cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/opensource/p/1823177/3d-printer-reviewers-being-honest-in-this-industry-will-put-you-out-of-a-job
This is the emails between the YouTuber YGK3D and Anycubic, it seems like they won’t send 3D printers to reviewers who mention their GPL3 license violations.
tl;dr Anycubic uses open-source software for their firmware, but doesn’t make it public as per license agreement, and they don’t seem to be friendly to anyone who calls this out.
More info: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxIMpZTkXqFo0H6pDwhZpdYqMYvLhPvWA5?lc=UgxA-4LYvwrnonXuXsZ4AaABAg
IMO, toolchangers are the future trend in 3d printing. Snapmaker U1 is the current hype due to being relatively cheap and using open source klipper based firmware. Other than that, Prusa has a toolchanger, I would prefer them over Bambu any day. But me personally, I will either wait till U1 becomes cheaper or wait for a diy OSS solution like Voron with IDX once it comes out. But that definitely shouldn’t be anyone’s first printer.
I think toolchanging is where it’s going to be too. Just want to see what’s out there in a few years after some development. I’m just sticking with AMS right now, because it’s largely foolproof. But that Snapmaker stuff is definitely pretty impressive. Cant wait to see where that goes
It will go the way CNC has gone, tool changers and 6 axis. The only thing holding back the technology to consumers is patents.
The new bondtech indx is really interesting, all the active electronics are in the main tool head, so it’s more in line with how typical cnc tool changes work and should be less expensive compared to other extant tool changing options.
Prusa just licensed the indx for their new toolchanger, but there are going to be kits for a variety of common platforms.