Wrote: Phone home = only way to receive update/upgrades... it's a trust thing. If you trust them fine, if not... what's plan B?

Typical of all printer manufacturers, or just Bambu ?
Please, don't hold back ...

Honestly, I have no clue about others or even Bambu. Not knowing anything about the printer you named, I did just a quick looksee, found a reddit thread mentioning how they are updated and spidey sense thew up a flag. Just recommending that you are as clear of what you are getting yourself into as possible. Maybe ask somewhere if they can be updated via file loaded on a memory card or something?

These days many folks trade convenience for uncertainty not knowing or caring. Call me the curious type that likes to know just how thin/thick that ice is before going over it...

edit to add:

fwiw:




...and just saw this:



https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bambu+3d+print...n+security

hth

Well as long as it can be used offline in non-cloud mode I’m good. I don’t leave computers on 24/7 so same will apply to this printer. In general I’m anti-cloud.

Yeah, privacy policies. Nothing really new here. You only need to remember one thing - You have NO privacy.

Anything you say or do can and will be used against you, by anyone who wants to buy or sell your information. And, none of these a-holes are ‘responsible’ when your data they’re hoarding and profiting from gets hacked or breached. And, there are many, many laws that have been ‘created’ allowing and protecting this crap. And, you have NO say in any of this if you exist in this day and age and use any type of technology or interact with anyone or anything that does. And, opt-out antics (placebo) exist only to create a false sense that you have any control over any of this.

So yeah, nothing new unfortunately Thanks for the heads up though !

Ahh good, better over prepared than wish you were and all that...

Looks like a nice capable printer with that other stuff on the side. Do yourself a favor and get a food dehydrator for drying your filament if you don't have one:

COSORI Food Dehydrator Machine for Jerky, 5 BPA-Free Trays Dryer with 48H Timer and 165°F Temperature Control
https://www.amazon.com/COSORI-Dehydrator...VL7QX?th=1

filament types drying temp/times:
https://www.3dsourced.com/rigid-ink/dry-...ament-wet/

...with one it makes quality prints much easier. Stringy printing = no fun and easily avoided.

edit to add:

Then to store your dried filament:

Dry & Dry 5 Gram [50 Packets] Silica Gel Packets Silica Gel Desiccant Dehumidifiers, Silica Gel Packs
https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Premium-Packe...ref=sr_1_4

Wisesorb 7.5 LBS 4A Molecular Sieve
https://www.amazon.com/Wisesorb-Reusable...576YJ?th=1

into:

AMOLEN Filament Storage Bag Vacuum Kit with Two Sizes - 51 PCS Cleaning Drying Sealed 25 Bags for 3D Printer Filament with Desiccants/Humidity Indicator Cards/Clips/Hand Pump
https://www.amazon.com/AMOLEN-Filament-S...ref=sr_1_3

...for storing and keeping them dry. You can dry the deccicants in the food dehydrator same time as when drying filamants. Extra expense yes, but it's a quality of life kinda thing...

Great info! Thank you. TBH I was ignorant of having to keep filaments dry until recently. Good thing my house is pretty dry in the winter so the next few months should give me a little leeway in figuring out how I’m going to deal with humidity.

I’m only interested in TPU at this time. But when other family members see it in action I’m sure other types of material will start appearing

(04-Nov-2023, 06:25 PM)QuadFlyer68 Wrote: Yeah, privacy policies.  Nothing really new here.  You only need to remember one thing - You have NO privacy. 

Technically it is still possible to get it and have it, but you have to be dedicated to wanting it and be willing to give up modern technology.  For those that aren't but still want some level of privacy there are things you can do to get a little of it back. Just running a VPN skews the data that most websites collect. My 3d printer doesn't run online.  it has a RPi to run it and no network capability.  I sneakernet files on to it.  Not that anyone would honestly care about my badly designed attempts at 3d printing.  But I do the same in most parts of my life.  I also dislike the cloud and would rater co-locate my own server into a datacentre (which I have done in the past).

But if you want to get back some of that privacy you lose by having a google or apple phone, get an old analogue phone from back in the day or a dumb phone that only makes calls and sends texts, something akin to the Nokia 3210 of yesteryear.  No GPS, no touchscreen, no hassle. phone companies hate them as they allow them to glean pretty much no information besides a rough idea of your location via triangulation.

I will agree that privacy doesn't really exist these days, and trying to hang on to it maybe is more of a false illusion. Maybe VPN helps a little, but for services where you need to login or have an account then it is moot point. And I suspect you can be uniquely identified when you use your browser regardless what mode/vpn/blocker you use unless you are a top level hacker.
And beside Google, Apple, Uber, Facebook, plus all the companies trying to sell you things or get you to user their services or mine your data, you have the government too. Think Snowden, NSA and if you are in a country where there are eyes on you 24/7 (and this is not just China) unless you live in a cave and wear a mask everytime you go out, you are on record and facial recognition software is ridiculous these days. And all the RFID your phone, cards, give off when you move about... And with all the AI processing coming about, what would have been massive amounts of random data can now be easily formed to a meaningul profile about you with things that even you didn't know?

I think if you want true privacy, then you have airgap your life and live off grid. So basically live like a caveman, maybe in a cave and never leave it. No tech, no modern living, basically cut yourself off from the modern world in all possible ways. It would be a pretty lonely life. You could also maybe achieve it by moving to a country that doesn't care. There are still a handful of them in the world, some in South America, others in Africa.

I take some steps like VPN's and generating new random machine ids on every reboot. But the second you login to a service it becomes moot. I bought a PinePhone a while back, but still use my Nokia. But I did deactivate the camera and mic on the phone with a scalpel. If i need to talk to people I plug in a headset, mostly i don't talk to people on it. That's one of the nice things about the PinePhone, it has kill switches for the camera, mic, and pretty much everything else. It's also kinda nice that you can run a vm on it with Kali if you need extra functionality.

Don't know if anyone here has seen that other thread about the new Peopolyy magneto driven printer but... I just saw their common sense practical Privacy statement:

Quote:Your Privacy, Our Priority
In an industry where cloud-based operations and encrypted logs are increasingly the norm, Peopoly Magneto X stands apart. We firmly believe your printer should be entirely your own. No forced cloud usage, no hidden data collection, and certainly no overbearing user agreements that claim rights over your creations. With Magneto X, you are free to print, upgrade, and innovate without worry.

Your creativity, your data, your privacy—we're committed to ensuring they remain in your hands.

https://peopoly.net/products/magneto-x

...and this new huge squirrel cage parts cooler: 

PEOPOLY Magneto X Jetstream Side Cooling - $49.99

https://peopoly.net/products/magneto-x-j...de-cooling

THIS is what I think most folks would respect in dealing with a company moving forward, their product looks awesome...