cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/opensource/p/1823177/3d-printer-reviewers-being-honest-in-this-industry-will-put-you-out-of-a-job
This is the emails between the YouTuber YGK3D and Anycubic, it seems like they won’t send 3D printers to reviewers who mention their GPL3 license violations.
tl;dr Anycubic uses open-source software for their firmware, but doesn’t make it public as per license agreement, and they don’t seem to be friendly to anyone who calls this out.
More info: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxIMpZTkXqFo0H6pDwhZpdYqMYvLhPvWA5?lc=UgxA-4LYvwrnonXuXsZ4AaABAg
I’m glad to see people going public with these sorts of shenanigans.
The thing about maker communities is that makers generally appreciate the importance and ethics of “not stealing other people’s shit,” and putting companies on blast for it does in this community hurt their bottom line.
And when it hurts their bottom line, that drives action.
Elegoo wouldn’t release their firmware for the Centauri Carbon claiming it was proprietary, until someone proved it was just modified Klipper, and therefore in breach of Klipper’s license. And the community backlash was strong enough that Elegoo were compelled to release it.
So yeah, do the good work and keep making these companies accountable.
Anycubics support has always been trash. There’s whole groups about it. I had a little bedslinger from them, it was sort of ok for what it was, but it was wildly inconsistent day to day, and they pretty much drop any sort of updating or support for their products day 2 after release. I spent a lot of time dialling that thing in, but you’d get something tightened up and dialed up, and then three other issues would rear their head. It was like playing wack a mole. Their idea of support is you have to kiss up to this specific person on their Facebook groups and hope they play along and respond back to you, because they don’t often answer emails and when they do it’s basically just a feedback loop. Then it’s just back and forth. I ain’t got the patience for that stuff anymore.
I only want the higher end stuff now.
Wasn’t following the guy, but I will now. Fewer and fewer people in yt 3D printing space remain that care about the ethics of the companies selling this and more and more are just bambu sponsored.
Bambu sponsorships are a fucking plague.
Sounds like you need Morgan & Morgan
Well, I got Captain for one, but what’s the other Morgan?
I want to get into 3D printing before it’s outlawed and I’ve been gravitating to Bambu because I’m novice enough that marketing works. Where should I be looking? Price is a consideration but not my first.
Strongly suggest not going with Bambu, they have a history of attempting to start a walled garden ecosystem, the only thing that has stopped them thus far is backlash.
Yeah ironically one of the reasons I used an Anycubic, because while they may have issues with FOSS compliance, the firmware I did load on there (Rinkhals) isn’t
It depends on what you want out of the hobby honestly. 30 years later, I just want a printer that works, without fuss. I’ve done the customizations, I’ve done the firmware flashes and attached third party controllers. But I’m a huge fan of my Bambu P2S, because it just works. In over 300 hours I’ve only had 2 failed prints. I haven’t done one iota of really anything to it. Plugged it in, and the things just been chugging away. Lots of parts availability, locally and online (which is huge). Lots of support available locally too.
My previous printer, an Anycubic coincidentally, used to take like 4 or 5 false starts before you could finally get a good first layer.
I get the hate, I get that people want customization and what not. But some people just want shit that works. That’s why I look at Bambu as the McDonalds of 3d printing. It ain’t that healthy for you, it’s a scourge on the planet, but it also tastes kinda good and it’s a guilty pleasure from time to time, right?
Yes theres Prusa and all sorts of other printers that are good too, don’t take this the wrong way. Run your own journey for sure. But I’m running mine too.
Look for a used Prusa.
IMO, toolchangers are the future trend in 3d printing. Snapmaker U1 is the current hype due to being relatively cheap and using open source klipper based firmware. Other than that, Prusa has a toolchanger, I would prefer them over Bambu any day. But me personally, I will either wait till U1 becomes cheaper or wait for a diy OSS solution like Voron with IDX once it comes out. But that definitely shouldn’t be anyone’s first printer.
I think toolchanging is where it’s going to be too. Just want to see what’s out there in a few years after some development. I’m just sticking with AMS right now, because it’s largely foolproof. But that Snapmaker stuff is definitely pretty impressive. Cant wait to see where that goes
It will go the way CNC has gone, tool changers and 6 axis. The only thing holding back the technology to consumers is patents.
Before this I would have suggested Anycubic as second choice. My S1 has been good and the Kobra X is amazing for the price.
The Snapmaker U1 is the current darling of all Youtuber reviewers. It runs Klipper, the opensource firmware. Get one yesterday.
Thank you. Open Source is basically table stakes for any new investment I make moving forward.
Chinese company capitalizing off of foreign socialist structures for profit? Say it ain‘t so!
This comment is more about FOSS than about 3D printing, but if you’re interested in GPL violations, you should know about the court case SFC v. Vizio. If it goes the way the SFC is pushing (and the courts have made a surprising amount of noises suggesting they’re broadly sympathetic to SFC’s arguments), ordinary end users will have a lot more leverage to push companies to honor the terms of the GPL and provide source code as required by the GPL. Every manufacturer of smart TVs, smartphones, game consoles – hell even robot vacuum cleaners, cars, and sex toys – if they include GPL’d code in those TVs, they’re required to provide source code to users on demand. As it is now, companies can (and do) flagrantly violate the “source code provision” requirement in the GPL. But this case could change that.
Anycubic has been an extreme example of how not to be a good company. No software /firmware support, theft, malfunctioning hardware and software, and that’s not even the tip of the iceberg.