A note about the SD cards. I use microSD cards in products I design, and we had a pretty sizeable issue with SD cards dying on us. Many manufacturers have "high endurance" cards. They come at a premium, but they have much greater write endurance. If Bambu is using the cards as cache, you'll always have issues with the cards wearing out, but you can take some steps to get longer life. Using cards that have wear leveling and purchasing larger cards can extend the life, but the best is to purchase a high endurance card. SanDisk's industrial cards also have a "health status register" that can be read with some custom microcontroller code -- not really necessary since you stock extra cards and just replace them when they wear out. Look for SLC NAND cards, and/or cards meant for DVR/Surveilance use. Good luck, and thanks for the review!
I concur, it seems the most likely cause of the SD cards dying. Using them as cache would wear them out much quicker than reading just the print files. Unless you use high endurance cards, like you said.
I agree with this but I would try adding a larger capacity sd card first. It needs around 28gb of space for cache so if you put a 128gb or 256gb in there you would have much longer before the corruption makes it so you can't use the card anymore. Also the prices aren't that bad at those sizes. Prints take up barley any space on the card at most a few 100mbs. So I imagine the failure happens when the printer can no longer access enough cache. You still might have the occasional corrupted print file but then reformatting should fix it until you wear out too many sectors of the card.
Corruption is also the likely issue with the printer starting, pausing and then going back to the home screen. I would second the use of high endurance cards, they are normally have 100's of time increased lifetime, so should outlast the printer once in the bottom of the bathtub curve.
@@raphaelmonserate1557 the print quality is even better than prusa's. i know lot of people hate to see this but its true. i was a prusa fan too ditched all my prusa's late 2023 early 24. im tired of their products. changing everything is just a pain. i have not time nor do feel like doing it because its so tedious.
หลายเดือนก่อน +364
The SD card issue is well known amongst RaspberryPI users. Long story short, you're doing everything right EXCEPT getting quality SD cards that can sustain the amount of R/W longer than the cheap cards.
Same with digital photographers. We've realized they will fail, and the cheaper they are the quicker that will happen. Look for ones with good read/write speeds also.
As soon as he said something about caching, I thought of how I recently learned that SSDs have a longevity issue because frequent reading/writing to the drive quickly wears them out.
I had a problem with my ender 3 and the SD card. When it vibrated a certain way the SD card connections could disconnect. I have a theory that Bambu input shaping might shake the SD card too much so it might become disconnected repeatedly. Just a thought.
I think a lot of bambus maintenance schedule is for the high wear and tear use case that is the AMS system. More cuts, more movement in ptfe tube, more dust, more wipes etc etc
17:30 i like this guy, not wasting time changing every screw for a stainless button head for no reason, not maintaining things that don't need to be maintained, just operating like a normal person with an actual life should
Been running a Bambulab P1S print farm for the last year although on a smaller scale (4 printers) and have had similar results. I did recently have a couple of heater wire failures around 7000 hours on the printers. A quick swap of the nozzle fixed them though. These printers are so low maintenance compared to the old printers I used to run!
Well now bambu labs is gonna watch you and make sure you do not print without their blessing who knows maybe their slicer becomes subscription based since they now have a bigger market share, I will never trust them
Wow! It's nice to know there are still some people left in this world that promote a product for zero remuneration. I see through the many comments that a bunch of Bambu printers are being sold because of you and your efforts, including my next machine! Keep up the great work! The best things in life are free!!!
@shopnation, what are your thoughts on BBL's recent announcement regarding firmware updates that will drive this to be a cloud-only solution? I realize they have walked back a little due to public backlash, but I was hoping to hear your opinion and curious if it affects how you utilize the printers.
I bought a Bambu Lab P1S Combo about 4 months ago, primarily due to your prior videos, and similar reviews from others. I don't regret it one bit. I love everything about the setup.
be interested to know your take on the recent updates to the term of service for Bambulab and how they want to lock things down even more... Bambulab is the Apple of 3D Printing, close everything off from the enduser and simple updates can break things or pt them behind a paywall.
Thanks for this video. I bought my first P1S last Wednesday, and it blew me away compared to my old CR-10. I went back to Micro Center and bought a second one the next day, and my wife has already green-lit me to buy a third. I don't have a Print Farm yet, but a nice little Print Garden.
Hah! I’ve had the similar experience when I bought my A1 just couple weeks ago. As a first time owner of a Cr-10 smart pro, I feel like Bambu, even with their cheaper model (A1)has trully set a new benchmark for consumer level 3D printers. The ease of use and just reliability of these printers blows me away. It took me about 6 months to get my cr-10 SP to calibrate as well as it can physically be and still it needs some hand holding. The A1 started printing perfect first layers after I plugged it in. Still blows me away 😂
@@kubilayceliker723When I printed my first Benchy, I thought my P1S was going to explode. 1.25 hours to get a great Benchy on my CR-10, 20 mins on the P1S, and it's the best one I've ever printed.
I’m fairly tech savvy. I got the X1C because honestly I’m kind of tired of working on stuff. I just want it to work. And so far it does. Having to constantly work on things can really take the fun out of the hobby when you have other goals in mind.
Ya same here, i got the x1c as well and have really enjoyed that so far it just works. Glad I didn't end up with yet another endless source of maintenance issues
Im in the same spot. tinkering with printers was fun for the first 5-6 years of this hobby. Im now looking for a workshop appliance not a z-axis offset side quest.
I'm unsure what hard numbers you're finding in this video. It very much. Seems like this wasn't a planned video and was just kind of a "Well we're here now, we were all curious so we might as well make something out of it" half way through. Not that I don't dislike that, not that I think it's not valuable, however, I would like to see a year two looking at this from that angle, and maybe a couple of? Prusa One or whatever they call em
@@ShopNationon that note, for how often you're printing things, go with like a 64 GB (or higher) GENUINE Samsung professional SD card. You won't fill it all the way obviously but that's the point, SSDS and SD cards have what's called wear leveling where they will balance out which cells are written to to not put too much wear on any single cell. It works best with a lot of free space. The pro model SD cards also have higher endurance by default. Also if you can disable power loss recovery and any other caching stuff I would. (PLR kinda looks messy to me anyway) You will more than likely find that SD card lifetime increases quite a bit.
Travis, what is your opinion of the new bamboo labs terms of service? They’re forcing everything to go through the cloud and through their own slicer, removing any ability to use a third-party slicer.
After about 6K hrs on a X1C, the extruder gears were completely eaten up. At first, intermittent print quality issues and then completely failure which looks like a clogged nozzle. Simple swap of the gears and back to running. I have a mini-farm and the BBL machines (all X1Cs) have really helped with delivering on time if not ahead of schedule.
I'm a professionnal photographer, and after seeing the brands of micro SD cards you use, I'm 99% convinced that is your issue : get Sandisk or Samsung cards as they are the best, or Lexar, Kingston or Patriot (not as good but okay).
When it comes to storage, I always get name brand. It’s not worth it to me to save a little on an ssd when I could be sure on the quality. At least more sure.
If they are actually using the SD card as a r/w cache for the device, would definitely consider getting a high endurance SD card to test to see if you get any more issues. microSD cards vary in quality, especially for write endurance.
I felt compelled to add my experience with Bambu as business printers as well. I'm a super small niche producer and only have two printers, and X1C and a P1S but have been printing with them for about 2 years now nearly non stop. In the 2 years of using the X1C I've had zero issues! Simple as that nothing else to report it's been phenomenal. Where as my 1 year use of the P1S although not many has had multiple bugs and issues. Most of them random and not consistent. Clogged extruder, broken filament sensor and random bugs that cause prints to occasionally fail. Just the other day my print stopped half way on the P1S. No error code, no false filament run out, no power outage, it just stopped. I've also experienced more print failures due to bed adhesion on the P1S than the X1C as well. All that being said though I've always been able to get the printer back up and running in minimal time. The longest down time was about 3-4 days when I had to order a new filament sensor for the hot end which was super easy to replace. (annoyed it broke to begin with). Would I buy another P1S, yes due to the fact that it cost half the price of an X1C and gives you 80% of the same performance. But if you can spare the extra money I wholeheartedly believe that the X1C is the better printer over the P1S in more ways than just hardware upgrades. It has been a far more stable and reliable experience than the P1S.
This is a GREAT video! IT gets to the point quickly and the honesty and good editing make it fun to watch. On top of that it's filled with a lot of great experiences. I bought a Bambu Labs X-1C printer myself after my fleet of four Sunlu S8 printers began to have repeated print failures from bed leveling issues and hot end problems. I owned them and operated them nearly continuously 24/7 for pretty much 4 years and maintained them meticulously, but they were a GIANT PAIN in the NECK to manually bed level and the constant failures were making me begin hating my once favorite hobby. I purchase the X-1C solely for the reason of automatic bed leveling and was amazed by the SPEED and reliability of prints. After a year now with the NEW printer, I have scrapped 3 of the 4 Sunlu models and only keep a single older printer around for those really BIG jobs where I need a bigger bed. (The Sunlu print area is 310mmx310mmx400mm and the Bambu Lab is 256mmx256mmx256mm) It's rare that I need the bigger volume, so it's hardly used anymore due to the just sheer pain required to level it. The speed and ease of use, especially when you consider how much better the Bambu Labs slicer is over something like CURA, makes me never want to start up the Sunlu again. They were good printers for their era, but it's like driving an old Model T ford compared to a 2024 Ferrari. The Bambu Labs printer is light years ahead of it. In the past year I can count the number of failed prints on one hand and 3 of them were due to operator error or just laziness on my part by not using a glue stick for a tall print. I did have to replace the entire hotend/nozzle once, but it came with a spare, so it cost me nothing but about 30 seconds of my time. It was a far more laborious process on the old Sunlu to do the same thing. Bottom line the Bambu printers are amazing and this video above really talks to some of the best strengths and weaknesses. I've never experienced a failure with the SD card, but I never print from the card, I always send my jobs from the slicer through my WiFI to the printer. The X-1C also tells you when you need to perform maintenance and prompts you through the screen with how to do it. Greasing the screws takes about 15 seconds and once again the grease packets that came with the printer have been included and cost me nothing extra but time. Overall it's the best single purpose machine I ever bought. The AMS system lets you have 4 spools of any color or type ready to go and the X-1C also warns you before you try and print a PETG print setting with a PLA spool, so you'd never have the problem listed in the video that he seemed to have with the P1 printer. Great video with lots of good info. Thanks for sharing!
I bought an A1 thanks to your data driven videos. My first entry into 3D printing and I have loved every minute of it. Even the A1 just works, and I'm in love with the AMS and touch screen on that thing. Came at extra cost but oh soooo nice when finishing up a spool it just starts up the next one. Most of my failures are user error or bed adhesion like you said. Thanks for the follow-up. Been running my A1 for 5 months printing multiple times a week and no major issues to note.
Thank you so very much for the videos, information and honest opinions. This only solidifies my purchases of the X1C and a P1S as I start on this hobby/journey. Very much looking forward to the upcoming course along with all other videos.
I've had the A1 for about two weeks and have over 200 hours of print time on it so far! Only one print failure to speak of, it's almost uncanny. I upgraded to Bambu after starting with an Entina; the kid-friendly miniature printer. Like a whole new world.
I love that you've commented on tweakers who like to setup the machine! I've had my CEL Robox 10 years, it's always been a set and forget, and it got a frosty review becuase it took all the "fun" out of 3D printing! I came from SeemeCNC Delta which was constant tweaking and messing about and now I don't even clean the bed more than every 50 hours or more!. Press go, walk away, if the design is reasonable, it will be fine. I'm even on the original PEI build plate. I did send it in for a service a few years ago as the bed element died and spent an extra £30-40 on upgraded cable tracks, new extruder body with improved filament track for flexible materials etc. it has EEPROMs in the reels and every aspect is fully preprogrammed, plug in the filament, feed it into the hole till it detects it and off it goes. I should note though that you can create your own profiles for the slicer and CEL include the tool to rewrite customised EEPROMs on the spools and you can even just select the material manually from a library if you don't have a genuine spool, it's by no means locked down, tweak away if you want..... but they've already done the work for you! The original needle valves seal arrangement was garbage but they were quick to revise the design and supply it as a warranty replacement. I'm still on my first rev2 print head and have another spare, becuase on the original heads I used to have to keep one in hand so I could keep printing when the other was being serviced under warranty! They were SO FAR ahead of the time it's crazy. I've just pulled the trigger on the founders edition of the AnyCubic Kobra S1 combo, for no other reason than I want a faster multi material printer that's "next gen" I'm looking forward to it, but I don't expect it to beat the Cel for ease of use or reliability. Sadly Cel went bust, I think last year. To far ahead of thier time, and thier build volume just wasnt in keeping with new machines.
ive had a p1s for a couple of months and it has been so easy to print, change filiment, and and using the ams is amazing not for colorchanging but to keep multiple different filiment types ready to go in one click
I keep telling myself I don't need one, but it does sound convenient. I also only print in one color. The thing that really keeps stopping me is that it doesn't have any trouble resuming a print after running out even if it's been hours at least in my experience so far. Does a good job keeping the plate warm and picking up where it left off.
@@Nilboggen P1s is better than X1 for a hobbyist. Cheaper, almost all the same features, MUCH easier tor tear down and rebuild. Much easier. Almost never jams if you know what you are doing with the settings.
And now how much do you want to "eventually" have to pay to run you own shop Or it might just be a fine convenience fee your great with ... when they lock the software in the lines of apple or John Deere , so up to you.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the recent software changes being introduced by Bambu Lab to lock their printers for use only with Bambu Lab software. Does this change have you reconsidering your reliance on Bambu Lab printers for your print farm?
@@Gameknighth I'm asking him because I respect his opinion. I think he has more insight than anyone, including you, on how this change affects him. It may matter to him, or it may not, I don't know. I do know that you don't speak for him.
First it was just a comment not an attack. 2 I do run bambulabs for my business and have over 8k hours on one so I have experience that enables me to have experience to pull from I never implied I speak for him at all I was just telling you the facts not trying to cause an argument.
Thanks for the great insight! I've followed you for about a year, and your videos played a key role in my choice of the P1S, of which I currently run two. Regarding microSD cards: The issue is the NAND types used. 4 main types exist: Single Layer Cell (SLC), Multi Layer Cell (MLC), Triple Layer Cell (TLC) and Quad Layer Cell (QLC). SLC is the fastest with the highest endurance. 100,000 rewrites per cell before failure. It's also the most expensive to produce, and the cost is especially high if you go for a higher capacity. MLC is fairly fast and features 10,000 rewrites per cell before failure. Most endurance rated cards nowadays feature MLC NAND. TLC is becoming the standard choice nowadays, but features only 5,000 rewrites per cell. While this may sound like a lot, remember that the card is used for caching. QLC is the budget choice, offering high capacities at a low cost. It features only 3,000 rewrites per cell. And here's why I prefer SanDisk Extreme cards over all others: SanDisk Extreme cards use MLC NAND with a SLC buffer. This makes them VERY durable and they're superior to anything else I've tried. As a photographer, I also use Sandisk Extreme cards in my cameras, and here they've performed admirably without any of them failing. Ever. And the oldest are very old now, and have been fully written and erased more than 2,000 times each. Since when on set I often delete images or videos, multiply that by 3. So at least 6,000 times. And thus we see that QLC would have failed by now with a pure TLC being on the ropes. What you describe sounds exactly like NAND cells dying and the controller failing to remap data because there's nowhere to remap to, as too many cells have already died.
Core One ordered. Prusa has been doing core xy for awhile with their AFS industrial print farm unit. Next BBL printer I’m guessing will be all the features the A1 has but in a core xy format; A1 core xy basically.
this video came a video too late, already tired trying to fix my ender 3 max neo which no one supports, just bought p1s combo coming tomorrow and very excited, your review assured me, thank you very much, more info and tips is appreciated
I just bought an A1 Mini after constant issues with my max neo. That thing is a massive pain in the rear. I've had burned out motor drivers, the abl has literally never worked except for when it was brand new, it's just all around a piece of junk. I keep it out of frustration, pure rage, and a regular to admit I was wrong
I have to agree with all your points on usability and maintanence of the P1Ss. I have a small print farm of 14 P1S and A1s. A couple of P1s have over 7000hrs on them and are just starting to require i bit more work on them to keep them running smooth - the extruder.... Replace stock gears with the hardened steel ones and a clean every now and then. A+ channel you have.
Outstanding and very informative; I especially loved the maintenance part of the video!!! I have a Kickstarter X1C with a little over 2,000 hours on it. I cleaned the carbon fiber rods once and cleaned/greased the lead screws once (I’m way overdue)! I replaced the pfte tube that goes into the print head once when it looked really close to failing. I did have to replace a stripped out yellow gear in the print head (probably from heavy handed troubleshooting filament jamming and retracting problems which have since gone away), but my unit came with a spare. The X1C has been a great printer from day 1 and has gotten better with regular firmware and software upgrades. I’m impatiently waiting for the bigger and better large format printer that is supposed to be coming. Thanks for taking the time to pass on your extensive experience!
I'm a software engineer with 15+ years in the industry. The flash issue is likely to do with write cycles. Flash memory has a limit to how many times it can be written to. A controller chip on the SD card's internal circuit board, which is responsible for managing the cards storage, will count writes, as well as watch for write failures, in each tiny block of storage. Once either a write count or error rate is reached, the block in question will be disabled and the storage capacity of the SD card will drop slightly. This will continue the more the card is used. Over time the flash storage will become slow and store less and less. This is why in the world of embedded devices we avoid flash memory, especially where we need to write data to disk frequently. This is also why cheap devices that use flash storage internally usually only work for a limited life time.
I agree. I've stuck with the SanDisk High Endurance cards and haven't had any issues so far. I don't do many card removals though so not sure if that is a factor in the failures he is seeing. I "send" the print over the network to the microSD and then print from the SD card.
I was very pleasantly surprised around their parts, both price and availability. I've replaced a few hot ends (from way back when) and it's never been easier. The whole assembly replacement is almost a pleasure compared to oldschool LOL. Also the price of the parts is impressive as is a lot of their design language. It took me a while to come around but once I had them in my hands I couldn't believe how much effort they put in. They also rolled it out correctly, high end first, lowest end last. No race to the bottom approach. Even their cheapest bed slingers are so much better built than anything close to their price point.
Just change your plates to bambu super tack. You'll never have problems with bed adhesion again. They will also save you money on power as the plate doesnt need be as hot.
Your previous video on this topic was the reason I went with the Bambu P1S and I couldn't be happier. I went in knowing that there would be failures and issues I would have to troubleshoot but I have felt like there are so few that are not just me setting things up wrong or not knowing the material I am using. I did also run into the issue with the SD card even just after a few months use (I bought mine in October and have been running non stop). I really wish Bambu Lab had something in their firmware that would just throw an error notification in this state and stop the print. Part of my PEI sheet was ruined due to this failure because the nozzle dragged a circle around the printbed, so it has some potential to end badly for others. Thanks for bringing videos like this to people so they can make the right decision on what fits for them.
Thanks for making this. I just have a few printers and just a hobbyist but good to know any potential issues and also even going 12-24 hours a day on the P1S I can expect pretty consistent performance. Keep up the awesome vids, they're well done, informative and I've learned a lot watching.
I can confirm everything you said. I have P1S on my print farm and I have same experience. One thing I have changed is hotend. For cheese nozzle swapable one. It costs $6-8 on Aliexpress and hardened nozzle costs $2. This hotend is not perfect it can have heatcreap if used with PLA or PETG. But it's perfect for ABS, ASA and PA. I print ONLY glas/carbon fiber reinforced ABS and PA materials and I need to change hardened nozzle every 8-10kg of material. Standard stainless nozzle lasts half of the spool. Love your content 👍 good job.
@@davecoates2308them going full corpo and locking down their printers under the excuse of "security" (gaslighting). They "paused" due to backlash, but trust is extremely low now.
@@davecoates2308 They are pushing updates that will force always online cloud connectivity, they've backtracked a little so I'm not sure where they stand now but the gist of it was that your printer would need to connect to the internet at least once a year in order to print anything, even on LAN mode.
@@davecoates2308search term bambu firmware Louis rossman he has 3 video on the topic in the same time frame first and the third is a must watch after that you can watch different sources if you need more perspective but in my opinion all the videos I watch he was the most straight forward and right on point.
High endurance SD cards needed, it's likely a wear problem. Also, doublecheck you haven't enabled "restart/correct after step failure" option (or whatever it's called), restart after power failure options and any form of timelapse videos as all of these require continuously writing to the SD card to enable their function, drastically increasing number of write cycles and wearing them out quicker.
TOP content as usual tyvm :) God a still remember all the arguments in the comments of the first X1C reviews... We had had our unit for a few weeks by then and instantly knew this was the new way forward for us as a older couple running a smaller farm. Our 1st X1C now has 8k hours and the other 10 are catching fast. It's going to have to be one hell of a product next to make us change.....
One thing that is worth thinking about here is that this is for reliability in a print farm environment where they mainly are run in a consistent way by people that know what they are doing. I am running a makerspace, and in these shared environment where the machines are being handled by a lot of different people, printers wear in a totally different way and generally need a lot more repairs.
I bought my first 3d printer, a delta, in 2016. I've had numerous 3d printers since then but none as good as my new P1S. What a fantastic machine. The print quality is phenomenal. There was a time when I thought print quality this good could only come off of a resin printer. It's that good. I only have a few gripes- there isn't enough light in the chamber. I added an LED light kit from TH3D- a great plug-and-play kit, and that issue is fixed. The only other issue I've thus far experienced is getting the AMS to actually recognize, and remember third party filaments. I can't get the ? to go away on the AMS slots on the device panel no matter what I do, though I can print with them. Waiting on some more Bambu Lab filaments to come. I had no idea they had RFID tags in their spools, and no idea how much I would come to enjoy the feature. It takes all of the thinking out of printing.
Summary of the Video about Bamboo Lab vs Prusa 3D Printers This video compares two popular 3D printer brands: Prusa and Bamboo Lab. The speaker has been running a year-long experiment with a fleet of Bamboo Lab printers to see if they are a better option for his 3D printing farm compared to his previous Prusa printers. Key Points: Replaced 40 Prusa printers with Bamboo Lab: The speaker finds Bamboo Lab printers to be a better fit for his needs, leading him to replace his entire Prusa farm. 100,000+ Combined Print Hours: The Bamboo Lab printers have run for a combined total of over 100,000 hours without major issues. Debunking Common Concerns: The video addresses common concerns about Bamboo Lab printers, such as lack of spare parts, new company worries, and carbon rod fragility. Most Common Failures: The most common failures experienced were: Print bed adhesion issues (mostly user error) Printer crashes due to lack of collision detection Occasional Z-offset calibration failures during startup A few extruder gear malfunctions (easy to replace) Software bugs (mainly corrupted SD cards and occasional freezes) Lower Failure Rates than Prusa: The speaker suggests he experienced fewer failures with Bamboo Lab compared to his previous Prusa printers. Ideal for Businesses: The "set and forget" nature of Bamboo Lab printers is seen as an advantage for production environments. Not Perfect: The video acknowledges some software bugs and limitations with the touchscreen interface. Overall, the video suggests that Bamboo Lab printers might be a good option for users who prioritize reliability, speed, and ease of use in a production setting. However, the potential for software bugs and a less intuitive interface are mentioned as drawbacks.
OK, combined hours. I was prepared to rip you a new hole for making false claims about running a Bambu printer for 100,000 hours, since the company has not existed for 50,000 hours yet, being started in 2020. Combining all of the hours of multiple printed can conceivably be 100,000, but that is not as informative as if the hours were from one printer. That will tell you about durability and expected lifespan. Adding the hours of runtime from multiple printer doesn't really provide any useful data except perhaps the percentage of defects within a time frame. But at least the title is not a lie, even if it is missing an important detail.
@@diogor420 The original version had a trans joke that didn't add anything to the video, wasn't all that funny, and would likely have gotten him cancelled. Tbh, I shut off the video the first time when the joke hit (like 1.5 minutes in). I didn't say anything in the comments or anything, because I'm not that guy. I just quietly disappear. When I saw the video was re-upped I checked in just to see if that was the reason and I'm glad it was.
Positively reinforcing corrective action is dah way, your right to state your positive reaction to it as it encourages the change you want. Kuddos @@AlmightySimian
15:32 (micro)SD cards are using the bottom of the barrel for their flash chips, microSD even more so. So going bad is... expected. Especially if using no-name bulk-purchased ones. Extremely well-known in sd-card using communities, be it photography or raspberry pi. Get some good brand name cards and try with those, or get the cheapest and be ready for swaps.
I copy that. I was responsible for a big test factory for embedded electronics. A lot firmware flashes with SD cards involved. On a big scale, this errors happens, buy quality brand card (but not fancy extreme one). Due to many read write processes and also mechanical impact on the card itself, during the swap.
honest, sincere, on the ground feedback. thank you. the SD card issue is most likely due to the SD card failing itself than the the printers fault, SD card have a finite lifespan as well. would be interesting to see if "high quality" SD cards mitigate the issue.
Power Loss Recovery absolutely "Hammers" the sectors in the SD cards, I turned that off many MANY years ago and had NO failed SD cards since. If you absolutely need it, find yourself a quality USB drive and make sure it has a controller chip on it. That controller chip is there to help it run faster and checks sector integrity like a SSD or Hard Drive would. Meaning it will retire sectors that are being hammered If you have no other option other than SD cards, then sector maintenance can also be done with software using Check Disk in Windows for example. It will scan the drive and any sector that takes too long to read is removed from the file system. Meaning it will avoid writing to that sector.
I only have one Bambu printer but I can confirm the firmware stability issues. The thing crashed multiple times within the first month, while my Prusa Mini didn't have a single firmware-based issue in almost 5 years. That said they're still good value for the price.
How's the print quality on your mini? I'm having a lot of issues printing pla on it now, (5y old) and I'm not getting the best quality. I did. Swap to an e3d nozzle x, hmm and maybe it's after the input shaper update
Bambu may be bigger now, but it doesn't take away every concern about cloud dependency. They can declare end-of-life whenever they want, or sell to another firm that doesn't share their priorities around product support, privacy, security, and safety. The concern definitely less now (and probably enough for most people), but I think should be noted.
I print almost exclusively PETG and I have 2600 hours on my x1c. I just replaced my filament cutter for the first time yesterday...it was still sharp. I also have never cleaned my y and z axis rods, never cleaned the dust out of the extruder gears (I also should probably do that), Never had my nozzle wiper break, never had any problems with my PTFE tubes, my PEI sheet still works great and my prints cover nearly the whole surface and I keep printing over the same area again and again with no issues at all. BUT! I di have a mainboard go bad on me about 4 months in. They were good about responding and sent me a replacement. Needless to say, I'm a satisfied customer. I also cant believe how reasonable the cost of replacement parts are.
For the SD card issue, if you use the windows utility Diskpart you can save it. Commands in CMD prompt are. Diskpart List Disk Select Disk (Disk number) Clean Then you can format it from the Disk Management utility.
This is excellent! Thank you for the time put into this video. I think I'll bypass the MicroCenter extended warranty for the A1 and just purchase any parts which may fail since it seems to be straight forward and an infrequent issue.
They juste pushed an update that Will automatically update your printer even if you don't want to. Some people are scared that they will become subscription based. (There is more to it than that but i forgot what)
@@idk_whattoputthere they added a middle man software you have to install called Bambu connect, that prevents 3rd party slicers and devices (e.g. BTT panda touch, orca slicer, etc.) from controlling the printer (directly sending Gcode, homing, moving axes, heating bed/hotend, controlling fans, etc.) this essentially ensures you only use their suite of products and software. This is a big deal because nobody knows how far they could take this (pay to print subscriptions, restricting compatibility with 3rd party components and materials, reducing quality for old machines to effectively make them obsolete so you buy new printers, serializing components, etc.) they basically want to become the apple of 3D printing
I'm considering getting into 3D printing next year, and my friends who have printers always rave about the Bambu line. I'm going to start small, but I've seen so many videos and heard personal endorsements for Bambu that I'm definitely going with them.
Us true nerds don't hate Bambu. Heck I recommend them sometimes. It really depends on use case, I think the question about what you intended to do with any tool leads the conversation about what is the best tool for the job. For me bambu will never be what I want out of a printer. I do want other people to have a love of engineering. I am happy to see so many people digging into CAD and manufacturing something of their own. It does make me more happy when they are willing to be a machine builder though. I don't just build other people's designs, I design my own parts, I test new ideas in 3d printing sometimes. Implementing neural networks to solve complex problems in 3d printing, or alternatives to conventional enclosed printing for high temperature filament as some examples. A lot of this kind of thing is best left to open source designs where is machine builders have absolute freedom and standardized parts.
I really don't understand why the P1 models have the screen they do. Seems like a downgrade even compared to the A1 models. But I suppose most people are just using the app/software from their phone/computer.
As someone who just got the p1s, I didn’t know this was a concern that people have because I’m always sitting at my computer or watching from my phone. I’m surprised that this is a common concern, but after seeing a farm like this, it makes more sense to me now.
As one of the “Ender Bros” I’m glad we are both on to Bambu. Well done! I run only bambu now and have had some of those problems but mainly the extruder gear needing replaced. Otherwise they are phenomenal!
I dont even own a 3d printer, or have ever done any 3d printing and i watched this video all the way to the end, so Kudos and thanks, and well done! you have a subscriber. (And yes i hope to own one in the future)
Just a brief note about printing with Support material on the Bambu. You *must* pair the main + support filaments based on their optimum printing temperatures (not just their 'chemical' compatibility), probably within about 10-15'C. Otherwise, it can/will jam up inside the head, and it will likely require complete disassembly of the head to remove the gigantic blob that's created when trying to retract the lower-temperature filament. I had chosen a Support material that had a lower temperature, assuming the head would cool down quickly enough. True when switching TO the Support filament, but prior to retracting, the printer heats up the head above 'normal' to try to ensure it gets as much of the filament out of the nozzle, and this softens the filament so much that it just 'slips' on the feed gear. Found a closer-temperature support material, and never had the problem again. Love my Bambu!
What printer do you suggest for people that want to start aiming to print engineering grade filament? I got a degree in material engineering if that matters.
I have dragged my feet on 3d printing. I actually love projects and the tinkering aspect has always been attractive, but for one reason or another i never really got into it. This year however i couldnt delay getting one any longer for our shop. The X1C was the easy choice because in this case i needed a tool, not a project. It has run virtually nonstop since it showed up making various things for our shop and im considering buying another. The "appliance" aspect of it was what finally drew me in. Im glad it did because now i can spend more time making money off the printers rather than screwing around with them. I may buy/build a project printer at some point but only as a hobby and only because i have finally freed up enough time for that sort of thing.
Classic move - showing the MK4 at the beginning to make it look fancier, but then using the MK3 for the actual test. Just stick to what you’re using, no need for the bait and switch. 😄
In his previous video he did buy some Mk4S and even had the test data for it, see the scrappage/output table. I would be interested to see a follow up video if he adds some Prusa Core One to the fleet. I think these print farm videos are way more valuable than the regular youtubers giving an opinion on product reliability which can only ever be anecdotal in relative terms.
A note about the SD cards. I use microSD cards in products I design, and we had a pretty sizeable issue with SD cards dying on us. Many manufacturers have "high endurance" cards. They come at a premium, but they have much greater write endurance. If Bambu is using the cards as cache, you'll always have issues with the cards wearing out, but you can take some steps to get longer life. Using cards that have wear leveling and purchasing larger cards can extend the life, but the best is to purchase a high endurance card. SanDisk's industrial cards also have a "health status register" that can be read with some custom microcontroller code -- not really necessary since you stock extra cards and just replace them when they wear out. Look for SLC NAND cards, and/or cards meant for DVR/Surveilance use. Good luck, and thanks for the review!
Great insight, thank you!
I concur, it seems the most likely cause of the SD cards dying. Using them as cache would wear them out much quicker than reading just the print files. Unless you use high endurance cards, like you said.
Kingston Industrial SD card.
I agree with this but I would try adding a larger capacity sd card first. It needs around 28gb of space for cache so if you put a 128gb or 256gb in there you would have much longer before the corruption makes it so you can't use the card anymore. Also the prices aren't that bad at those sizes. Prints take up barley any space on the card at most a few 100mbs. So I imagine the failure happens when the printer can no longer access enough cache. You still might have the occasional corrupted print file but then reformatting should fix it until you wear out too many sectors of the card.
Corruption is also the likely issue with the printer starting, pausing and then going back to the home screen. I would second the use of high endurance cards, they are normally have 100's of time increased lifetime, so should outlast the printer once in the bottom of the bathtub curve.
Thanks for making this video! We're planning a similar video after switching from 90 MK3s+ to 50 Bambu Labs A1 this year.
Looking forward to that!
woah not the people i expected to see! hopefully the print quality stays as high as it has been 😉
saving time, saving power saving space and increase output which equals to more projects a month and more money.
@@raphaelmonserate1557 the print quality is even better than prusa's. i know lot of people hate to see this but its true. i was a prusa fan too ditched all my prusa's late 2023 early 24. im tired of their products. changing everything is just a pain. i have not time nor do feel like doing it because its so tedious.
The SD card issue is well known amongst RaspberryPI users. Long story short, you're doing everything right EXCEPT getting quality SD cards that can sustain the amount of R/W longer than the cheap cards.
Good to know!
Same with digital photographers. We've realized they will fail, and the cheaper they are the quicker that will happen. Look for ones with good read/write speeds also.
As soon as he said something about caching, I thought of how I recently learned that SSDs have a longevity issue because frequent reading/writing to the drive quickly wears them out.
I had a problem with my ender 3 and the SD card. When it vibrated a certain way the SD card connections could disconnect.
I have a theory that Bambu input shaping might shake the SD card too much so it might become disconnected repeatedly.
Just a thought.
the cards is not dead, you can reformat them with computeradmin. i have done it a lot.
I think a lot of bambus maintenance schedule is for the high wear and tear use case that is the AMS system. More cuts, more movement in ptfe tube, more dust, more wipes etc etc
17:30 i like this guy, not wasting time changing every screw for a stainless button head for no reason, not maintaining things that don't need to be maintained, just operating like a normal person with an actual life should
He’s probably experiencing print quality issues as a result of not maintaining it, but it seems like he’s not doing such precise production anyway.
Been running a Bambulab P1S print farm for the last year although on a smaller scale (4 printers) and have had similar results. I did recently have a couple of heater wire failures around 7000 hours on the printers. A quick swap of the nozzle fixed them though. These printers are so low maintenance compared to the old printers I used to run!
You picked the wrong hobby. 3d printing is an endless series of problems.
This is a great insight into long term viability of Bambu Printers. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this!
Well now bambu labs is gonna watch you and make sure you do not print without their blessing who knows maybe their slicer becomes subscription based since they now have a bigger market share, I will never trust them
Wow! It's nice to know there are still some people left in this world that promote a product for zero remuneration. I see through the many comments that a bunch of Bambu printers are being sold because of you and your efforts, including my next machine! Keep up the great work! The best things in life are free!!!
@shopnation, what are your thoughts on BBL's recent announcement regarding firmware updates that will drive this to be a cloud-only solution? I realize they have walked back a little due to public backlash, but I was hoping to hear your opinion and curious if it affects how you utilize the printers.
I bought a Bambu Lab P1S Combo about 4 months ago, primarily due to your prior videos, and similar reviews from others. I don't regret it one bit. I love everything about the setup.
be interested to know your take on the recent updates to the term of service for Bambulab and how they want to lock things down even more...
Bambulab is the Apple of 3D Printing, close everything off from the enduser and simple updates can break things or pt them behind a paywall.
Thanks for this video. I bought my first P1S last Wednesday, and it blew me away compared to my old CR-10. I went back to Micro Center and bought a second one the next day, and my wife has already green-lit me to buy a third. I don't have a Print Farm yet, but a nice little Print Garden.
Hah! I’ve had the similar experience when I bought my A1 just couple weeks ago. As a first time owner of a Cr-10 smart pro, I feel like Bambu, even with their cheaper model (A1)has trully set a new benchmark for consumer level 3D printers. The ease of use and just reliability of these printers blows me away. It took me about 6 months to get my cr-10 SP to calibrate as well as it can physically be and still it needs some hand holding. The A1 started printing perfect first layers after I plugged it in. Still blows me away 😂
@@kubilayceliker723When I printed my first Benchy, I thought my P1S was going to explode. 1.25 hours to get a great Benchy on my CR-10, 20 mins on the P1S, and it's the best one I've ever printed.
I have two
I’m fairly tech savvy. I got the X1C because honestly I’m kind of tired of working on stuff. I just want it to work. And so far it does. Having to constantly work on things can really take the fun out of the hobby when you have other goals in mind.
Ya same here, i got the x1c as well and have really enjoyed that so far it just works. Glad I didn't end up with yet another endless source of maintenance issues
Im in the same spot. tinkering with printers was fun for the first 5-6 years of this hobby. Im now looking for a workshop appliance not a z-axis offset side quest.
I say it to everyone, bambu if you want printing to be a hobby, voron, crealitt, etc if you want printers to be a hobby
I very much enjoy your videos, man. I love how data driven you are.
Exactly, the data is what makes it so interesting! The Proof is in the data.
Thanks, Joel! 🤚
I'm unsure what hard numbers you're finding in this video. It very much. Seems like this wasn't a planned video and was just kind of a "Well we're here now, we were all curious so we might as well make something out of it" half way through.
Not that I don't dislike that, not that I think it's not valuable, however, I would like to see a year two looking at this from that angle, and maybe a couple of? Prusa One or whatever they call em
@@ShopNationon that note, for how often you're printing things, go with like a 64 GB (or higher) GENUINE Samsung professional SD card.
You won't fill it all the way obviously but that's the point, SSDS and SD cards have what's called wear leveling where they will balance out which cells are written to to not put too much wear on any single cell. It works best with a lot of free space. The pro model SD cards also have higher endurance by default.
Also if you can disable power loss recovery and any other caching stuff I would. (PLR kinda looks messy to me anyway)
You will more than likely find that SD card lifetime increases quite a bit.
@@donovan6320 True, hardly any hard data, all discriptive. Still makes it very informative.
hey bro if you dont want your designs to get stolen by chinese farms just put tiananmen square 1989 in the item descriptions lol
megalol
Omg this needs more likes lol
imagine being so brainwashed you believe this works
@@pyr0bee ok weeb 😂
Cope harder
Travis, what is your opinion of the new bamboo labs terms of service? They’re forcing everything to go through the cloud and through their own slicer, removing any ability to use a third-party slicer.
After about 6K hrs on a X1C, the extruder gears were completely eaten up. At first, intermittent print quality issues and then completely failure which looks like a clogged nozzle. Simple swap of the gears and back to running. I have a mini-farm and the BBL machines (all X1Cs) have really helped with delivering on time if not ahead of schedule.
Your last video is what convinced me to get my bambu p1s about 8 months ago. Haven't regretted it for a second.
Oh the Core One tease at the end…
Prusa sure wasn't shy advertising it as a direct Bamb competitor either :)
Oh yea. Repairability vs throw out ability. Why do i have a feeling the prusa will ve even more reliable tho
I'm a professionnal photographer, and after seeing the brands of micro SD cards you use, I'm 99% convinced that is your issue : get Sandisk or Samsung cards as they are the best, or Lexar, Kingston or Patriot (not as good but okay).
also yes as another comment pointed out, SD cards used in surveillance cameras are a good idea
When it comes to storage, I always get name brand. It’s not worth it to me to save a little on an ssd when I could be sure on the quality. At least more sure.
@@dylandreisbach1986 totally. I don't buy chinese nonames for anythin memory related
I actually avoid Samsung and SanDisk because they're so commonly faked. I like Kingston, PNY and Silicon Power depending on the use case.
@@legoboy-ox2kx you won't have problems if you either buy from Amazon (not just ON Amazon) or a camera shop
If they are actually using the SD card as a r/w cache for the device, would definitely consider getting a high endurance SD card to test to see if you get any more issues. microSD cards vary in quality, especially for write endurance.
I felt compelled to add my experience with Bambu as business printers as well. I'm a super small niche producer and only have two printers, and X1C and a P1S but have been printing with them for about 2 years now nearly non stop.
In the 2 years of using the X1C I've had zero issues! Simple as that nothing else to report it's been phenomenal. Where as my 1 year use of the P1S although not many has had multiple bugs and issues. Most of them random and not consistent. Clogged extruder, broken filament sensor and random bugs that cause prints to occasionally fail. Just the other day my print stopped half way on the P1S. No error code, no false filament run out, no power outage, it just stopped. I've also experienced more print failures due to bed adhesion on the P1S than the X1C as well. All that being said though I've always been able to get the printer back up and running in minimal time. The longest down time was about 3-4 days when I had to order a new filament sensor for the hot end which was super easy to replace. (annoyed it broke to begin with).
Would I buy another P1S, yes due to the fact that it cost half the price of an X1C and gives you 80% of the same performance. But if you can spare the extra money I wholeheartedly believe that the X1C is the better printer over the P1S in more ways than just hardware upgrades. It has been a far more stable and reliable experience than the P1S.
This is a GREAT video! IT gets to the point quickly and the honesty and good editing make it fun to watch. On top of that it's filled with a lot of great experiences. I bought a Bambu Labs X-1C printer myself after my fleet of four Sunlu S8 printers began to have repeated print failures from bed leveling issues and hot end problems. I owned them and operated them nearly continuously 24/7 for pretty much 4 years and maintained them meticulously, but they were a GIANT PAIN in the NECK to manually bed level and the constant failures were making me begin hating my once favorite hobby. I purchase the X-1C solely for the reason of automatic bed leveling and was amazed by the SPEED and reliability of prints. After a year now with the NEW printer, I have scrapped 3 of the 4 Sunlu models and only keep a single older printer around for those really BIG jobs where I need a bigger bed. (The Sunlu print area is 310mmx310mmx400mm and the Bambu Lab is 256mmx256mmx256mm) It's rare that I need the bigger volume, so it's hardly used anymore due to the just sheer pain required to level it. The speed and ease of use, especially when you consider how much better the Bambu Labs slicer is over something like CURA, makes me never want to start up the Sunlu again. They were good printers for their era, but it's like driving an old Model T ford compared to a 2024 Ferrari. The Bambu Labs printer is light years ahead of it. In the past year I can count the number of failed prints on one hand and 3 of them were due to operator error or just laziness on my part by not using a glue stick for a tall print. I did have to replace the entire hotend/nozzle once, but it came with a spare, so it cost me nothing but about 30 seconds of my time. It was a far more laborious process on the old Sunlu to do the same thing. Bottom line the Bambu printers are amazing and this video above really talks to some of the best strengths and weaknesses. I've never experienced a failure with the SD card, but I never print from the card, I always send my jobs from the slicer through my WiFI to the printer. The X-1C also tells you when you need to perform maintenance and prompts you through the screen with how to do it. Greasing the screws takes about 15 seconds and once again the grease packets that came with the printer have been included and cost me nothing extra but time. Overall it's the best single purpose machine I ever bought. The AMS system lets you have 4 spools of any color or type ready to go and the X-1C also warns you before you try and print a PETG print setting with a PLA spool, so you'd never have the problem listed in the video that he seemed to have with the P1 printer. Great video with lots of good info. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
"Ain't No Body Got Time For That" - Perfect
Well, how about the recent bambu changes that don't allow any print farm software?
I bought an A1 thanks to your data driven videos. My first entry into 3D printing and I have loved every minute of it. Even the A1 just works, and I'm in love with the AMS and touch screen on that thing. Came at extra cost but oh soooo nice when finishing up a spool it just starts up the next one. Most of my failures are user error or bed adhesion like you said. Thanks for the follow-up. Been running my A1 for 5 months printing multiple times a week and no major issues to note.
Smirk mode = "ON" I made the correct buying decision. Thanks for recording your experience. Happy printing.
Kryten.... is that you
@@backtoearth1983 Sir, what can I do for you?
CAN'T WAIT FOR THE CORE ONE VIDEO
Thank you so very much for the videos, information and honest opinions. This only solidifies my purchases of the X1C and a P1S as I start on this hobby/journey. Very much looking forward to the upcoming course along with all other videos.
I've had the A1 for about two weeks and have over 200 hours of print time on it so far! Only one print failure to speak of, it's almost uncanny. I upgraded to Bambu after starting with an Entina; the kid-friendly miniature printer. Like a whole new world.
That's a lot of jailbreaks to do though, eh?
I love that you've commented on tweakers who like to setup the machine! I've had my CEL Robox 10 years, it's always been a set and forget, and it got a frosty review becuase it took all the "fun" out of 3D printing! I came from SeemeCNC Delta which was constant tweaking and messing about and now I don't even clean the bed more than every 50 hours or more!. Press go, walk away, if the design is reasonable, it will be fine. I'm even on the original PEI build plate. I did send it in for a service a few years ago as the bed element died and spent an extra £30-40 on upgraded cable tracks, new extruder body with improved filament track for flexible materials etc. it has EEPROMs in the reels and every aspect is fully preprogrammed, plug in the filament, feed it into the hole till it detects it and off it goes. I should note though that you can create your own profiles for the slicer and CEL include the tool to rewrite customised EEPROMs on the spools and you can even just select the material manually from a library if you don't have a genuine spool, it's by no means locked down, tweak away if you want..... but they've already done the work for you! The original needle valves seal arrangement was garbage but they were quick to revise the design and supply it as a warranty replacement. I'm still on my first rev2 print head and have another spare, becuase on the original heads I used to have to keep one in hand so I could keep printing when the other was being serviced under warranty!
They were SO FAR ahead of the time it's crazy. I've just pulled the trigger on the founders edition of the AnyCubic Kobra S1 combo, for no other reason than I want a faster multi material printer that's "next gen" I'm looking forward to it, but I don't expect it to beat the Cel for ease of use or reliability.
Sadly Cel went bust, I think last year. To far ahead of thier time, and thier build volume just wasnt in keeping with new machines.
Yayy new video! I’m so happy to see these! I recently got my own bambu p1s combo and I’m so happy! Soon I’m also starting my own small business 😁
ive had a p1s for a couple of months and it has been so easy to print, change filiment, and and using the ams is amazing not for colorchanging but to keep multiple different filiment types ready to go in one click
I keep telling myself I don't need one, but it does sound convenient. I also only print in one color. The thing that really keeps stopping me is that it doesn't have any trouble resuming a print after running out even if it's been hours at least in my experience so far. Does a good job keeping the plate warm and picking up where it left off.
@@Nilboggen P1s is better than X1 for a hobbyist. Cheaper, almost all the same features, MUCH easier tor tear down and rebuild. Much easier. Almost never jams if you know what you are doing with the settings.
@baronvondorff3955 I'm talking about having the ams vs no ams. But yeah I agree P1S is a great choice.
And now how much do you want to "eventually" have to pay to run you own shop Or it might just be a fine convenience fee your great with ... when they lock the software in the lines of apple or John Deere , so up to you.
Just got Bambu #36-39 delivered. They just work, and I just need to produce. I think you were one of the reasons I went to Bambu's initially. Thanks!!
Would love to hear your thoughts on the recent software changes being introduced by Bambu Lab to lock their printers for use only with Bambu Lab software. Does this change have you reconsidering your reliance on Bambu Lab printers for your print farm?
why would it you can still use orca slicer just use their app to send prints or if you use an sd card then nothing changes
@@Gameknighth I'm asking him because I respect his opinion. I think he has more insight than anyone, including you, on how this change affects him. It may matter to him, or it may not, I don't know. I do know that you don't speak for him.
First it was just a comment not an attack.
2 I do run bambulabs for my business and have over 8k hours on one so I have experience that enables me to have experience to pull from
I never implied I speak for him at all I was just telling you the facts not trying to cause an argument.
@@Gameknighth SD card with 50 printers?
Thanks for the great insight! I've followed you for about a year, and your videos played a key role in my choice of the P1S, of which I currently run two. Regarding microSD cards: The issue is the NAND types used. 4 main types exist: Single Layer Cell (SLC), Multi Layer Cell (MLC), Triple Layer Cell (TLC) and Quad Layer Cell (QLC).
SLC is the fastest with the highest endurance. 100,000 rewrites per cell before failure. It's also the most expensive to produce, and the cost is especially high if you go for a higher capacity.
MLC is fairly fast and features 10,000 rewrites per cell before failure. Most endurance rated cards nowadays feature MLC NAND.
TLC is becoming the standard choice nowadays, but features only 5,000 rewrites per cell. While this may sound like a lot, remember that the card is used for caching.
QLC is the budget choice, offering high capacities at a low cost. It features only 3,000 rewrites per cell.
And here's why I prefer SanDisk Extreme cards over all others: SanDisk Extreme cards use MLC NAND with a SLC buffer. This makes them VERY durable and they're superior to anything else I've tried. As a photographer, I also use Sandisk Extreme cards in my cameras, and here they've performed admirably without any of them failing. Ever. And the oldest are very old now, and have been fully written and erased more than 2,000 times each. Since when on set I often delete images or videos, multiply that by 3. So at least 6,000 times. And thus we see that QLC would have failed by now with a pure TLC being on the ropes.
What you describe sounds exactly like NAND cells dying and the controller failing to remap data because there's nowhere to remap to, as too many cells have already died.
Core One ordered.
Prusa has been doing core xy for awhile with their AFS industrial print farm unit.
Next BBL printer I’m guessing will be all the features the A1 has but in a core xy format; A1 core xy basically.
this video came a video too late, already tired trying to fix my ender 3 max neo which no one supports, just bought p1s combo coming tomorrow and very excited, your review assured me, thank you very much, more info and tips is appreciated
You'll love it. I have 4 bambu printers
@iPrint3D thanks, I just got mine ,set it up and printed with no hassle amazing technology
I just bought an A1 Mini after constant issues with my max neo. That thing is a massive pain in the rear. I've had burned out motor drivers, the abl has literally never worked except for when it was brand new, it's just all around a piece of junk. I keep it out of frustration, pure rage, and a regular to admit I was wrong
I have to agree with all your points on usability and maintanence of the P1Ss. I have a small print farm of 14 P1S and A1s. A couple of P1s have over 7000hrs on them and are just starting to require i bit more work on them to keep them running smooth - the extruder....
Replace stock gears with the hardened steel ones and a clean every now and then.
A+ channel you have.
Outstanding and very informative; I especially loved the maintenance part of the video!!!
I have a Kickstarter X1C with a little over 2,000 hours on it. I cleaned the carbon fiber rods once and cleaned/greased the lead screws once (I’m way overdue)! I replaced the pfte tube that goes into the print head once when it looked really close to failing. I did have to replace a stripped out yellow gear in the print head (probably from heavy handed troubleshooting filament jamming and retracting problems which have since gone away), but my unit came with a spare. The X1C has been a great printer from day 1 and has gotten better with regular firmware and software upgrades. I’m impatiently waiting for the bigger and better large format printer that is supposed to be coming.
Thanks for taking the time to pass on your extensive experience!
I'm a software engineer with 15+ years in the industry. The flash issue is likely to do with write cycles. Flash memory has a limit to how many times it can be written to. A controller chip on the SD card's internal circuit board, which is responsible for managing the cards storage, will count writes, as well as watch for write failures, in each tiny block of storage. Once either a write count or error rate is reached, the block in question will be disabled and the storage capacity of the SD card will drop slightly. This will continue the more the card is used. Over time the flash storage will become slow and store less and less. This is why in the world of embedded devices we avoid flash memory, especially where we need to write data to disk frequently. This is also why cheap devices that use flash storage internally usually only work for a limited life time.
I agree. I've stuck with the SanDisk High Endurance cards and haven't had any issues so far. I don't do many card removals though so not sure if that is a factor in the failures he is seeing. I "send" the print over the network to the microSD and then print from the SD card.
I was very pleasantly surprised around their parts, both price and availability. I've replaced a few hot ends (from way back when) and it's never been easier. The whole assembly replacement is almost a pleasure compared to oldschool LOL. Also the price of the parts is impressive as is a lot of their design language. It took me a while to come around but once I had them in my hands I couldn't believe how much effort they put in. They also rolled it out correctly, high end first, lowest end last. No race to the bottom approach. Even their cheapest bed slingers are so much better built than anything close to their price point.
Just change your plates to bambu super tack. You'll never have problems with bed adhesion again. They will also save you money on power as the plate doesnt need be as hot.
any print surface needs to be cleaned of dust and skin oils
Your previous video on this topic was the reason I went with the Bambu P1S and I couldn't be happier. I went in knowing that there would be failures and issues I would have to troubleshoot but I have felt like there are so few that are not just me setting things up wrong or not knowing the material I am using. I did also run into the issue with the SD card even just after a few months use (I bought mine in October and have been running non stop). I really wish Bambu Lab had something in their firmware that would just throw an error notification in this state and stop the print. Part of my PEI sheet was ruined due to this failure because the nozzle dragged a circle around the printbed, so it has some potential to end badly for others. Thanks for bringing videos like this to people so they can make the right decision on what fits for them.
How did you solve the the problems caused by the new firmwere update ? Did you put the printers in dev mode or installed costum firmwere ?
Thanks for making this. I just have a few printers and just a hobbyist but good to know any potential issues and also even going 12-24 hours a day on the P1S I can expect pretty consistent performance.
Keep up the awesome vids, they're well done, informative and I've learned a lot watching.
Try giving the textured PEI a scrub with a very rough kitchen sponge, restores Adhesion for me.
000 steel wool works great to
@@josefsteiner9401 thanks for sharing
I use dish soap in hot water with a norwex microfiber cloth. Has always restored adhesion for me.
Washing with dish soap regularly works for me
Really?
I figured all these methods would make it worse?
Wat about cleaning it with alcohol?
I can confirm everything you said. I have P1S on my print farm and I have same experience. One thing I have changed is hotend. For cheese nozzle swapable one. It costs $6-8 on Aliexpress and hardened nozzle costs $2. This hotend is not perfect it can have heatcreap if used with PLA or PETG. But it's perfect for ABS, ASA and PA. I print ONLY glas/carbon fiber reinforced ABS and PA materials and I need to change hardened nozzle every 8-10kg of material. Standard stainless nozzle lasts half of the spool. Love your content 👍 good job.
You shouldn't have gone full Bamboo. Check out Louis Rossmann's latest video. I've always been suspicious of this company.
Yeah, we should always be suspicious of anything Chinese. Run for the hills everyone, fear everything.
@@jimyjazz327 Obviously you're clueless about what's going on with Bambu Labs "Terms of Service"
Best recommendation from the algorithm for ages .... a pleasure to thumbs up and subscribe
Do you stil like Bambu after the latest news?
What news?!
@@davecoates2308them going full corpo and locking down their printers under the excuse of "security" (gaslighting). They "paused" due to backlash, but trust is extremely low now.
@@davecoates2308 They are pushing updates that will force always online cloud connectivity, they've backtracked a little so I'm not sure where they stand now but the gist of it was that your printer would need to connect to the internet at least once a year in order to print anything, even on LAN mode.
@@davecoates2308search term bambu firmware Louis rossman he has 3 video on the topic in the same time frame first and the third is a must watch after that you can watch different sources if you need more perspective but in my opinion all the videos I watch he was the most straight forward and right on point.
Love your channel. Keep up the good work
High endurance SD cards needed, it's likely a wear problem. Also, doublecheck you haven't enabled "restart/correct after step failure" option (or whatever it's called), restart after power failure options and any form of timelapse videos as all of these require continuously writing to the SD card to enable their function, drastically increasing number of write cycles and wearing them out quicker.
Thank you for this video and sharing your knowledge. We run a few Bambus at our office and we had exactly the same experiences as you had.
Any update on the course you were working on? I have not seen anything about that for a while.
TOP content as usual tyvm :) God a still remember all the arguments in the comments of the first X1C reviews... We had had our unit for a few weeks by then and instantly knew this was the new way forward for us as a older couple running a smaller farm. Our 1st X1C now has 8k hours and the other 10 are catching fast. It's going to have to be one hell of a product next to make us change.....
One thing that is worth thinking about here is that this is for reliability in a print farm environment where they mainly are run in a consistent way by people that know what they are doing.
I am running a makerspace, and in these shared environment where the machines are being handled by a lot of different people, printers wear in a totally different way and generally need a lot more repairs.
Great video. I feel even better about the Bambu P1S I just purchased. Thanks for your thorough review and sharing your experience!
Just checking to make sure this guy is ok after recent events 😂
I bought my first 3d printer, a delta, in 2016. I've had numerous 3d printers since then but none as good as my new P1S. What a fantastic machine. The print quality is phenomenal. There was a time when I thought print quality this good could only come off of a resin printer. It's that good. I only have a few gripes- there isn't enough light in the chamber. I added an LED light kit from TH3D- a great plug-and-play kit, and that issue is fixed. The only other issue I've thus far experienced is getting the AMS to actually recognize, and remember third party filaments. I can't get the ? to go away on the AMS slots on the device panel no matter what I do, though I can print with them. Waiting on some more Bambu Lab filaments to come. I had no idea they had RFID tags in their spools, and no idea how much I would come to enjoy the feature. It takes all of the thinking out of printing.
This aged like milk
Fym
Summary of the Video about Bamboo Lab vs Prusa 3D Printers
This video compares two popular 3D printer brands: Prusa and Bamboo Lab. The speaker has been running a year-long experiment with a fleet of Bamboo Lab printers to see if they are a better option for his 3D printing farm compared to his previous Prusa printers.
Key Points:
Replaced 40 Prusa printers with Bamboo Lab: The speaker finds Bamboo Lab printers to be a better fit for his needs, leading him to replace his entire Prusa farm.
100,000+ Combined Print Hours: The Bamboo Lab printers have run for a combined total of over 100,000 hours without major issues.
Debunking Common Concerns: The video addresses common concerns about Bamboo Lab printers, such as lack of spare parts, new company worries, and carbon rod fragility.
Most Common Failures: The most common failures experienced were:
Print bed adhesion issues (mostly user error)
Printer crashes due to lack of collision detection
Occasional Z-offset calibration failures during startup
A few extruder gear malfunctions (easy to replace)
Software bugs (mainly corrupted SD cards and occasional freezes)
Lower Failure Rates than Prusa: The speaker suggests he experienced fewer failures with Bamboo Lab compared to his previous Prusa printers.
Ideal for Businesses: The "set and forget" nature of Bamboo Lab printers is seen as an advantage for production environments.
Not Perfect: The video acknowledges some software bugs and limitations with the touchscreen interface.
Overall, the video suggests that Bamboo Lab printers might be a good option for users who prioritize reliability, speed, and ease of use in a production setting. However, the potential for software bugs and a less intuitive interface are mentioned as drawbacks.
Why do you post this?
@@logitech4873to save us the trouble of watching the video
'cause this is a short description for "readers", who dont have time to listen through.
I used to have a lot of SDcard issues until I switched to Sandisk. So far, so good.
OK, combined hours. I was prepared to rip you a new hole for making false claims about running a Bambu printer for 100,000 hours, since the company has not existed for 50,000 hours yet, being started in 2020. Combining all of the hours of multiple printed can conceivably be 100,000, but that is not as informative as if the hours were from one printer. That will tell you about durability and expected lifespan. Adding the hours of runtime from multiple printer doesn't really provide any useful data except perhaps the percentage of defects within a time frame. But at least the title is not a lie, even if it is missing an important detail.
not a farm user but i finally pulled the trigger after watching your academy video a few months back on an x1c and im really happy with it
Genuinely appreciate that you made the edit here, you didn't have to, it shows character to receive feedback and act on it
What happened?
@@diogor420 he removed a rather questionable remark that can be construed to reference trans people.
@@diogor420 The original version had a trans joke that didn't add anything to the video, wasn't all that funny, and would likely have gotten him cancelled. Tbh, I shut off the video the first time when the joke hit (like 1.5 minutes in). I didn't say anything in the comments or anything, because I'm not that guy. I just quietly disappear. When I saw the video was re-upped I checked in just to see if that was the reason and I'm glad it was.
You kind of are that guy by bringing it back up. Respect that he deleted it.
Positively reinforcing corrective action is dah way, your right to state your positive reaction to it as it encourages the change you want. Kuddos @@AlmightySimian
Best video for buyers. Simple and well prepared. Thank you for sharing ❤
15:32 (micro)SD cards are using the bottom of the barrel for their flash chips, microSD even more so. So going bad is... expected. Especially if using no-name bulk-purchased ones. Extremely well-known in sd-card using communities, be it photography or raspberry pi. Get some good brand name cards and try with those, or get the cheapest and be ready for swaps.
Very true. I use quality brand name SD cards within my camera in fear of unexpected failure, luckily they haven't let me down yet.
I copy that. I was responsible for a big test factory for embedded electronics. A lot firmware flashes with SD cards involved. On a big scale, this errors happens, buy quality brand card (but not fancy extreme one). Due to many read write processes and also mechanical impact on the card itself, during the swap.
your "never done that" helped me for stop feeling sorry on my printer... thanks.... but still it will help yes
Now, let’s not forget about the A1 mini and reg A1’s screens 12:16
honest, sincere, on the ground feedback. thank you. the SD card issue is most likely due to the SD card failing itself than the the printers fault, SD card have a finite lifespan as well. would be interesting to see if "high quality" SD cards mitigate the issue.
Power Loss Recovery absolutely "Hammers" the sectors in the SD cards, I turned that off many MANY years ago and had NO failed SD cards since.
If you absolutely need it, find yourself a quality USB drive and make sure it has a controller chip on it. That controller chip is there to help it run faster and checks sector integrity like a SSD or Hard Drive would. Meaning it will retire sectors that are being hammered
If you have no other option other than SD cards, then sector maintenance can also be done with software using Check Disk in Windows for example. It will scan the drive and any sector that takes too long to read is removed from the file system. Meaning it will avoid writing to that sector.
Wow I’ll try that!
I only have one Bambu printer but I can confirm the firmware stability issues. The thing crashed multiple times within the first month, while my Prusa Mini didn't have a single firmware-based issue in almost 5 years. That said they're still good value for the price.
How's the print quality on your mini? I'm having a lot of issues printing pla on it now, (5y old) and I'm not getting the best quality.
I did. Swap to an e3d nozzle x, hmm and maybe it's after the input shaper update
Bambu may be bigger now, but it doesn't take away every concern about cloud dependency. They can declare end-of-life whenever they want, or sell to another firm that doesn't share their priorities around product support, privacy, security, and safety.
The concern definitely less now (and probably enough for most people), but I think should be noted.
but can't you still local print?
@@zachbrown7272 yes
I print almost exclusively PETG and I have 2600 hours on my x1c. I just replaced my filament cutter for the first time yesterday...it was still sharp. I also have never cleaned my y and z axis rods, never cleaned the dust out of the extruder gears (I also should probably do that), Never had my nozzle wiper break, never had any problems with my PTFE tubes, my PEI sheet still works great and my prints cover nearly the whole surface and I keep printing over the same area again and again with no issues at all. BUT! I di have a mainboard go bad on me about 4 months in. They were good about responding and sent me a replacement. Needless to say, I'm a satisfied customer. I also cant believe how reasonable the cost of replacement parts are.
I'm an Engineer, Trust me Br0, no I don't keep data like an Engineer.
Thank you for producing this video. Very, very well done.
I'm actually shocked that you've had no carbon rods go bad. I just assumed that would be a higher wear item than it clearly is 👍
I was a bit surprised too!
For the SD card issue, if you use the windows utility Diskpart you can save it.
Commands in CMD prompt are.
Diskpart
List Disk
Select Disk (Disk number)
Clean
Then you can format it from the Disk Management utility.
Bambu lab released a software update that allows updating from the SD card. So from this version on you should not be stuck in this situation
Very true, I did see that
You already have the best solution to the SD card problem!
An advertisement for Chinese Bambulab sold at an artificially low price, I wonder why.
so youre saying bambu lab is a charity? 😂
This is excellent! Thank you for the time put into this video. I think I'll bypass the MicroCenter extended warranty for the A1 and just purchase any parts which may fail since it seems to be straight forward and an infrequent issue.
This didn't age well.
Why?
They juste pushed an update that Will automatically update your printer even if you don't want to. Some people are scared that they will become subscription based. (There is more to it than that but i forgot what)
@@idk_whattoputthere they added a middle man software you have to install called Bambu connect, that prevents 3rd party slicers and devices (e.g. BTT panda touch, orca slicer, etc.) from controlling the printer (directly sending Gcode, homing, moving axes, heating bed/hotend, controlling fans, etc.) this essentially ensures you only use their suite of products and software. This is a big deal because nobody knows how far they could take this (pay to print subscriptions, restricting compatibility with 3rd party components and materials, reducing quality for old machines to effectively make them obsolete so you buy new printers, serializing components, etc.) they basically want to become the apple of 3D printing
@@idk_whattoputthere they blocked all 3rd party accessories and blocked 3rd party slicers from the cloud services
Curious for thoughts on the recent changes around Bambu Labs printers.
I'm considering getting into 3D printing next year, and my friends who have printers always rave about the Bambu line. I'm going to start small, but I've seen so many videos and heard personal endorsements for Bambu that I'm definitely going with them.
Us true nerds don't hate Bambu. Heck I recommend them sometimes. It really depends on use case, I think the question about what you intended to do with any tool leads the conversation about what is the best tool for the job.
For me bambu will never be what I want out of a printer. I do want other people to have a love of engineering. I am happy to see so many people digging into CAD and manufacturing something of their own. It does make me more happy when they are willing to be a machine builder though. I don't just build other people's designs, I design my own parts, I test new ideas in 3d printing sometimes. Implementing neural networks to solve complex problems in 3d printing, or alternatives to conventional enclosed printing for high temperature filament as some examples. A lot of this kind of thing is best left to open source designs where is machine builders have absolute freedom and standardized parts.
I really don't understand why the P1 models have the screen they do. Seems like a downgrade even compared to the A1 models. But I suppose most people are just using the app/software from their phone/computer.
As someone who just got the p1s, I didn’t know this was a concern that people have because I’m always sitting at my computer or watching from my phone. I’m surprised that this is a common concern, but after seeing a farm like this, it makes more sense to me now.
I only use the screen to watch the progress bar when not working on my PC.
I wold call the A1 a second gen printer, the P1 is an budget version of the X1
Thanks for the honest and useful review.
As one of the “Ender Bros” I’m glad we are both on to Bambu. Well done! I run only bambu now and have had some of those problems but mainly the extruder gear needing replaced. Otherwise they are phenomenal!
Great to hear from a guy who uses them a lot great info and recommendations
As the owner of one of your prusha's, I thank you for your service by providing me one at $155!
I dont even own a 3d printer, or have ever done any 3d printing and i watched this video all the way to the end, so Kudos and thanks, and well done! you have a subscriber. (And yes i hope to own one in the future)
Dude, this review feels kinda off. How much is Bambu Lab paying you?
No sponsored, I say that at the end
@@ShopNation Haha, I was joking... And awesome video. Thanks for this - such a test isn’t something you see every day...
Just a brief note about printing with Support material on the Bambu. You *must* pair the main + support filaments based on their optimum printing temperatures (not just their 'chemical' compatibility), probably within about 10-15'C. Otherwise, it can/will jam up inside the head, and it will likely require complete disassembly of the head to remove the gigantic blob that's created when trying to retract the lower-temperature filament. I had chosen a Support material that had a lower temperature, assuming the head would cool down quickly enough. True when switching TO the Support filament, but prior to retracting, the printer heats up the head above 'normal' to try to ensure it gets as much of the filament out of the nozzle, and this softens the filament so much that it just 'slips' on the feed gear. Found a closer-temperature support material, and never had the problem again. Love my Bambu!
I’m up to 11 Bambu Lab printers. 5 P1S. 5 A1. And 1 X1C. Love them.
What printer do you suggest for people that want to start aiming to print engineering grade filament? I got a degree in material engineering if that matters.
I have dragged my feet on 3d printing. I actually love projects and the tinkering aspect has always been attractive, but for one reason or another i never really got into it.
This year however i couldnt delay getting one any longer for our shop. The X1C was the easy choice because in this case i needed a tool, not a project. It has run virtually nonstop since it showed up making various things for our shop and im considering buying another.
The "appliance" aspect of it was what finally drew me in. Im glad it did because now i can spend more time making money off the printers rather than screwing around with them. I may buy/build a project printer at some point but only as a hobby and only because i have finally freed up enough time for that sort of thing.
Classic move - showing the MK4 at the beginning to make it look fancier, but then using the MK3 for the actual test. Just stick to what you’re using, no need for the bait and switch.
😄
In his previous video he did buy some Mk4S and even had the test data for it, see the scrappage/output table. I would be interested to see a follow up video if he adds some Prusa Core One to the fleet. I think these print farm videos are way more valuable than the regular youtubers giving an opinion on product reliability which can only ever be anecdotal in relative terms.
Yes my original test included 3 Mk4's which I just recently sold off along with the Mk3's
Format your SD card. My Bambu Lab A1 mini sometimes freezes mid print. Formatting the card helps.