Matt Gerega

Tag: Bambu Studio

  • Spoolman for Filament Management

    “You don’t know what you go ’til it’s gone” is a great song line, but a terrible inventory management approach. As I start to stock up on filament for the 3D printer, it occurred to me that I need a way to track my inventory.

    The Community Comes Through

    I searched around for different filament management solutions and landed on Spoolman. It seemed a pretty solid fit for what I needed. The owner also configured builds for container images, so it was fairly easy to configure a custom chart to run an instance on my internal tools cluster.

    The client UI is pretty easy to use, and the ability to add extra fields to the different modules makes the solution very extensible. I was immediately impressed and started entering information about vendors, filaments, and spools.

    Enhancing the Solution

    Since I am using a Bambu Labs printer and Bambu Studio, I do not have the ability to integrate Bambu into Spoolman to report filament usage. I searched around, but it does not seem that the Bambu reports such usage.

    My current plan for managing filament is by weight the spool when I open it, and then weighing it again after each use. That difference is the amount of filament I have used. But, to calculate the amount remaining, I need to know the weight of an empty spool. Assuming most manufacturers use the same spools, that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out long term.

    Spoolman is not quite set up for that type of usage. Weight and spool weight is set at the filament level and cannot be overridden at the spool level. Most spools will not be exactly 1000g of filament, so the need to track initial weight at the spool level is critical. Additionally, I want to support partial spools, including re-spooling.

    So, using all the Python I have learned recently, I took a crack at updating the API and UI to support this very scenario. In a “do no harm” type of situation, I made sure that I had all the integration tests running correctly, then went about adding the new fields and some of the new default functionality. After I had the updated functionality in place, I added a few new integration test to verify my work.

    Oddly, as I started working it, I found 4 feature requests in that were related to the changes I was suggesting. It took me a few nights, but I generated a pull request for the changes.

    And Now, We Wait…

    With my PR in place, I wait. The beauty of open source is that anyone can contribute, but the owners have the final say. This also means the owners need to respond, and most owners aren’t doing this as a full time job. So sometimes, there isn’t anything to do but wait.

    I’m hopeful that my changes will be accepted, but for now, I’m using Spoolman as-is, and just doing some of the “math” myself. It is definitely helping me keep track of my filament, and I’m keeping an eye on possible integrations with the Bambu ecosystem.

  • A new To(y)ol

    I have wanted to pick up a Bambu Labs P1S for a while now. I saved up enough to finally pull the trigger, and after a few days of use, I could not be more pleased with my decision.

    Why Bambu?

    There are literally dozens of 3D printers out there, and choosing can be difficult. I certainly spent a great deal of time mulling over the various options. But, as with most things, the best advice was from people who use them. Luckily, I have not one, but two resources at my disposal.

    An old colleague of mine, Justin, is usually the first to such things. I typically joke that I usually do the same things that Justin does, I am just usually lagging behind in both time and scale. IE, Justin does it bigger and better. He and I chat frequently, and his input was invaluable. With regard to 3D printers, the one comment he made still resonates:

    I want to design stuff and print it, not tinker endlessly with the printer itself.

    Justin had an Ender (I do not recall the model) for a bit, but never really messed with it too much. After he picked up a P1P, the design and printing started to flow. He had nothing but good things to say about most things Bambu, save, perhaps, the community… We’ll get to that in a minute.

    Additionally, I discussed different printers with the proprietor of Pittsburgh3DPrints.com. He has a number of different brands, and services them all, and he recommended the Bambu as a great first printer, for many of the same reasons. What reasons?

    1. Ease of Use – From “cut box” to print was honestly 15 minutes. The P1S is extremely user-friendly in terms of getting to printing.
    2. Feature Packed – Sure, the price tag for the full P1S combo is a little higher than most printers. But you get, out of box, the ability to print most filaments, including PLA/PETG/ABS/ASA, as well as 4 color multi-color prints.
    3. Expandable – Additional AMS units get you up to 16 color prints.
    4. Ecosystem – Bambu has been really trying to get makerworld.com going, and they have had some success. The makerworld tie-in to Bambu Studio makes printing other’s designs quick and easy.

    First Impressions

    As I mentioned above, unboxing was easy with the included Quick Setup guide and their unboxing video. The first thing I printed was the included model for the scraper handle and holder. I do not recall the exact print time, but it was under an hour, and I had my first print!

    The next two prints were some fidget toys for my kids. I can tell you these took 48 minutes each, as both kids were anxiously waiting every single one of those minutes. One feature the P1S has is the ability to capture time lapse videos for your prints. Here is the one for one of the fidget rings.

    Now, I do laugh, because the running joke with those who own a 3D printer is that you spend most of your time printing stuff for the printer, which is highly meta and also seems like a gimmick to buy more filament. The P1S ejects waste out of the back into, well, thin air. Many folks have designed various waste collection solutions, most affectionately knows as “poop chutes.” I found one that I liked and set about slicing it for printing.

    Oops…

    This is where I ran into a little issue. I tried to start one of the prints (for the bucket) from the Bambu app. Instead of slicing on my PC and sending to the printer, I used the profile published. That, well, failed. For whatever reason, the bed temperature setting was set to 35°C, instead of the 55°C that the Bambu Studio slicer sets.

    I’m not sure if the profile had a cool bed setting or what, but that through off adhesion of the print to the bed, and I ended up with a large mess. I re-started the print from the Bambu Studio, and had no problems. Printing the three pieces of the chute took about 9 hours, which represents my longest print to date.

    Next up?

    I have a few things on my list to print. Most center around some organizational aspects of my office, and looking to use the Gridfinity system to make things neat. My wife asked for a few bases for some signage that she uses for work. This requires some design on my part, so it is a nice challenge for me.

    Both my son and one of our neighbors have expressed some interest in design and printing, so I look forward to passing on some of what I’ve learned to new designers looking to bring their designs to reality.