3-D Print General - Feeding Printers Filament

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Got around to fixing my Printer a few months ago. Turns out it was because I could not find the right firmware update to install for my CRTouch install. As Creality has several god damn websites about it and name their firmware versions the most cryptic shit ever. So in a last ditch effort I just went down the list with a test print, found something that worked under the Ender 5 category, and saved it.
.....
Couldn't even get a link to creality's official firmware hosting site from anyone.
There's a reason I just rip the config from their github and compile my own Marlin. Admittedly I've never bothered to get the original displays working since I just use Octoprint for everything.

And then they both got a non-Creality controller quickly thereafter.
 
Creality K2 Plus vs Bambu X1C
Thoughts? Opinions?

Most youtubers are afraid to lose sponsorships - very few honest direct comparisons.
I found this:
(K1Max vs P1P)
and this
(K2+ & AMS vs X1C + AMS)

Personally, I would believe a LIDAR evaluation for pressure advance/flow to be superior to a vision evaluation.
 
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Creality K1 Max vs Bambu X1C
Thoughts? Opinions?

Most youtubers are afraid to lose sponsorships - very few honest direct comparisons.
I found this:
(K1Max vs P1P)
and this
(K1Max +AMS vs X1C + AMS)

Personally, I would believe a LIDAR evaluation for pressure advance/flow to be superior to a vision evaluation.
I have a Creality K2 Plus.

Someday I'll get to trying to print. Currently trying to amputate all the Creality garbage so I can actually see the bed camera and convince it to stop trying to phone home. Supposedly there's a toolhead camera to do calibration, no idea how or even if it works.
 
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Creality K2 Plus vs Bambu X1C
Thoughts? Opinions?

Most youtubers are afraid to lose sponsorships - very few honest direct comparisons.
I found this:
(K1Max vs P1P)
and this
(K2+ & AMS vs X1C + AMS)

Personally, I would believe a LIDAR evaluation for pressure advance/flow to be superior to a vision evaluation.
I have a bambu P1S which is largely the same as the X1C minus the LIDAR. It's ran perfectly fine for quiet a while, had to replace the extruder gear and hotend to be hardened steel to handle abrasive materials and i modified it to have a bentobox air filter but those are entirely optional upgrades. I also use an X1C at work and its great.
I'd recommend bambu printers to just about anyone. I'm sure the K2+ is good but between the two I'd chose an X1C.
 
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New Bambu Lab Firmware Update Adds Mandatory Authorization Control System

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/lpFTN

As the owner of an X1C, I am both unsurprised and irritated.

I hope they unfuck this up.
I switched to X1 Plus which seems to have a lot of community support, so I hope for the best. It also seems that the keys have been leaked which are found here. Kudos to Rossman as usual.
so what 3d printer brands are good still?
I still recommend Prusa if you can justify the cost. It's hard to stand by sometimes, given they're still predominantly bedslingers and the product is pricey, but I trust Prusa a whole lot more.

Pasting the excerpt from the Rossman wiki for archival purposes
Bambu Connect is an Electron App with Security through Obscurity principles, hence it is inherently insecure.

To read the main.js for further analysis or extracting the private key stored by Bambu in the app:

  1. Use the MacOs .dmg file, not the exe. Finding the needed decryption code is easier in the .dmg
  2. Extract bambu-connect-beta-darwin-arm64-v1.0.4_4bb9cf0.dmg[1], in there you can find the files of the underlying Electron app in Bambu Connect (Beta).app/Contents/Resources folder
  3. The app uses asarmor to prevent easy reading, the key is stored in ./app.asar.unpacked/.vite/build/main.node and can be extracted. Unpacking app.asar without fixing it first will result in an encrypted main.js file and 100 GB of decoy files generated, don't try it.
  4. Load main.node in Ghidra and Auto-Analyze it. Then search for the GetKey function, or press G and go to 0000b67e[2]
  5. Write down the hex key, for this build it's B0AE6995063C191D2B404637FBC193AE10DAB86A6BC1B1DE67B5AEE6E03018A2
  6. Install the npm package asarfix and use it to fix the archive: npx asarfix app.asar -k B0AE6995063C191D2B404637FBC193AE10DAB86A6BC1B1DE67B5AEE6E03018A2 -o fixed.asar
  7. Now you can extract it in cleartext with npx asar extract fixed.asar src
  8. ./src/.vite/build/main.js is minified, use any JavaScript beautifier to make it better readable. Interesting user code including the private key is at the end of the file.

Extracting certs and private key[edit | edit source]​

The private key and certs are further obfuscated, to get cleartext you need to do: Encrypted string from cy() -> ure(string, key) -> RC4 decryption -> decodeURIComponent() -> final string.

Example Python reimplementation to extract the secrets, easy to run. Copy the content of t from function cy() in main.js and paste it here. After running, you have a private key from Bambu Lab.

import urllib.parse

def cy():
t = [
# copy from main.js
]
return t

def ure(t, e):
# RC4 implementation
r = list(range(256))
n = 0
s = ""

# Key-scheduling algorithm (KSA)
for o in range(256):
n = (n + r[o] + ord(e[o % len(e)])) % 256
r[o], r[n] = r[n], r[o]

# Pseudo-random generation algorithm (PRGA)
o = n = 0
for byte in t:
o = (o + 1) % 256
n = (n + r[o]) % 256
r[o], r[n] = r[n], r[o]
k = r[(r[o] + r[n]) % 256]
s += chr(byte ^ k)

return s

def lt(t, e):
r = cy()
n = t - 106
s = r[n]
s = ure(s, e)
return urllib.parse.unquote(s)

def extract_certs_and_key():
try:
result = {}
result["Are"] = lt(106, "1o9B")
result["fre"] = lt(107, "FT2A")
result["private_key"] = lt(108, "Tlj0")
result["cert"] = lt(109, "NPub")
result["crl"] = lt(110, "x077")
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error extracting certs/key: {e}")

for key, value in result.items():
print(f"{key}:\n{value}\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
extract_certs_and_key()
 
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so what 3d printer brands are good still?
Still?
Were any of them ever good?
I like Creality, not because they're good, but because so far they're pretty easy to hack the hell out of and make them do what you want. And in 3-6 months I should finally get my first print out of my K2+
 
The thing that brought me to BambuLab in the first place is that I have gimpy retard eyes and they seemed to have the best QoL by far which as far as printers are concerned means the best accessibility
I tried an Ender 3 for a while but I just could not handle bed leveling and things like that, just literally can not see well enough to do it properly
Also the X1 taking up less space was a major plus for me

Generally, I find that in exchange for accessibility) you almost always have to give up any expectation of privacy, control and must become totally reliant on some of the worst corporations in the world

Is there any printer at this point that is even close to something like the X1C in terms of QoL, features and overall quality that won't also leave me totally at the whim of some random Chinese company? or am I just sort of screwed?
 
Still?
Were any of them ever good?
I like Creality, not because they're good, but because so far they're pretty easy to hack the hell out of and make them do what you want. And in 3-6 months I should finally get my first print out of my K2+

Agree - with notes.

I learned (and relearned) more from the Creality shit engineering than 10 college courses could teach me.
I have rebuilt almost EVERY system on my Ender 6 (stop making that face, I see you).
All aspects of Creality are indeterminable - until you rebuild it yourself.
My Ender 6 came out of the gate like a champion.
After 300 hours - almost every part had failed or was failing. Even the processor and power supply.
Also - entry was CHEAP. But the repair/upgrades and tranquilizers were EXPENSIVE.

Prusa - just works. But lately - not well enough.
Prusa did not evolve and will be crushed by Bambu.
Mk 4s is $1000, shipping (5 day shipping is typically $80 - $100 for the US). Taxes extra.
Madness for a 1 color bedslinger.
A great printer - runs like an old Subaru. Reliable, effective, dependable. But bland, slow, and far too expensive (purchase and repair).
Their Core One might slow the hemorrhaging of market share - if you can wait until March to use it.
My company USED to own a Prusa print farm (almost 100 machines). They changed in 2024 to Bambu.

Bambu seems like the winner (for now). Their reliability, ease of use, and intellectual property freedoms are all similar to Apple (heh).
But they listen to users and the market, unlike Apple.
I know several users that claim to complete thousands of prints - all with less than a handful of failures.
The technology on the X1 is amazing, yielding the cleanest prints I have ever seen.
Also, their attempts to lockdown hardware and software is being chipped away by their fellow commies and enterprising users.

I was going to buy a Bambu in 2024 - but I decided to wait a year. Rumors of another Bambu model.
 
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Rossman put out a follow-up video.

If you're getting into the BL ecosystem, this is what you're getting into bed with.

Screenshot_2025-01-21-14-31-35-639_com.reddit.frontpage-edit.jpg

Enjoy. They will keep pushing this.
 
I still find this cloud fascination concerning. So, someone randomly hacks your account, tells your printer to set all heaters to the max temp and print a solid cube of material. If they do it at night then the chances of you noticing before likely the whole printer is ruined is very low.

Better still if they can force a firmware update with no safeties and can just let the heaters go full throttle.

At least when someone hacks my Chinese Cameras(which also aren't cloud connected) the best they can do is see my driveway.

And I'm continuing trying to get the K2Plus working behind the great firewall of my house. The default webcam feed is WebRTC which requires all sorts of ports opened etc. So I'm working on getting mjpg-streamer to work instead which just needs http.
 
I'm planning making a jump from an Ender 3 V2 Neo to a K1 Max, is the K1 Max worth it or should I look into other printers?
 
mjpg-streamer
Turns out the best solution is the k2-improvements script. But they have it disabled. But you can use it to add "Entware" as a package source then install mjpg-streamer. Then to start it simply kill all the Creality crap opening /dev/video0 and start it up.

I'm planning making a jump from an Ender 3 V2 Neo to a K1 Max, is the K1 Max worth it or should I look into other printers?
As with anything the question is "what is the problem you are trying to solve" I suspect 3rd party support is better on the K1 than the K2 since it's too new, but you'll have a ton of maybe working, maybe not, Creality 'features'. And it will at least have good not-Creality slicer support. So, like all Creality it's gonna be semi-DIY.

I'd probably recommend it over the fully proprietary Bambu, but I have no idea what else is out there.
 
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Turns out the best solution is the k2-improvements script. But they have it disabled. But you can use it to add "Entware" as a package source then install mjpg-streamer. Then to start it simply kill all the Creality crap opening /dev/video0 and start it up.


As with anything the question is "what is the problem you are trying to solve" I suspect 3rd party support is better on the K1 than the K2 since it's too new, but you'll have a ton of maybe working, maybe not, Creality 'features'. And it will at least have good not-Creality slicer support. So, like all Creality it's gonna be semi-DIY.

I'd probably recommend it over the fully proprietary Bambu, but I have no idea what else is out there.

I was fully in the Creality camp for 1 reason: price.
The K2 kinda nullifies that benefit. Lots of features, but with a Bambu price tag. And now that the Xmas sponsor payoffs have dried up, I don't see any more glowing 'reviews'.
But I still see the Bambu being used in build videos.

Bambu is proprietary - and that is bullshit. I was a member of the RepRap community since the 'old days'.
But please entertain my 'whataboutism' for a sec... So is every other manufacturer.
Stratasys (Makerbot) are the worst. Literally mining a community for inspiration and engineering - then patenting everything.
Hell, Stratasys will even sue you for using the term 'FDM' (it's their copyright).
Prusa is struggling with their open source style - due to Bambu raping anything worse raping in their designs. And then selling it for 1/5th of Prusa.

Punchline? I don't know. I would say it's like cell phones. There is no 'good' cell phone. All are made with child-slave labor. All are made from exploitation of labor for assembly and raw materials.
There is no 'moral' 3d printer. 'Fairness' has no place in business. Prusa will either die, or slam that Open Source door closed.
So, if you are going to buy, might as well get the best value for your money.

My opinion: The Ender 3 is an incredible value. The K2, not so much. Bambu seems like a good value, Prusa not so much.
YMMV
 
It's ALIVE...

2025-02-02_10-48.png
I got mjpg-streamer to work instead of the wonky WebRTC crap. Disabled all that stuff in the printer and installed the mjpg package from a repo called "Entware" from the k2-improvements github.

And now I can see what it's doing before it catches fire. Next up, try to print a cube.
 
I bought a PETG Carbon Fiber filament, I heard that there are some health issues with CF filaments. Should I add to my printer a fume extractor or the danger with these filaments is if I decide to sand my 3d prints?
 
Recently got the cheapest klipper 3D printer called the Kingroon KP3S V2 because I need to make parts on the go. For under 200usd let's see how good or bad it is.
 
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