this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Upgrading from Bambu Lab A1 Mini (lemmy.radio)
submitted 1 month ago by early_riser@lemmy.radio to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I'm starting to run up against the printer's small build volume. This is my first 3D printer, and I was attracted to the easy out of the box experience. I actually intended to buy the A1, but got its smaller cousin by mistake. I could have sworn I clicked the right button, but everything from the emailed receipt to my order history on the Bambu Lab website says I ordered the mini.

I decided to keep the printer even though I knew I'd eventually outgrow it. I told myself this was my toe in the water for this hobby, and I'd re-evaluate in 6 months to a year whether upgrading to a larger printer would be worth it.

I bought the printer in November, and since then Bambu Lab has begun the enshittification of their products[^1]. If I upgrade, it will have to be to a different brand.

So I like the A1 mini's ease of use and no brainer setup, but don't like its small build volume, the new restrictions placed on it by the manufacturer, and the fact that the printer is not enclosed. A better camera is a nice-to-have but not necessary. Any suggestions for an upgrade?

[^1]: Follow-up question so as not to double-post, IIRC the A1 mini was not included in the initial enshittification rollout earlier this year. I put my printer in LAN mode and blocked outgoing traffic from its IP on my network as a precautionary measure anyway upon hearing the announcement. Have the changes made to the other products trickled down to the mini yet? Can I safely upgrade still or should I keep it isolated?

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[–] wccrawford@discuss.online 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Snapmaker U1 kickstarter is on right now. Watch some videos on how the preview units went and then consider that.

Or the Elegoo Centauri Carbon is getting a ton of recommendations. No multi-color addon yet, but it should be released soon. We have no idea if it'll work well or not, though.

I still love my A1 and A1 Mini and use them a lot. Like you, I've frozen them in time. And I use Orca with them. But I'm not actually afraid to upgrade. I think the "dev mode" will probably be fine, and I actually expect to have to update eventually anyhow. I think Orca will probably eventually update to only use the "dev mode" interface and not work with older firmwares. I can't see them maintaining 2 different ways to connect to a proprietary printer.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.radio 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I forgot about dev mode. How does that compare to pre-enshittified firmware?

[–] wccrawford@discuss.online 2 points 1 month ago

I don't know yet, but I'll have to see if I can find people who will describe it fully before I upgrade my firmware. I'm definitely not looking forward to that.

[–] BarHocker@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago

Or OrcaSlicer decides to stop bothering with locked down, enshittified hardware. Who knows.