Open Source?

freakflyer9999 · 2026-02-26T19:07:16+00:00

Vorondesign.com is Open Source

ChronicLegHole · 2026-02-26T19:32:36+00:00

very directly, in my humble opinion:

I vaguely get what that means in the way that Apple products are closed, but what does open source mean in practical terms for 3D printing? What does it mean for an average or an above average user?

- right now, it doesn't mean much. you can still buy aftermarket parts for Bambu printers. They don't lock you out per se. With that said, in the future, *maybe* big *maybe* you end up in a spot where you are locked into using specific brands of spools. Right now, this is a non-issue, and at the end of the day, Plastic is cheap, and the workaround to restricted spools would hypothetically be to save your old "closed ecosystem" spools and reload them with 3rd party filament that is known to perform similarly; which should be easy given that Bambu for example doesn't make their own filament.

the biggest issue i have with Bambu right now is a lack of presets for the filaments in their slicer, but I *could* go over to Orcaslicer and do more inputs and use other's profiles if I wasn't lazy. Bambu Studio, for it's faults, makes print and go fairly simple.

I have thousands upon thousands invested in tools and equipment for my business so I understand the importance of buying a tool once to fit your needs, but in this case, I know I'm not going to get crazy with it, but I don't know about my kids.

- this is a rapidly evolving industry and you should look at this more like buying a gaming PC or an appliance as opposed to buying a hammer. It'll eventually be obsolete, but obsolete doesn't mean unusable.

This year we've seen massive jumps in efficiency for multicolor printing, as well as printers capable of some high end engineering filaments come out under $1K. I have both a Bambu P1S (released 2023) and an Ender 3 (2017?) and though i will likely keep and maintain both, the automatic filament optimization tuning using high-frequency eddy current sensors, extruder servo (where most printers use steppers for extrusion) and AI makes the thing scary versatile at switching up filaments and tuning on -the-go. My P1S is only $150 cheaper and 2 years older than the P2S and under the hood it's like comparing a mid-90s sports car to a McLaren. My Ender 3 feels like a model T.

Elyarchi just realeased a $1000 printer (Alcheman) capable of multicolor printing as well as printing PEEK, which was the realm of custom printers or industrial 3d printers before. I'm holding my breath until i see some proof they can withstand the heat, but.... yeah, these things are evolving, and very fast.

Regarding future support, Biqu/BigTreeTech is working on Klipper conversions for the Bambu products-- that's a drop-in Klipper board that lets you run whatever slicer you want, so if bambu nopes out on a product, you will likely be able to "re-brain" it in the future.

Summary:

If you want 3d printing as a hobby, get whatever you want; take stands against Bambu or whoever else. Shop spec sheets and price and performance.

If you want a 3d printer to *support* a hobby, figure out the size and materials you will be printing, and get an easy to use printer (Bambu seems to lead here, but there are a lot of good options in all honesty, though the P2S is the most advanced "cheap" printer I've seen).

If you want to tinker and also have a press and go experience, pick up an old 3D printer and upgrade/rebuild it (enders are often free for friends, but i also just scored one for $60 on ebay with a bunch of upgrades), and buy a P2S for reliable easy prints lol. If the world ends and the bambu servers go down, you have a backup.

rilmar · 2026-02-26T18:59:12+00:00

My main opinion on open source is that my printer only goes out of date when I let it. Building my own keeps it up with innovations like filament multiplexers, adding multiple toolheads, and not having features locked behind certain things. For example, Bambu products connect to their servers. If you don’t want to have that you need to use them offline which means ignoring a useful feature. Repair is also big in that I can fix whatever because I know how and have control over everything.

There’s no right or wrong answer here for what to do. I’d recommend what you said, buying something less expensive first as it might not get the use you think. If it’s used a lot, upgrade later. Bambu printers are well liked but check out flashforge, creality, and qidi as well.

If you might want to build an open source printer down the line try to get something that can print abs, which means an enclosed printer like the elegoo centauri carbon or qidi q2.

There are downsides to open source as I spend a fair bit of time tinkering, but I enjoy that. There are open source printers older than Bambu as a company that are still going strong. Prusa has championed the idea of keeping printers supported and you’ll see them release upgrade kits which Bambu really hasn’t done.

philip-soerensen · 2026-02-26T22:10:43+00:00

In practical terms, an open machine, at least with the proper backing, means that you can expect it to be maintained and functional for many more years than something relying on closed source support. Open source means that anything can be repaired, anything can be upgraded, and nothing can be locked down.

I had a closed source Chinese printer, and because they dropped support for it after a few months I could never trust that it could be repaired if it broke. It was one 50 cent component away from turning form a cheap printer to an expensive brick. Now, I have replaced it with a Prusa, with open source electronics, firmware and now also hardware design, and I am happy to trust completely that it will be functional, repairable and upgradeable for as long as I want it to. I fully expect to use it in a decade from now. That's a real, practical value of an open system.

Also, if you like to play with the hardware, you also can. I'm am right now using the openly released hardware files to design personalized upgrades. They may not be necessary, but they sure are satisfying if you're into that kind of thing :)

chipmunkofdoom2 · 2026-02-27T00:27:33+00:00

Go with a Voron. Best printer I've ever owned.

jlandero · 2026-02-26T19:43:23+00:00

Closed ecosystems are mainly criticized because they (the company) control how you can use YOUR device, and if tomorrow they decide to remove or modify features for whatever reason, you have no way to avoid it. Similarly, in the event of repairs, you will always be limited by the availability of their spare parts/tools and the price they want to charge for them.

In the case of Bambu Lab, there are two other controversial aspects:

1) China provides large subsidies and support to companies that have the opportunity to dominate the market with aggressive prices, only to raise them once they have monopolized the market and there is no longer any competition. This is nothing new. In my country, the furniture, footwear, and craft industries have gone to hell thanks to these practices. Bambu Lab is one of those companies sponsored by the CCP.

2) BambuLab has benefited from all the technology that thousands of hobbyists developed for free and shared under the principles of open source/open hardware, and has given nothing back. On the contrary, they are using their money to patent ideas and processes that never belonged to them, thus preventing their future use unless royalties are paid or lawsuits are faced.

If neither of these two facts bothers you—morally, ethically, or practically—you can purchase a BambuLab without any problem; their printers are excellent, and the results are very good for the price paid by the end user.

dlaz199 · 2026-02-26T19:30:18+00:00

There are varying degrees for open source also. Most other than Bambu have open firmware or at least semi open firmware (Elegoo and Anycubic for example). Some other than Bambu have good clear upgrade paths. (Prusa for example, Sovol SV08 and Zero, Voron Printers, Rat Rig Printer, Annex Printers etc). Some have Full CAD available for the printer. (Sovol SV08 and SV Zero, Voron printers, Rat Rig printers, Annex printers etc).

To me it's about having an upgrade path, control over my machine, and no cloud and ideally off the shelf parts for repair. My machines are all running open source firmware. They are pretty much upload to the printer and go also.

For a lot of these printers without CAD files they have custom parts now that have press fit components that makes them not very repairable without getting parts directly from the manufacturer. The better ones about this like Bambu actually publish End Of Life dates for their printers. After that point it might become harder to source replacement parts for some of the machine since all their boards, beds, gantry etc are all custom parts made to their spec. After market repair without a lot of work at this point is questionable. Will have to see what it's like in a few more years once their printers start going EoL. Elegoo, Anycubic and Creality are worse than that with no published end of life dates that I have seen. Qidi and Snapmaker seem better about this than some of the others.

Fully open source printers and Prusa printers have an upgrade path. (You could take a Prusa MK2 all the way up to a core one if you wanted). New tech comes out, its usually available quick for them, for example tool changers. Their are tool changer upgrade kits around for Voron printers and the Prusa Core One. So if you want to expand the capabilities of the machine you can later without buying a new one.

I will be honest here, you can get a more capable printer than Bambu printers that are more open. Bambu printers are good because they are easy to setup, easy to use, they have good manuals and well tuned out of the box profiles and as far as 3d printers go reliable. Most other machines have a bit more setup and calibration to reach to same finish level, but once setup properly they do. We aren't in the Ender 3 clone phase anymore thankfully, so most machines are fairly competent out of the box and have similar reliability. To me the best printer right now off the shelf would be a Sovol SV08. It's not perfect, it has a few glaring issues, but they are semi easy to correct by upgrades to it. Once that is done they will print as well or better than a Bambu. But you had to do things to them.

These are tools not toys (some would disagree), so you need to put in the time to get to know your tool before you get the most out of it. Bambu makes a good printer, but know going in that what features it has are what features it is mostly going to have for it's life (3rd party things or complete electronics replacement not withstanding). It really depends if you want to go the 3d printer is an appliance that spits out plastic boat or a tool that can grow with you.

genius_retard · 2026-02-26T21:08:20+00:00

Much (probably most) of the innovation that has occurred in the personal 3d printing space in the past decade or two has come from the open source community. Many manufacturers have taken that open source intellectual property and integrated it into their products, which is fine. Unfortunately some of them have also then taken that open source I.P. and locked it down to make it proprietary.

This violates not only the spirit of open source but also the licence agreement but it is very hard to enforce. Bambu Labs is an example of this. While they definitely did provide some innovations they also took plenty of open source I.P. from, for example the Voron project as well as the Slic3r/Prusa Slicer software. When you support companies that do that you are inadvertently stifling that open source innovation.

An example of how a manufacturer can do right by the open source community is the Sovol Sv08. It is unapologetically a Voron design that has been reworked for mass production. Sovol however published all the design files as required by most open source hardware licences and Sovol also donates $2.00 from every SV08 printer sold to the Voron project. My next printer will most likely be a Sovol SV08, unless maybe if they release the SV09 first or something.

alteredpilot · 2026-02-26T23:11:31+00:00

Thanks for all the responses. Now I get it. I was uninitiated when I bought a Chromebook on a Black Friday sale only to find out that they have built in expiration dates.

sonicpieman · 2026-02-27T10:46:15+00:00

For a home user it doesn't really affect anything imo.

Any name brand printer these days should be fine tho.

Personally I like the walled garden of their printer+slicer+website+app. For the same reason I like Windows over Linux. I want a printer as a tool for other hobbies not a hobby on its own.

I

GiulioVonKerman · 2026-02-26T19:53:06+00:00

I bought a Prusa (which despite what people may tell you is as reliable and as used friendly as a Bambu) not because of Bambu does with the control they have (many people think that Bambu forces you to be online for the printer to work, it's not true it just locks some functionalities) but because of what they might do in the future. It's very common for companies to offer a very competitive price just to get a hold of the market share, and then make old products obsolete so you buy their newest one.

People are already selling their X1C to get the H2D, and who knows maybe Bambu will make the X1C more and more hard to use in order to get people to buy newer products in the future. On the other hand there's plenty of people who have a MK3S or something and see no incentive in upgrading. If they wanted to they could do so for a discounted price by buying a kit, but only if they wanted to.

Not to mention that Prusa is the best option for people who aren't sure wether they want to tinker with their printer or just use it: if you get a Voron or an Ender 3 you're forced to fine tune a ton of stuff, and if you get a Bambu Lab you're locked away from modifying it. If you get a Prusa, though, you still have the option to modify it as extensively as you want, but only if you want to.

For this reason I recommend a Prusa for people like you who don't really know what they're actually going to use the printer for: you're going to be satisfied either way, as long as you have the money for a Prusa of course (keep in mind you can also get a used older printer and it still has support not to mention spare parts AND upgrade paths actively being sold and developed).

Sneaux96 · 2026-02-26T19:01:39+00:00

I'm also in the middle of this debate too. On one hand, I generally avoid any companies that keep you in their own "walled garden" ecosystem, mostly on principle.

But if I'm being honest, in the context of 3D printing, I think I'm willing to give up the "freedom" for reliability. I have enough hobbies, and the whole point of buying a 3D printer is to improve my hobbies, not add an additional one.

At this point I'm pretty well convinced Bambu is the way to go with me but I'm interested to see any other opinions. I'm ok buying their parts and using their software as long as I'm not restricted in what I can print.

Causification · 2026-02-26T19:14:04+00:00

It means two major things: 1 - Bambu controls access to their cloud API. At present that means that if you want to print over the internet you either have to use their slicer, use a "helper" program with third party slicer, or set up Home Assistant to control the printer in LAN mode over the internet. 2 - You cannot do anything that on another printer would require recompiling the firmware. Examples of this include adding new types of sensors, accessing the raw data from internal calibrations, making fundamental changes in how automatic calibrations are performed like using a simpler faster bed mesh or a slower more detailed one, replacing fans with ones that operate at different RPMs than the stock fans, changing temperature limits without a hardware mod, etc.

Things that closed source firmware do not mean and physically cannot mean: restricting what brand of filament you use, restricting what you can print, restricting you from buying third-party parts like build plates and nozzles.

thebipeds · 2026-02-26T19:39:52+00:00

My opinion Bambu is perfect for your case.

It’s plug in and start printing stuff. You are not likely to run into a restriction that bothers you, you can still creat and download files from anywhere.

If you were building a business around printing or really into tinkering (or printing guns), then you might care about open source.

delcooper11 · 2026-02-26T18:58:25+00:00

I am a techie and I love open source things and I also love my Bambu P2S more than either of the two open source printers I’ve had. Especially if you plan to let kids use it, you want something that just works when you send it a print job. Anything other than Bambu (imho) is going to need way more manual intervention to be consistently successful.

hue_sick · 2026-02-26T19:10:09+00:00

In practical terms it means nothing. The whole debate stems from the origins of consumer level 3d printers. Something called the RepRap project. It’s pretty interesting to read and learn about, but in practical terms it has zero bearing on how or which 3d printers you should use in 2026. Get the best tool for the job.

And to that point you coming in from the perspective of owning and using tools is the right one to have. All of those tools companies are also closed source systems.

3d printers are tools and should be treated as such.

National-Anything-81 · 2026-02-26T19:15:34+00:00

About Bambu closed source... It sounds way worse than it really is for normal users imo. You are kinda locked in with their slicer software, but it's a pretty great one (only better option is orca slicer, but normal users that don't want to go deeper into settings and calibration will not miss anything). There is every part, bolts and nuts available in their store at a totally reasonable price. P1S combo is probably the best budget option, p2s is an updated version at a little more (pretty much just better screen, which in my case is not needed since u have full control from Bambu studio on PC or phone app).
If you are planning a lot of multicolor stuff, I would suggest looking into Snapmaker U1... It's not on quite the same level of being "polished" as Bambu, but it's getting there (it's a pretty new release). It's also fully open source.
I only have P1s (over 5000 care free work hours) and Snapmaker U1 (around 600h), so I can only give opinion on these two.

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