BTT Panda Touch - Convenient and Powerful, but with potential future issues

[@jayfc3]

Can't understand the comments about it becoming useless. BTT has stated they will monitor the firmware for intrupts, Bambu has said they were working on API for accessories if the firmware does block MQTT. There are more than one product that works on MQTT. Light control and X-touch comes to mind. Do people realise that X-touch would be useless as well? I've tried X-touch and found it buggy and limiting. Great effort for an open source solution. Panda touch is more polished, has more features, and is easy to use. I prefer mine over my X-touch.

[@mrfoameruk]

If iit wasn't for the compatibility problem I would buy it in a second. It's well-made, well finished and a fully polished product. I thank BTT for making it and hope they do well.

[@TheDepep1]

You realize that BTT and bambu both stated that there will be an api so it will never become a brick

[@I_Do_Not_Know_What_I_am_Doing]

Please continue with this topic.

[@TheDepep1]

I cant wait for the BTT panda lux. I want to upgrade my lighting so bad but im waiting to see thenlux in action first.

[@fluppir]

Thanks for your videos!

[@alexey_sychev]

Mine arrived exactly today ;)

[@danward48]

I received mine today. Installation was as easy as depicted in this video, although I was not aware of the scan network feature and input the data for my 4 printers manually. Only time will tell if I find the unit useful as I thought the P1 interface was clunky but functional. For $49 (BTT gave a $10 refund to everyone for the early bird price mix up) I thought it was worth a look. So far it's working as advertised and looks really nice.

[@ottersmeep25]

Nice to see you got yours! I'm going to wait for XTouch 5 inch but this looks like a good alternative, I'm just broke

[@penspencils5564]

Almost skipped this video as I don’t have a Bambu printer. Glad I watched it though. I’ll try the klipper touch if/when it comes out. Been running a CYD klipper display and I like it but it is definitely lacking and I trust BTT to bring enhancements faster than the CYD klipper dude.

[@loquacious1956]

I have ordered my panda touch!!! I have also opted for a bed and cable replacement for my A1. I have continued using mine as my cable has no problems and the printer is powered through an RCD circuit. I monitor the cable both before and after prints and even while printing .. no heat issues in the cable what-so-ever.

[@paul_devo]

Very informative!! 👍🏻

[@mattlberge]

A unit that could run both my klipper and bambu printers would be huge. If that comes to pass I'll be picking one up.

[@Andre_M_3D]

From what BTT said they will be coming out with the BTT klipper touch around April. And the Panda touch can also be flashed with the same firmware. I have a new panda touch in the box as I did not bother to get a bambu and decided to keep the Panda touch. I have several klipper printers so once they do come out with the software it will work nicely. So fingers crossed 🤞

[@TeachingTech]

I agree that would be great.

[@Nukle0n]

Maybe it's an aussie thing but bolts are fasteners where you grab around the head to fasten them, screws have a drive where you insert a driver to fasten them. Tho I've seen people confuse bolts and machine screws. Machine screws go into threads, vs self tapping screws that cut their own threads. You can also have machine bolts and self tapping bolts.

[@alexshepherd]

Yes; in Australia/NZ, bolts have machined threads, screws are usually self-tapping, like wood screws or roofing screws. An M3 screw is a 3mm screw with a coarse thread that goes into plastic. Historically, M- prefix indicated a machined metric thread but that’s no longer true. An M3 bolt has a nut or goes into a thread cut into metal. So the terminology used in the video was useful to indicate a relatively strong fixing to the metal bracket

[@Optikification]

After watching your video i ordered one as my P1S screen is terrible. I normally walk around with my ipad when doing things on my printer as the screen is bigger ;-) The Panda will be handy.

[@MrHans-iy5lq]

I already got my Panda touch, it was avalible on 3djake in europe tho as i see they are out of them now only getting more in march. I dont know how good it is yet as im still waiting for my p1s combo to arrive :D

[@inventiontalk5412]

Thanks!

[@NoMoreBsPlease]

My issue with the recall is EVERY machine with moving parts with wires have this issue. Even with "proper" wire management, it's impossible to remove the repetitive strain on the wire. You can move it, but most companies use a hard mount instead of flexible, leading to just moving the stain point to the end of the plastic part that ends up not working. If it moves, the wires are eventually going to break.

[@Derek_Lark]

Now I have the xtouch working I am very happy with my workflow. So no upgrade for me.

[@in2theair67]

Thanks for your video 👍 What is the main difference with the xtouch project ?

[@minibigs5259]

🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️ Please.

[@geoluki]

@ttracingyt @TeachingTech Hi, which plate are you using on your P1P, looks like smooth PEI or something like Polypropylene or similar. Thank you for answer and your informative and interesting videos.

[@Maro.Simone]

the problem is people like me dont have network down in garage cant used all his potential and have problem with update firmware need to up and down print

[@darren990]

i don't mind the Atari look of the p1p lol

[@rickywong5551]

I already have one on the way. But so far no one has been able to answer my question. Can the panda touch see folders? Or is it just a file dumping zone?

[@techoutreach5647]

i have on one on the way and was wondring about file sorting. does the Touch allow the usb to sort files between printers in folders? in example 1 folder with all my P1S files then another folder with all my A1 files and so on. this is one of my negtives about the bambu set up, as i would like to sort files by printer and by genre so i dont have to search a list for what i want

[@TeachingTech]

Just tested for you. No folders detected, only the root files are displayed. Also no sorting by tapping the headings on the file table.

[@techoutreach5647]

@@TeachingTech Thank you for checking. this is something i really like about Octoprint and was hoping for something like it in the Panda Touch, hopefully in a future update we can see it.

[@andyspoo2]

Bambu would be pretty stupid to lock out the Panda. It makes the P1P and PS1 more saleable. Everyone hates the original screen.

[@Keith-um1pj]

I just purchased one for $59 for simplicity of moving around in the settings. The problem I have run into and it's not addressed at least to my satisfaction is the USB not being recognized trying different avenues to resolve this and getting no satisfaction from the company for response. This is not the right platform for looking for this information but I have found forums not addressing it.

[@TeachingTech]

Did you format the USB drive? Mine didn't show up until I did.

[@Keith-um1pj]

@@TeachingTech I did thanks. What I found is the machine has to be off before you put the USB stick in. In addition the USB stick I had works everywhere else, Ender 3 and my CPU but used in this unit it doesn't. Glad I had another available here at home to try. An oddity but at least I got it working . Thanks for your response.

[@sorehammer]

My Panda touch can't see the sd card contents

[@TeachingTech]

I had the same issue before I formatted it in fat32 as the manual describes.

[@computerjohn1973]

@@TeachingTech I have the same issue. Both of my SD cards are FAT32, the 32GB that came with my P1S & my 256GB SD card. Any suggestions? The printer reads either card fine.

[@PaulMD]

Am I missing something, why not just use an old ipad mini or something and mount it?

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

I thought I had seen this video before, but it doesn't seem like I have 🤔 perhaps it was from someone else 🤷🏿‍♀️

[@fluppir]

There is an Opensource version of something similar. Would you be able to have a look at it?

[@IMiteBeWrong]

He already did a video on the X-Touch (formerly P1-Touch), and even made a flip up mount STL for it. - If that is what you are referring to.

[@TFyre]

@@IMiteBeWrong something more recent.... but i cant post the link here... you can check my username for more details

[@fluppir]

@@IMiteBeWrong no there’s an opensource version. But I can’t post a link it gets deleted everytime.

[@kristianeberle664]

I have noticed that the nozzle and heatbed temperature can no longer be controlled via the PandaTouch. does anyone else have this problem and can tell me how to fix it? I have FW 01.06.01.00 running on the P1S. thanks and regards Kris

[@n3Cr0ManCeD]

Hard to get an objective opinion or make an informed buying decision from the reviews on their site . They’re deleting all reviews less than 4 stars. Thankfully there’s Reddit and videos like this.

[@iam.miikey]

No guarantee it will work with future updates, and if it is, you'll need to opt-out of any warranty from Bambu.

[@hologos_]

You are talking rubbish. The opt-out from warranty is for X1Plus custom firmware, not for this so stop spreading FUD.

[@iam.miikey]

@@hologos_ In that case there is no guarantee it will work with future updates

[@OneHappyCrazyPerson]

By the time these devices are shippped out bambu will have closed this loop.

[@rickgreer7203]

I do hope they realize many folks (like say, me) wait a while to see how a company handles things like this. If they kill it, hard pass. I won't judge them out of the gates, but I will see how they actually act over a bit of time. Other offerings being sold can quickly change the approach to open/community stuff too, and then you see truer colors.

[@frankhovis]

If they do, they'll also close off thousands of potential customers.

[@99prxp]

lets just hope this doesnt happen and they see the potential for print farms. if they improve upon this with a better processor, battery and integrations in their ecosystem. i see no reason why they would shut it down.

[@TeachingTech]

Unnecessarily negative in my opinion. Customers can wait if they like, but they won't become useless unless Bambu Lab pulls the plug on the 3rd party API, which there is no indication of.

[@D-Khaz]

Why do you keep promoting your second channel if you haven’t made an upload in 5 months?

[@Dlutheran]

Because he can it's his channel you don't have to subscribe to it if you don't want to

[@mrfoameruk]

Maybe if more people join he would make more.

[@TeachingTech]

Patience please. After some delays (which will be explained), I'm actually very close to finishing the next part and releasing a video.

[@username9774]

I like the idea BUT FOR GODS SAKE WHY DOES IT ALL HAVE TO BE OVER WIFI CANT WE CONNECT A USB CABLE OR SOMETHING!

[@TeachingTech]

Is your capslock key broken? You should wirelessly 3d print a new one.

[@BeefIngot]

I assume it uses MQTT for which there isnt some USB magic you can do.

[@looxonline]

What purpose would that serve? Imagine if your cellular phone needed a wire. If the comms link is reliable the then physical layer deserves to be competely abstracted from the end user as one less thing to worry about.

[@aaro_n]

I actually got a refund after buying this since I didn't want a paper weight

[@gamerpaddy]

showing how laggy the inteface is made me click off the video within the first 10 seconds what a awful product.

[@looxonline]

Well we could have included an SoC capable of 60fps rendering but that would have added another $30 to the cost. Horses for courses. The product is anything but terrible but to keep the price low we needed to achieve a certain price/preformance ratio which comes with trade offs. This is why product tiers exist.

[@christopherwestphal7149]

This is one of the biggest problems I have Bambu. They are quite shady and not all that communicative about their plans since they often will change them without warning. There seems to be no real commitment from the company and your hostage to what ever whim they have at the time. Its kind of sad because the P1S is a good first printer or 'it just works' but you never know when they will pivot and destroy the quality of life or accessories you get unless they are first party. It feels quite Nvidia like in GPU space or Apple like. You never knew when they will just break things for you. Your lucky to get 1-3 month notice when it happens.

[@jayfc3]

When have they done this? Bambu has told BTT that they are working on API incase MQTT stops on a future update. Have had a P1S and haven't seen any quality of life changes, acutally improvements. What's shady? Hell, they have even done a full recall offering a few solutions for those affected, full refund, refund plus $80 towards a new Bambu printer, do it yourself plus $120 voucher. What other company in the 3D printer space has done anything similar without intense pushback? Finally what plans have changed without warning? Links?

[@TeachingTech]

I also don't see the basis for this comment. They don't announce new printer models early but beyond this they are very communicative on their blog. A lot of rumours and hearsay around too, but I'm yet to see anything with evidence to suggest shady. See my X1plus video for more on this.

[@hologos_]

Any proof for what you are claiming?

[@iainhay2823]

He has no proof as it’s absolute bs

[@christopherwestphal7149]

@@hologos_Sure. 1) recall incident - the power wire incident Bambu was telling users for several days that the A1 was safe to use while communicating to creators this was more then a minor defect. Then they delayed announcement this was a basic safety issue for several days before correcting their communications that this was a safety issue and discourage use while saying it was fine so long as there was no signs of wear. Now the recomendation is to not use this at all or closely monitor wear since it appears all A1s will eventually have this eventually with just moving the unit or lifting one side can cause the damage. 2) Modified Firmware - Bambu became aware of this modification and intention to do this jailbreak well before it was released to the public. They had open opportunities to state what they were going to do or come up with a policy. Instead they waited until in time for the release and began talking about how they would block/deny and its possibly they could ban printers and accounts using the modification. Then they backtracked and announced they would provide codes through some system that requires you signing an agreement and work on some things in the future to allow modification. 3) at the same time they announced their intention to start locking down and restricting their platform even more. giving no information, details, timing, etc about when or how this will happen. Indeed the creator of this video points to this as a risk of owning a bambu and using modifications or tweaks to the first party platform as Bambu can and does change things at any time. 4) upon launch of the P1 Carbon there was minimal to no support or addressing of issues or concerns and no real replacement or repair parts. It took months until Bambu started offering answers and repairs for how the basic service and support will be handled outside of their ticketing system. This would be expected for a new printer company, but shocking for people who had the experience of DJI and knew how important replacement parts and timely repairs were. Indeed there was a period where you were essentially waitlisted to be able to get basic things replaced or ordered as they figured things out. 5) Cloud shenanigans - for several months the bambu cloud solution had mapping issues between accounts and devices in their private cloud. Webcams were being sent to other people's accounts, prints were being triggered on other people's printers. Again the same pattern until Bambu had to fess up and start working on fixing their issue after assuring people it was nothing or one off instances. Do I need to keep going on? Compare this to even turn key new entries selling knockoffs or experienced manufacturers. The MK4 has a tab you break off to allow jailbreaking out of the box. cheap core XY knock offs from companies like Flying Bear have more responsive support, replacement parts ready on release, and sometimes even better documentation at release even if the HW is cheap and simply 'acceptable'. Sure Bambu may be kind of new to this space but its staff has half a decade plus of making consumer, prosumer, and work equipment that is used with consumable components. Its a good printer like I said for select segments, but its not the amazing experience for everyone so many claim. We have one at work (fortune 500 manufacturer) and it regularly goes down for issues and to this day we still have to wait in line for a part or item if we cant just drive over to our local microcenter and pick it up. I am happy to see partnerships with E3D and others, but this is hardly what I would call a mature platform you can just go and get parts/service/support and rely on them without going to bambu themselves and who knows what experience you may get then.

[@PapiG-nf4nv]

Would you please pass a note along to BTT to remove the non-inclusive language (master/slave). your feedback may carry more weight than us individual consumers. The entire tech industry is moving away from terms like that.