• 1 Post
  • 12 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 12th, 2023

help-circle
  • When asked about Nintendo’s solution for backwards compatibility with Switch games and the GameCube classics available on the system, the developers confirmed these games are actually emulated. (This is similar to what Xbox does with backwards compatibility).

    “It’s a bit of a difficult response, but taking into consideration it’s not just the hardware that’s being used to emulate, I guess you could categorize it as software-based,” Sasaki said of the solution.

    They are (mostly?) talking about Gamecube right?..
    right?

    Or is that the reason for the Switch-Emulator-Witchhunt, they actually “bought” the tech?


  • I doubt that it’ll really have killer features.

    You’ll most likely be able to exchange the 2 Hotend-Toolhead for a Laser-Hotend, it’ll have a heated AMS, it may have a vinyl-cutter head.

    I don’t really think I’d want to Laser on my heated bed, or cut on it either. The Fumes from lasering will impact durability of anything in the printer, without really lots of ventilation it will produce lots of dust (well, ash).
    Cutting on the same head is weird, as a cutter needs to resist a bit or cutting force.

    The dual-nozzle-design is interesting, but I think it’s still vastly inferior to multiple toolheads, with anything over 2 materials there is still cutting required. Depending on how they solved the issue with feeding the two hotends, I’m not sure how there won’t be quite a bit of added complexity for loading the AMS, where you have to think which head needs which filament.
    Using a single extruder gear for both hotends also increases chances and risk of cross-contamination. I’ve never had a printer who didn’t occasionally chew filament.
    Moving the Hotends on linear rails, having a mechanical drop-stopper on the hotend all increase complexity, I’m not sure how bad blob of dooms will get here.

    If they use their touted servo-design actually on the corexy kinematics, that will be interesting, because conventional wisdom says it doesn’t really improve 3d-printing performance. At least not until you get to ridiculous builds (think minuteman)

    Cost will be interesting, as apparently the H2D was touted to “be above current X1 line”, if that were to include X1E and the $2500 price tag it would be… rather expensive.
    But even when it’s “just” more expensive than the X1C at $1200/$1450, coming to… idk, $1500 in it’s bare configuration, that’s rather big chunk of change for a hobbyist. And they will (hopefully) have lost lots of enthusiasts with their firmware-stunt.

    Something kinda cool that could theoretically be done would be print smoothing with the laser. Print it, change the tool, laser (at least) the stairstepping on top away.





  • that is more editing and good lighting.
    there are always layer lines.

    Depending on you I would recommend
    Voron (DIY, will take about a week to build and a week to tune),
    Prusa (depends on your preference, assemble yourself or built, depending on required time a mk4s with mmu3, or the core one which will take several months to get to you, and the mmu3 later when it will become compatible)
    Qidi (cheap, chinese, will likely work decent after some tuning)


  • there isn’t a “best” really. Depends on your wants/needs.

    for true Openness, I don’t think anything beats a Voron.
    Prusa is great (good track record, good support, Hardware is not open anymore though, can work out of the box), but expensive.
    plenty of others get you something largely decent for low prices (qidi, creality for example) but long term support seems likely to lack, and there are always reports of some issues for some and great results for others.



  • I don’t see it this way, for multiple reasons.
    If my understanding is correct, they are (imho) misleading if not lying in this post, when they say:

    these claims are entirely false:

    Bambu Lab will remotely disable your printer (“brick” it).
    Firmware updates will block your printer’s ability to print

    But they integrate a certificate which has a validity date.

    Once that update is on, you’re kind of locked to their releases. Yes they now, after the backlash have realized that they are putting up the walls a bit too quick. But I do not see anything in there that says “we were wrong to do it this way” - which they are.
    There is little reason to - by default - put the cloud inbetween your PC and your Printer, which may sit 2m or less apart. That never makes anything more secure.




  • so hopefully they can maintain a sufficient market share to keep a sustainable business going

    When the market grows, one can lose market share and still have a sustainable business ;).
    You don’t even need a growth in revenue for sustainable businesses either.

    If Prusa went under, I still think I would have a better chance of maintaining a functional printer than if e.g. I had a Bambu printer and they went under (although that does perhaps not seem so likely at the moment?).

    That seems reasonable. Let’s not forget that Bambu only increased their Firmware-Feature update promise from 2 years (march 2025) to 4 years (march 2027) after community outcry.

    btw (I do not know either way) did a bambu printer ever get a firmware feature like Input Shaping, Phase Stepping, Crash Detection etc. as an update? For example does their LIDAR now work on textured plates? (I think it didn’t in the beginning)


  • I think you have it down pretty well.

    It’s not perfectly open Source. Upgradeability can be reasonably expected, it’s not the cheapest, but a very good option.

    One more thing that could be considered is if one believes Prusa may die as a company. That would of course reduce the aspect of upgradeability. Personally I believe they are fine, and just growing slower (more organically? Than Bambu for example).

    Also Bambu will bring out another printer in a similar timeframe as Core 1 will come out. Depending on priorities it can make sense to wait to compare the offerings.

    But I don’t think, given your reasonig you’d be making a mistake if you could buy now.