Bambu Lab makes the most popular 3D printers in the world, earning a reputation for ease of use, reliability, and great value. But not everyone is in love with the company’s walled garden approach, which involves locking out third-party slicers and a heavy dependence on the cloud.

That’s where Bambuddy comes in, offering a self-hosted offline interface for your Bambu Lab printer.

Why bother with Bambuddy?

Let me preface this by saying that if you’re completely happy with the way your Bambu Lab printer works, you might not be interested in using Bambuddy right now. For all its flaws, Bambu Lab’s cloud infrastructure has given me no reason to complain. Being able to send prints straight to your printer from your phone or check in on the camera feed from anywhere is a big part of the Bambu Lab appeal.

That said, there are some good reasons you might want to ditch Bambu Lab’s systems and go it alone. Chief among them is truly local, offline support for your printer. Bambu Lab has experienced cloud outages in the past that have left users unable to use their printers via the usual channels. Bambuddy removes the reliance on remote servers in the same way that transferring files locally via a USB drive does.

• 

  Build Volume

  180x180x180

  Printing Speed

  500mm/s

  The Bambu Lab A1 mini 3D printer is ready to go out of the box and can have you printing within 30 minutes. Offering full-auto calibration, this compact 3D printer features a 180mm build volume and is compatible with the AMS Lite for multi-color printing. It also features built-in vibration and flow-rate calibration, which are typically features only found on more premium printers.

  
  

• 

  Build Volume

  256x256x256mm

  Printing Speed

  600mm/s

  The Bambu Labs P2S 3D printer is ready to go out of the box and can have you printing within 15 minutes. It features up to 20-color printing with the AMS unit, has an upgraded built-in camera for remote monitoring and time lapses, and has an enclosed body for printing even high-temperature filament.

  
  

There’s also a privacy argument to be made, since every model you pass to your Bambu Lab printer via standard means is sent via the company’s servers. This isn’t a deal-breaker for many users, but it’s something other brands like Prusa are vocal about with their own local control options.

Using Bambuddy also gives you access to some unique features. The software includes a full print archiving system, where models are saved in case you want to repeat the print (or make changes and then print again). You also get access to some powerful automation and scheduling tools, which allow you to schedule prints in advance (perfect for overnight prints and avoiding unwanted noise).

You won’t miss out on features by going local with Bambuddy, either. You can still access the camera feed, see what spools are loaded and how much you have left, and gather statistics about your print history. The software even offers a way to manage 3D printing projects, create virtual printers to share, and allows for printing from anywhere in the world with its proxy mode.

Installing and using Bambuddy is easy

There are multiple ways to install Bambuddy, with the one-line Docker installation being the easiest method. This should work on any computer that has Docker installed, so make sure you install Docker first.

Run the installation script by pasting the following into your computer’s command line:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maziggy/bambuddy/main/install/docker-install.sh -o docker-install.sh && chmod +x docker-install.sh && ./docker-install.sh When I ran this script, I had to change the installation directory to my macOS user directory so that Docker could access the container. I left all other parameters at their default value and chose to build from source (because why not). Once the script finishes, Bambuddy is already up and running.

Next, go to your printer and, using its built-in screen, enable LAN-only mode followed by Developer Mode when the option appears. You might see a scary notice where you’ll have to check a box to accept the risks, but don’t worry too much about this.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

On the same screen, make a note of the access code displayed and your printer’s IP address (I took a photo with my phone). Finally, find and enable “Store sent files on external storage” so that Bambuddy can extract thumbnails from the print jobs you send it. The last thing you’ll need is your printer’s serial number, which you’ll find under Settings > Device and Serial Number.

Finally, it’s time to visit localhost:8000 in your web browser (on the computer you installed Bambuddy on), or your-ip:8000 on any other computer (where your-ip refers to the computer’s local IP address).

You’ll be asked to enable authentication (which mandates that anyone accessing Bambuddy log in first), or you can skip this and move on to adding a printer. Fill out the fields with the information you gathered earlier, and you should see your printer listed and ready to go.

There are some drawbacks to ditching the cloud

While LAN-only mode should “just work” in any slicer that supports local transmission, I had trouble getting my P2S to be recognized in both Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer. I’d go as far as saying that Bambu Studio’s implementation of LAN mode is completely useless, given that even after pairing locally, the slicer attempts to send print jobs via the cloud. A quick web search reveals I’m not the only one who’s peeved about this.

The easiest method I found to print was to slice the file in Bambu Studio and then export it as a GCODE.3MF file. I could then feed this to Bambuddy using the standard upload box, which worked flawlessly.

Of course, the main downside to enabling LAN and Developer mode is that Bambu Lab locks you out of its mobile app entirely. You won’t be able to monitor or send print jobs to the printer using this method anymore. Whether this is worth it to you or not depends on how much you value local control.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

Personally, I’m keeping Bambuddy installed but switching back to online mode for now. By changing a few settings on my printer, cloud or local internet outages will no longer get in the way of my prints.

OctoPrint is another local 3D printing solution, but unlike Bambuddy, it isn’t built specifically for Bambu Lab printers so it’s a bit harder to recommend.