Bambu Lab makes good 3D printers — very good 3D printers. There’s a cause that they now dominate the market, in any case. However “simply working” comes at a price and the worth is a largely proprietary ecosystem. There have been many software program and firmware initiatives through the years that opened issues up a bit, however Bambu Lab tends to situation updates that, deliberately or not, make these initiatives much less helpful or altogether ineffective. The issue is that the {hardware} continues to be proprietary, which is why Jón Schone of Correct Printing utterly unproprietarified his Bambu Lab X1C.
Earlier than we go additional, I wish to say that this sort of factor is generally for only for kicks. Most Bambu Lab house owners don’t care concerning the proprietary nature of the printers and people we do care could be higher off merely buying a Prusa or one thing. That mentioned, that is nonetheless spectacular, as a result of Schone managed to interchange all the things proprietary within the X1C with an open supply different.
To check the waters, Schone began with a easy mod: changing the X1C’s scorching finish to just accept E3D V6-style nozzles. That’s genuinely helpful, as a result of it implies that customers can substitute a nozzle with out changing the complete scorching finish. Doing so requires the modification of a knockoff Bambu scorching finish block, drilled out and tapped for the V6 nozzle threads. A hoop heater replaces the everyday cartridge kind. That even made it doable to make use of an enormous 1.8mm Volcano nozzle, which is absurd in the easiest way.
After that, the mission acquired much more difficult. To condense an extended video into one thing shortly digestible, the essential gist is that this: Schone changed virtually the entire digital parts with open options. For instance, he switched the Bambu Lab management board and touchscreen out for a BigTreeTech SKR3 and TFT50.
Schone actually solely saved the mechanical components, just like the body and movement system, and {the electrical}/digital parts that weren’t proprietary, just like the stepper motors and energy provide.
However one difficult exception was the extruder, which has its personal management board that communicates with the first management board through a CAN (Controller Space Community) bus. It may need been doable to reverse-engineer that communication, but it surely merely wasn’t well worth the hassle. As an alternative, Schone changed the complete extruder meeting with an Orbiter v2.0. That’s compact, lifeless easy, and suits properly within the authentic extruder’s location.
With RepRap firmware put in on the BTT SKR3 and configured to match the {hardware}, Schone was in a position to begin testing. There have been some minor hiccups, reminiscent of by chance connecting the extruder motor to the Z axis output, however finally Schone achieved success.
The open Bambu Lab X1C prints nicely and even makes use of options just like the nozzle wiper. And should you’re one of many few individuals on this planet that wishes to transform your personal X1C, Schone’s recordsdata can be found on his web site for the nozzle improve, the controller mod, and the extruder mod.
