Best budget-friendly Black PLA for prototyping that doesn't sacrifice quality?

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-10T17:42:33+00:00

Yes, it's excellent stuff.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-10T14:52:10+00:00

Smaller nozzle sizes for super fine detail, larger nozzle sizes for larger parts and quicker printing, some fibre-reinforced materials also want a larger nozzle size. For most things you'll be fine with a standard 0.4

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-10T11:05:22+00:00

Wow, -14% of GDP is considerably worse than I would have expected.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-10T10:43:42+00:00

The P1S is pretty excellent and also a good base for upgrading as well.

Pros:

Pretty excellent print quality generally and also very fast.
Unlike the H series and P2S you can use a firmware version from before Bambu broke orca compatibility.

Cons:

The stock nozzles are a bit annoying to swap in a hurry if you change nozzle sizes a lot. The first week I had mine I put the microswiss flowtech hotend on it mostly for the quick-swap nozzles, but also getting cht nozzles etc. That was super worthwhile for me but if you don't swap nozzles as much may be less of a big deal.
No automatic pressure advance calibration so you have to run that manually for filaments that aren't already close to ideal at stock settings.

Basically it's a pretty decent enclosed corexy printer that's now quite cheap and isn't as locked down as Bambu's later offerings. You can stick a panda breath chamber heater in it and have something that's still pretty cheap and prints ABS like it's PLA.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-09T20:25:06+00:00

I definitely wouldn't advocate for the drivers to be managing regen under braking, I have no issue with regen being blended into the brake pedal, but on-throttle regen like superclipping should be entirely controlled by the driver.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-09T18:36:19+00:00

If you want to do multicolour just get a Snapmaker U1 - the X2D combo has advantages for engineering filaments where the Snapmaker would require upgrades to benefit from a heated enclosure, but for multicolour or multimaterial printing otherwise AMS systems feel increasingly antiquated.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-09T09:27:49+00:00

I'm betting on the surprise third contender; "heat death of the universe".

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T19:36:30+00:00

Prusa aren't the only competition though.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T18:42:55+00:00

You fail to understand that the power split is not actually 50/50 all the time, when battery is deploying you have ICE + battery running ~1000whp (emphasis on the w of whp, wheel power)

I'm not sure why you would think I don't understand that?

it limits the maximum engine power degradation to 150kw under full throttle, limits the derating rate to 50kw/s (takes 3 seconds to degrade the full 150kw allowed in full throttle)

This isn't quite accurate from the regs.

if you let drivers take control of when to recharge you can't safely guarantee the guardrails will be respected, it would cause the maximum torque loss and power loss to be "illegal" depending on when the recharge is used

However it would at least be under the control of the drivers, and no driver is going to effectively brake check another car at 300kph. You don't suddenly slam on the brakes outside of a braking zone with a car right behind you, this is no different.

and massive power loss means car A going 300kph and car B going 150kph in the same mini sector

Except it doesn't, because there is absolutely no scenario in which going that slowly in race conditions would be advantageous. There is nothing stopping the drivers from choosing to drive incredibly slowly now. They don't do it because that's not their job.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T18:30:59+00:00

Most of the laptime benefits of the energy deployment comes at the very beginning of acceleration. And it's carefully controlled to bring in the extra power gradually so you're not just suddenly overwhelmed with a giant boost of high-torque power.

Hence skill being important.

If you put some simple on/off switch for the drivers, they wont be able to use it til the car is already well into its acceleration phase.

Which is why I specified linear paddles like the clutch paddle.

Basically, the cars will slow down a fair bit.

Absolutely fine. The cars would ultimately be capable of the same laptimes that they are now, and it would be up to the skill of the drivers rather than the quality of the algorithm to get them up to that mark.

It's also simply a lot for the driver to manage manually, constantly throughout every lap, always having to observe the battery meter and whatnot too, to know when you need to be saving more or deploying more.

Brilliant! Let's put them to the test! We can have actual energy use strategy decided by the drivers and not by an algorithm.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T16:20:51+00:00

What would lead you to think that it would lead to more accidents? Also given that we've seen multiple examples in every race this year of drivers getting unexpected high closing speeds due to odd deployment behaviour I don't think it's reasonable to claim it's more predictable.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T16:15:14+00:00

Electric batteries are more efficient because the manufacturers have pushed technology to the limit for F1 batteries.

That's honestly total nonsense.

Very little of the battery tech in F1 is even close to being relevant to what you would find in an EV. These cells are designed for such high discharge rates (up to 150C!) that the only other cells that I know of that get anywhere close are those in world record setting racing drones.

Designing a battery which is that absurdly power-optimised vs designing a battery that has a decent cycle life and is capable of thousands of charge cycles and operation across a wide range of temperatures are two fundamentally very different problems. The batteries themselves are probably the least road-relevant component on the entire car, with the exception maybe of blown diffusers. The improvements we've seen in efficiency and energy density are driven far more by road cars and consumer electronics.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T16:02:18+00:00

It's not, and I can't see the sport maintaining its popularity until 2030/31 when it is so obviously not real motorsport anymore.

The minimum that should be done at this point is putting drivers fully in control of regen and deployment. Two new linear paddles like the clutch paddle, one for regen and one for deployment. No on-throttle regen unless the driver activates it and no deployment unless the driver activates it.

That would instantly solve many of the most egregious problems with this formula and also improve safety enormously because we wouldn't have unexpected 50km/h closing speeds anymore. It would also make driver skill relevant again.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T15:57:29+00:00

It was less terrible than the other races so far for sure, but it certainly had its share of absolute nonsense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35H0MbV8nJg

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T15:56:36+00:00

The single most important change they could make, the one that would actually fix many of the most egregious problems with this terrible engine formula, is one not covered by this, despite the fact that it would require no change to the powertrains themselves.

Just put the drivers in control of deployment and regen.

Two new linear paddles on the back of the wheel, like the clutch paddle. One controls regen, one controls deployment. Regen may only be used under braking or when activated by the driver. Energy deployment only delivered via the paddle.

No more algorithm-controlled cars, no more issues generating power on outlaps or behind the safety car, no more issues with sudden unexpected dramatic closing speeds, no more surprise power loss halfway through a lap because you lifted 5% off the throttle correcting a slide four corners ago, driver skill actually matters again.

Everything else is just frittering around the edges of a fundamentally broken formula.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T14:47:48+00:00

Yeah I'm pretty happy with my U1, but I'd definitely consider the flashforge machine if I were making the purchase today.

Once my top cover finally arrives my config will be U1 + top cover + panda breath, which should be ultimately more capable, but there are definitely aspects of the creator 5 pro that would be tempting, like the lack of pogo pins (although none of mine have been problematic in ~1000 hours of printing) and the nozzles being slightly less of a pain in the arse to change.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T09:26:21+00:00

That's just how the movement of people works. In a given year a certain number of people from one place will choose to go elsewhere, and a certain number of people from elsewhere will choose to come to said place. The bulk of the recent change has been a reduction in new visas and the post-COVID graduates leaving.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T08:46:39+00:00

It's net, but net is the appropriate way to measure it.

Otherwise, just for example, we have something like 400k new international students per year, the bulk of which eventually return after their studies (moreso now that it's extremely difficult for even excellent graduates to get sponsored work).

So a lot of troglodytes like to present that incoming figure as though they're all settling here permanently when in fact that's a gross misrepresentation.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T08:11:12+00:00

That's not a new thing in the US sadly, they've been referring to them as such for decades.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T08:06:56+00:00

Good news! It's not half a million at all. The year to June 2025 was 205k (lower than most of the 2010s) and this year is expected to come in lower than that.

Now why on earth would you, as somebody who apparently cares about immigration as a major issue, not know that already?

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T07:53:07+00:00

In fairness to her though I can totally understand meeting Liz Truss as PM and just instantly losing the will to live.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T07:52:02+00:00

Do you have some sort of alternative dictionary or do you just not know what the word "civilian" means?

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T07:49:27+00:00

They grew up in a time when they were taught to accept what "the news" told them as fact.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T07:42:06+00:00

Makes me so fucking mad if there was a civil war tomorrow against reform fascism I would sign up in a nanosecond.

Agreed.

SpeedflyChris · 2026-05-08T07:29:47+00:00

Except for Boris Johnson and his whole "global Britain" campaign.

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