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> This is actually a pretty bad argument. Bluetooth only goes 30 feet, so your connection would likewise only go… 30 feet.

I may not have made myself clear with my original argument, I meant to say offline controls are clearly possible. So if offline controls are possible there’s 0 excuses for controls not to be available in LAN-only mode. (LAN-only is wifi connected, cloud disabled)

> All of the things you can control on your smartphone can be controlled on the printer itself, so what’s the point?

It is way easier to tap a button on the app when dealing with hardware issues than using the built in menus (that’s my opinion). But more importantly there is no valid reason to not make them available in LAN-only mode, that was an intentional decision on their part.

> That is, I will just say right now, not how 90%+ of customers would expect an app to work. For most people, a smartphone app that only works at home is confusing and upsetting.

The 3D printing community is pretty technical, so I think anyone disabling cloud mode would be able to understand the consequences. An opt-out (without degrading the experience) is all bambu owners are asking for. And keep in mind 3D printers are a fire hazard so printing while you aren’t home is a risk.

I told you already, it’s called Bambu Studio. It offers remote control, and monitoring, to a locally networked PC.

https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/software/bambu-studio/remote-co...

You just can’t do it from your phone. Which, considering your phone likes connecting to cell phone towers (and thus disconnecting from your printer), I completely get why they didn’t want to bother.

> considering your phone likes connecting to cell phone towers (and thus disconnecting from your printer)

I don't know what kind of weird broken phones you have, but every smart phone I've ever used has had no trouble connecting to things on local networks via wifi even when not in a cell deadzone. Your objection sounds made up to me.

You're missing the point. Instead of focusing on 'Bluetooth', focus on GP's underlying point which was that Bamboo should make it possible to have offline experience which is comparable to the cloud connected experience.

Now to address your original concern about Bluetooth. Bluetooth is not the best fit but Bamboo printers do have WiFi. They can host local web UI which is what pretty much every other product does. It requires will and resources to support offline tooling for users though. It also reduces the probability that the user will subscribe to their cloud services, if any.

Coming to the point of an App only working at home. Well, there are several ways to address this issue WITHOUT requiring a user to use their Cloud offering. A simple way is to EDUCATE your users that the app will only function on local wifi. Average users are smarter than you think. If the user would like their app to work when they're not home, offer them an option to connect to the cloud but do not make it mandatory. Next, the printer can use a combination of UPnP, Dynamic DNS to expose it over the internet. Yes, it is scary to do this but with the right security practices it is possible to expose your printer over the internet so your app can reach it. You don't need their cloud to be the intermediary.

Finally, these printers will likely stop working entirely if the company goes out of business or decides to wind down their 3D printing business or just plain planned obsolescence of specific models. All in all, subscription & online paid services for hardware products is an anti-consumer model.

I am convinced you have no idea what you are talking about.

> Finally, these printers will likely stop working entirely if the company goes out of business or decides to wind down their 3D printing business or just plain planned obsolescence of specific models

They can be set up without internet. They can print from a microSD card without internet. I have a Bambu X1, have never connected it to the internet, and everything works fine. No worse than a Prusa from 2 years ago would have.

Except, even better, I can connect it to a LAN, without internet, and access the camera from my PC using their open-source desktop app. I can’t do it from my phone, but my PC isn’t hopping between networks constantly.

Saying it will die if the company goes bankrupt is pure FUD.

I don’t know if it’s worth addressing the other points considering this level of ignorance. Especially this:

> Next, the printer can use a combination of UPnP, Dynamic DNS to expose it over the internet. Yes, it is scary to do this but with the right security practices it is possible to expose your printer over the internet so your app can reach it. You don't need their cloud to be the intermediary.

This has the reasonability of the now-infamous Hacker News diss when Dropbox was invented.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Also, we are in an IP Address shortage. More internet companies like StarLink are disabling port forwarding because they don’t have enough addresses and the cost per address is currently insane. It might not even be an option for a growing number of people out of technical necessity. In addition, many ISPs, including mine (Xfinity), reserve the right to ban you for running a home server of any kind - Bambu obviously doesn’t view encouraging people to persue activities that could get them banned from their ISP as a viable solution. Even with a warning sticker.

I see no reason why you couldn't run a printer over BT, indeed there are meany BT printers out there.

You're missing the point; Without Cloud connection, how would the Gongfay Kommissariat know what you're printing so they can deduct Sesame Credit?