[jhbruhn]

The BambuLab A1 mini is the obvious choice here. Incredible value for the money and IMO quite beginner friendly.

The alternative choice would be the Prusa Mini, although the BambuLab has higher quality and more features than the Prusa.

[kapep]

For functional prints I would go with the Bambu Lab A1 instead of the A1 mini because of the larger build plate.

[Tepix]

I heard that Bambu Labs is violating open source licenses, thus stealing from Prusa in particular.

[opencl]

I've heard people claim this but never seen any actual evidence of license violations.

Everything seems perfectly in order with both the Linux-based firmware on the X1C[0] and their slicer[1] which is a fork of Prusaslicer.

[0] https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/open-source-s...

[1] https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio

[fennecfoxy]

I used to group-think this too and talked mad shit about Bambu.

But after looking into it all the bad stuff doesn't really apply - they forked Prusa slicer which Prusa fans got mad at (ofc) but Prusa forked from Slic3r, sooooo nothing wrong there at all.

Bambu use an nfc tag in their filaments, not to lock people in as I (and others) thought, but to auto select the right profile when it's in their AMS (multi colour) system; it's still completely possible to use other brands and their slicer provides a couple non-bambu brand-specific profiles already, along with "generic" profiles/material that work pretty damn well by default.

I picked up an A1 mini during their recent sale and unfortunately after using it...I don't think I'll ever use my Ender 5 Plus ever again (poor thing)...when I have enough space I'll just buy an X1C.

They've made it just so...effortless. You know what, it even takes even less effort than a fucking 2d printer these days (HP/Brother et al).

[fragmede]

Which; Hueforge turns my 3d printer into a really fun four-ish color 2d printer.

[fennecfoxy]

I've always wanted to try hueforge, how is it?

Although primarily I'd really like to be able to print full colour 3d busts, I understand that the point of hueforge is that it's 2d because it works like a picture box/shadow box with the layers.

Doing 3d is just a regular multi-colour print I suppose but the only annoying thing is that small regions of colour just require too much flushing. :/

[fragmede]

eg https://makerworld.com/models/179240

There's just something about the bas relief output that's satisfying in a way that a 2d printer doesn't hit.

[fennecfoxy]

Oh yes, I can imagine the texture feels so interesting. The tactility is probably similar to something like sliding a Pokemon cartridge into a game boy. Or clicking a pen on and off.

[iancmceachern]

Not really.

They forked a slicer, which wasn't against the license but not terribly nice either.

The big thing now is the patent lawsuit with Stratasys

None of these things matter for the average user. For the average user the Bambu products are the ones to buy. Easy button for 3d printing.

[fy20]

PrusaSlicer itself was a fork of the open source Slic3r, and also received critism when it was first announced.

[asveikau]

One criticism of Bambu that I've heard is that sending prints over the network requires the public internet, which is not true with Prusa, which can do local-only network printing.

[aaronblohowiak]

this is not true. https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/enable-lan-mo...

[asveikau]

Is that relatively new? Maybe my info is out of date?

Maybe last year people were saying that Bambu intercepts your models, that it's not private.

As I google, they say that your camera feed also goes to the public internet.

[fennecfoxy]

Well yeah ofc the camera feed goes thru the Internet so you can view it from anywhere?

I suppose they could bang a hole out thru your router & host something on the printer, then have your app sync your ip when on the wifi with the printer, but then if your ip changes when out & about you'll lose access unless you've set something up for it.

Gotta remember that Bambu is all about ease of use. It does have a LAN only mode, but I do agree that they should support some sort of plugin system for the printers and just refuse to support unless you're experiencing an issue while using 0 modifications/plugins.

[pbronez]

I bought the Prusa Mini+ kit. It was educational, but a few months later I upgraded to a Bambu Lab X1C. It’s a much more expensive machine, but the print quality and consistency are worth it.

With the Mini, I was hesitant to try things because I was afraid the prints would fail and I’d spend forever calibrating things. With the X1C, I can crank out prototype iterations as fast as I can design them.

[farslan]

I agree. I have the X1C, however the A1 is as good as the X1C (unless you go into more advanced stuff like ABS/ASA or want to print large objects)